Like Johnny Roadhouse, The Palace or even the universities themselves, The Eighth Day feels like a forever fixture of Oxford Road. It actually began life as ‘On the Eighth Day’, almost a mile away on the then-trendy New Brown Street, a place now buried somewhere deep beneath the Arndale. It was opened by friends Jenny Slaughter, Brian Livingstone, Ray Kaye, Mike Slaughter and Phil Aaronson on the 5th of September 1970 as a sort of experimental bazaar. Part art gallery, part meeting space, part co-operative experiment, it became the headquarters of the underground magazine Moul Express and a hub for Manchester’s growing creative counterculture. 

Alongside handmade crafts, the shelves were stocked with second-hand records, underground publications and ‘exotic’ artefacts carried back along the hippie trail from India, Afghanistan and Morocco. 

“It became the place to tune in, turn on and drop out,” recalled Jenny Slaughter. “Young people gravitated there in droves—and it’s probably true to say no one who went in ever forgot it.” In a nod to what Eighth Day would later become, Slaughter began selling a small range of pre-packaged wholefoods—even serving muesli to the masses at the Glastonbury Festival in 1971. 

New Brown Street, 1975

After a fire forced the group out of New Brown Street, The Eighth Day relocated to 111 Oxford Road, and has remained (mostly) ever since. Another Seventies music festival would prove a pivotal moment. Brian Livingstone set himself up a brown rice and veg café at the mud-soaked, Jeremy Beadle-organised Bickershaw Festival. Between the likes of Hawkwind, Captain Beefheart and a legendary five-hour set by the Grateful Dead, Livingstone met bulk grain importers who operated out of Liverpool docks, laying the foundations for the thriving business that The Eighth Day soon became. 

Livingstone was the last of the original founders but didn’t stick around much longer. The lease was transferred to Paul Goldman and Paul Styles, and by the following year the business had streamlined its focus and formally became a workers’ co-operative, embedding a structure built on equal pay, shared responsibility and collective decision-making. 

A small loan from the co-operative went on to support the founding of Suma Wholefoods, now one of Europe’s largest worker co-ops, and still a key supplier to the shop today. 

Over the next couple of decades things went well for The Eighth Day, expanding the space and buying the premises, even establishing a surplus to better pay the workers. That was until the building itself began to lose an ongoing battle with gravity. Having stood since the 1820s, the building was now literally leaning over into Sydney Street and the prognosis was terminal. 

Oxford Road, 1982

After a difficult spell operating from a cabin on Sidney Street, the co-op returned in June 2003 to a new home at 111 Oxford Road, with a ground-floor shop and basement café that remain in place today. 

Step inside now and the offer is simple but carefully considered. The downstairs café serves a rotating menu of all-vegan dishes- typically two mains, alongside a stew, a dal and a soup – made fresh each day. On the walls there’s an exhibition celebrating the shop’s 55th anniversary, put together with the help of the National Co-operative Archive, by Events Co-ordinator Anna Sewell, which has provided the background for this article.  

“Our 55th anniversary made us really reflect,” says Anna. “It’s motivating to see we’re still aligned with the founders’ values.” 

Upstairs, alongside the wholefoods and ethical groceries, you’ll find fresh bread, a well-stocked deli counter and a range of items prepared in-house, including (our personal favourite) vegan chorizo sausage rolls. There’s also a curated selection of organic wines and beers, reflecting the same attention to sourcing as the food. 

Beyond the food and drink, The Eighth Day has long positioned itself as part of a wider movement. Nutritionists, natural beauty specialists and knowledgeable staff reflect a longstanding commitment to promoting healthier, more sustainable ways of living, and social media is driving more people to start their nutritional journey.

Nutritional Advisor Nadine El-Hage told us “We see trends come and go, at the moments it’s high fibre diets as awareness about the gut/brain connection becomes more understood. Mushrooms have become increasingly popular for example Lion’s Mane for concentration, especially with so many of our customer base studying. Mushrooms have been known throughout history to have many health supporting effects.” 

Beneath that changing surface sits a cooperative structure that has remained largely intact for decades. 

“The workers are the owners,” Anna explains. “It’s non-hierarchical amongst members, one person one vote, so no one can have more sway in the running of the business than anyone else.” 

Staff typically join in non-member roles, with the option to become members over time through a sponsorship and voting process. Roles themselves can evolve organically. Anna’s own events co-ordinator position was one she shaped herself after joining the co-op. 

Pay is equal across the organisation, and surplus is reinvested rather than extracted. 

Oxford Road, 2023

“You can’t remove profit from the co-op,” she says. “Everything goes back into the business and is shared out through equal wages. Everyone gets paid the same.” 

That same thinking applies to sourcing. The shop is vegetarian, the café fully vegan, and suppliers are chosen with ethics in mind alongside quality—often from within the co-operative network itself. Over the years, that has meant taking firm decisions on what not to stock: dropping brands like Innocent after its acquisition by Coca-Cola, Green & Black’s following its sale to Cadbury, and more recently Solgar after partial acquisition by Nestlé. 

“If a company no longer aligns with our values, we stop selling it,” Anna says. “That’s happened loads. If people ask why, they trust us—it’s worse to sell something unethical.” 

Alongside the day-to-day offer, there’s also a growing events programme, from yoga and life drawing to workshops and private hire. Throughout the year, they host seasonal supper clubs—Christmas, Valentine’s and Mother’s Day among them—with occasional one-offs in between.

Nearly sixty years on, the staff here couldn’t be happier. “We’re friends as well as colleagues, with shared goals and motivation. It’s a really nice way to work” concludes Anna. The customers are an eclectic mix too. The loyal lecturers who come for lunch every day, plus the familiar revolving door of students and office workers, alongside the occasional hippie who might not look out of place in those New Brown Street days.

Taken as a whole, it all looks rather normal—and perhaps illustrates an original vision ahead of its time. 

The Eighth Day is open Monday – Saturday, 9:30am – 5:30pm. Visit online here.