230 years and bust?

Last week, a colleague spotted a filing in the courts that was so surprising it was hard to believe it was real. The Greater Manchester Chamber of Commerce had filed a notice of intention to appoint administrators. 

The Chamber is one of the most storied institutions in this city. It can trace its history all the way back to 1794, when the Manchester Commercial Society brought together businessmen to argue their common interest at the height of the industrial revolution. It proudly sits in Elliot House, a grand red brick pile facing onto Deansgate, with stained glass windows, marble floors and achingly beautiful tiled bathrooms.

My first thought was that this was a filing error, or a tidying up exercise for a long forgotten subsidiary. But it wasn’t a mistake. It was an admission that one of the largest Chambers of Commerce in the country, in what we’re constantly told is a booming city region, is on the brink of going bust.

I’ve been working as a journalist in and around Manchester for 25 years. The whole time, the GMCC has been a behemoth — the obvious place to go if you wanted the voice of business. I’ve lost count of the number of times I’ve approached them for comment.

So what went wrong? How did such a historic institution find itself in this position? And is there a way out?

The Chamber of Secrets