On The Eighth Day Co-operative

On September 11, 1970, a group of friends in Manchester opened a craft exchange and alternative center above a boutique on New Brown Street. They called it On The Eighth Day — a nod to the idea that after the world was made, something better was still possible. The original space was part countercultural hub, part experiment in non-capitalist exchange. It didn’t last long in that form — the boutique burned down in 1971, and the insurance money redirected everything — but the core impulse survived the fire.

In 1972, the group reopened at 111 Oxford Road, in Manchester’s student quarter, where the co-op still operates today. Over the next few years, the focus shifted from crafts and clothes to wholefood and vegetarian groceries, driven by the workers’ growing interest in plant-based eating at a time when finding vegetarian ingredients in Manchester meant real effort. A vegetarian café opened in a corner of the shop in the mid-1970s and eventually expanded into adjacent spaces.

In 1976, the business formally registered as a workers’ co-operative under the Provident Societies Act. That structure has held ever since. Every full-time worker is a co-op member. Every member has one vote. All members earn the same wage. There are no managers, no shareholders, no external owners. Decisions about everything — from what to stock on the shelves to long-term business planning to where to allocate the charity budget — are made collectively at co-op meetings.

The building at 111 Oxford Road was demolished and rebuilt around the turn of the millennium, with the co-op operating out of temporary premises from 2001 to 2003. When they returned, the shop took over the full ground floor and the café moved into a spacious basement seating about a hundred people.

Today, the shop stocks over 5,000 vegetarian and vegan product lines — organic groceries, fair trade goods, cruelty-free cosmetics, herbal supplements, local craft beer, organic wine, and zero-waste refill stations for dry staples and household products. The café serves a fully plant-based, daily-changing menu built around seasonal ingredients: stews, curries, dhals, bakes, loaded salad bowls, soups, and house-baked cakes. The classic Eighth Day lentil dhal with brown rice has been on some version of the menu for close to fifty years.

The co-op has deep roots in Manchester’s broader community. In its early years, a collaboration between Eighth Day, the Bishop of Middleton, and Dr. Eugenie Cheesmond led to the founding of Lifeline, a drug and alcohol support charity. The café space hosts events, cooking classes (including sessions organized by The Vegetarian Society), community meet-ups, and is available for hire by local organizations. The co-op has provided plant-based catering for Manchester International Festival, Manchester Pride, and several universities.

In September 2025, Eighth Day marked its 55th birthday with an exhibition at the Oxford Road site covering the history of the co-op and the wider cooperative movement, alongside collaborations with local producers.

Eighth Day sits on Oxford Road opposite All Saints Park, reachable by bus, tram (St. Peter’s Square stop, 10-minute walk), or on foot from the city center. The shop is open Monday through Saturday; the café serves lunch Monday through Saturday. Stop in for a meal, browse the shelves, or connect with one of Manchester’s longest-running experiments in collective self-organization.