Antwerp House was built for the Victorian wealthy but it’s had many lives in its 180 years
17:31, 28 Mar 2026
Antwerp Mansion in the Victoria Park area of Rusholme(Image: Manchester Evening News)
It’s not unusual for a building that’s had many lives in its 180 years to pick up a ghost or two. Antwerp Mansion has been home to wealthy industrialists, a diplomatic consulate, a private members’ club, a legendary nightclub, and, in its current incarnation, an arts hub and ghost hunter’s paradise.
Built in the Victoria Park area of Rusholme in 1840, the area is recognised as the city’s first gated community. It was built for wealthy and influential industrialists seeking refuge in the suburbs, away from the city’s central areas, which had become increasingly polluted and overcrowded, with workers living tooth-to-jowl in unsanitary slums.
During this time, the building served as the family home for various wealthy and influential individuals. By the late 19th century, the two adjoining mansions known as “Shrubbery House” were combined into a single grand residence, which was renamed Antwerp.
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The name reflected the building’s wealthy new occupants: the Pinto-Leite family. The Pinto-Leites were part of the Portuguese and Belgian royal families, with vast mercantile and banking interests that spanned the globe.
The family transformed the mansion into a diplomatic hub, serving as the residence of the Belgian Consul and the seat of the Portuguese Consulate for Manchester.
This mansion served as the Pinto-Leites’ family home for half a century until the 1920s. Following the end of the First World War, the original industrialist families began to move further away from the city, and in 1922, Antwerp Mansion was reborn as a private members’ club, officially becoming a Conservative Club in 1924.
Atwerp Mansion became a private members’ club in 1922. Photo 1976(Image: @Manchester Libraries and Local Archives)
The building underwent a massive expansion, nearly doubling its original Victorian size. New additions included an impressive ballroom and a large snooker hall, in keeping with its new life as a gathering place for Manchester’s political elite. One of its more prestigious visitors over the years was none other than Winston Churchill.
However, it’s been in the past 25 years or so that Antwerp Mansion has seen its most radical changes. At the turn of the Millennium, the property was bought by Andrew Barnfield, whose vision was to transform the old mansion house from its stuffy political past into a creative hub and nightclub.
Antwerp House would reopen in the new millennium as an arts venue and nightclub(Image: @Manchester Libraries and Local Archives)
In 2011, Antwerp Mansion opened as a creative space for filmmakers, musicians, and local artists. There were plans for one half of the mansion to undergo careful restoration to its Victorian splendour. The other half was covered in street art, murals, and graffiti.
Despite the building’s deteriorating condition, it became one of the most talked-about independent nightclubs in the world between 2011 and 2018.
Antwerp House became an institution for Manchester’s students, drawn by the gritty, shabby-chic clubbing experience. This unlikely combination of decaying Victorian townhouse and hard electronic dance music worked, giving the venue the feel of a massive house party.
Inside Antwerp Mansion
Its grimy basement and sweat-covered ballroom walls were a stark contrast to Manchester’s more commercial clubbing venues.
Musically, the venue was a hotbed of grassroots talent, offering a platform for artists who felt alienated by the city centre’s increasingly corporate nightlife. In its seven years as a nightclub, the eclectic venue welcomed guest performers ranging from Ms Dynamite to So Solid Crew, Goldie and Craig Charles.
But with popularity and notoriety came increased attention. In 2018, the council discovered that the venue never held a proper nightclub licence and was still registered as a ‘private members’ club’ as it had been since the 1920s.
The venue was also criticised for over-subscribing its nights, leading to health and safety concerns and regular rows with the local community over noise. This all contributed to the curtain coming down on Antwerp Mansion’s life as the coolest underground club in Manchester.
Subculture Sage, performing live at the Antwerp Mansion in Manchester in October 2015
The news was greeted with sadness from revellers, DJs and promoters. Parklife and Warehouse Project boss Sacha Lord-Marchionne called it a sad day for clubbing with “yet another loss” for the city’s night-time economy.
While DJ Matthew Riley tweeted: “An absolute honour to have been a DJ here for the past 5 years. Had some of the best nights of my clubbing life and made some of the best friends. Devastated is an understatement.”
Following the closure of the mansion as a nightclub, it had a short stint as a creative location for a laser tag-style immersive military game called Battle Mansion.
Now, the old Victorian venue has reinvented itself once more, this time as a multi-use cultural space for film, photography, and theatre.
People dancing as DJ Krafty Kuts, also known as Martin Reeves, djs in the Antwerp Mansion in Manchester, September 2015(Image: NurPhoto via Getty Images)
Perhaps even more fittingly for a nearly 200-year-old house that’s had so many lives, it’s also become a prominent destination for paranormal investigators. Local lore has it that the house is haunted by the ghost of a child who fell through the building’s central skylight many years ago.
Spooky experiences reported by staff over the years include unexplained flashes of light in darkened rooms, strange noises, and the feeling of being watched and touched.
The mansion’s paranormal reputation continued to grow when it was featured on the television show Most Haunted in 2019, leading to a surge in demand for commercial ghost hunts.
These days, Antwerp Mansion stands as a unique testament to the layers of history that define Manchester. Whether that’s as a decaying monument to Victorian wealth or a haunted “sesh pit,” its enduring appeal lies in its refusal to be easily pigeon-holed, much like the city it belongs to.