Pros and cons of huge, hidden estate with 'world's coolest postcode' where only a chosen few can get in

manchestereveningnews.co.uk:

Ged Reek lives in a spacious one bed flat in a handsome Grade II listed building in one of the coolest postcodes in the world.

Some of Manchester's hippest bars, restaurants and coffee shops are just a few seconds walk from his front door in the gated community, where balconies overlook a courtyard and landscaped gardens.

And for all that the retired civil servant pays just over £400 a month - and that includes his heating bill. That's because Ged, 71, lives in Victoria Square in Ancoats - Manchester's first purpose built council flats and one of the few social housing projects that remains in the city centre. "We're lucky," said Ged, a music lover and part-time DJ who plays 'golden oldie' sets at care homes across the city. "Our rents are very cheap compared to the flats literally across the road." READ MORE: The estate that 'blew up' its last link to Manchester READ MORE: Life in the 'magic' estate of prefabs that once stood in Heaton Park When Victoria Square was being built the 1890s, journalists weren't queuing up to sing the praises of Ancoats like they are now.

Back then the world's first industrial suburb was one of the poorest parts of city, with its largely working class population of Irish and Italian labourers housed in some of Manchester's worst slums.