Manchester is the UK’s northern powerhouse and home to a growing number of fresh, young businesses. And with so many high profile organisations relocating here of late (hello BBC) it’s truly the UK’s second city.

Despite this, Manchester is still a small place filled with lots of hard working people. And with that comes limited choices for unusual meetings and quirky conference venues.

When you’re a fun businesses with a team-focused company culture, that ethos should come across in your corporate events and offsite meetings, too. More than anything, you want to avoid the painfully plain hotel function rooms and snooze-fest corporate meeting rooms.

Here are our top three picks for genuinely unusual business meeting locations in Manchester:

1. Chetham’s library & college house

Manchester is just brimming with culture, don’t you know.

Why not welcome your staff or customers to the oldest public library in the English-speaking world? Chetham’s Library has been in continuous use as a free library for over 350 years. And its impressive building provides a glimpse of Manchester’s medieval history for your youngest generation of workers, too.

Housed in a stunning sandstone building dating from 1421, the library was first built to accommodate the priests of Manchester’s Collegiate Church. And the Baronial Hall is one of the best preserved examples of a 15th century medieval hall, apparently. Dead fancy.

For your smaller, offsite meetings, there are a range of intimate rooms in the medieval building, equally impressive for breakout sessions or even private dining, if you so wish.

2. The Cinema at Victoria Warehouse

Near Old Trafford, but only 10 minutes from the city centre, this off-the-wall venue is perfect for any video screenings, training sessions or other screen-based meetings you may be planning with your team.

Restored from an old theatre in the outskirts of Manchester, The Cinema at Victoria Warehouse perfectly illustrates the dawn of the British cinema era. Quite an experience for the generations that grew up with IMAX, don’t you think?

It’s only a small area, accommodating up to 20 guests, but perfectly formed. A nostalgic venue for kick-off meetings, corporate training and business screenings, it’s also the ideal space for a vintage-themed event or teambuilding event. Very on-trend.

3. Escape Hunt

New to the heart of Manchester, Escape Hunt is probably the quirkiest venue yet for small, executive-style business meetings.

Escape Hunt Manchester is located behind the city’s Corn Exchange, near the cathedral. As always, Escape Hunt has added a fiendish flavour of it’s ‘raison d’être’ to the meeting space with table games, puzzles and props. Perfect to get all your staff talking.

And don’t forget, their meetings rooms in Manchester are the ideal complement to their immersive escape games — a great way to get your team members collaborating and communicating on non-work related topics.

The meeting room space in Manchester can seat up to 16 people around a table, and 30 in a theatre-style layout. It’s available for hire by the hour, for as  long as you need it. The onsite facilities include AV presentation equipment, wifi and stationery. And even better, there’s the option to arrange drinks or food packages if you really want to celebrate!