When Tommy Shelby buys a racehorse in the second series of Peaky Blinders, the scene plays out at a horse fair supposedly in Birmingham. It was filmed in Manchester, at Victoria Baths on Hathersage Road in Chorlton-on-Medlock.
The production hid the building’s real identity by laying sawdust over one of the pools, which covered the tiled floor and turned the baths into the auction ring. The same building is where Tommy first meets May Carlton, the horse trainer who becomes his love interest.
Manchester played a bigger part in Peaky Blinders than its setting suggests. The series is set in Birmingham, but Manchester and Liverpool kept industrial architecture that Birmingham had demolished, so both cities stood in for it. Castlefield doubled for 1930s Small Heath.
The locations are one part of the show’s Manchester connection; its music is another. On 9 January 2027, Candlelight: Peaky Blinders brings the series’ soundtrack to Hallé St Peter’s in Ancoats, reimagining its music in a live classical concert surrounded by candlelight.
Victoria Baths opened in 1906 and is one of the finest surviving Edwardian public baths in the country. Manchester City Council closed it in 1993 and the building stood empty until a multimillion-pound restoration began in 2007. The work finished in September 2008.
Other Peaky Blinders filming locations in Manchester
Victoria Baths is just one of several Manchester locations used to recreate the world of the Shelby family. The series was set in Birmingham, but Manchester’s surviving industrial streets and historic buildings made it a useful stand-in for the city.
Castlefield provided the backdrop for street scenes, with its cobbled lanes and industrial architecture helping recreate 1930s Small Heath. Over in Salford, the iconic red-brick Salford Lads’ Club, famous for The Smiths’ The Queen is Dead album cover, also appeared in the sixth series, doubling as a meeting hall for Tommy Shelby’s political activities.
The grand Grade II listed interiors of Stockport Town Hall were also used in the series. As Thomas Shelby furthers his political career, scenes set inside the council chamber were actually filmed in Stockport Council’s chamber. The Stockport references don’t end there, as also the iconic art deco Plaza doubled as Birmingham’s Bingley Hall.
As Thomas Shelby’s fortune grows, so does his ambition, and his new country mansion, Arrow House, is actually Arley Hall in Cheshire, where the grand interiors and grounds became the backdrop for the Shelby family’s rise.
9 January 2027 19:00
Hallé St Peter's
A former church in Ancoats
Hallé St Peter’s was built in 1859 to designs by Isaac Holden and consecrated in 1860. It was the first Anglican church in Ancoats, a predominantly Roman Catholic community.
The architecture still stands out. Holden gave the church a semi-circular apse designed to contrast with the angular cotton mills around it. Inside, the cast iron columns were among the city’s first uses of the material.
The church closed in 1960 as the population of Ancoats declined, and the building sat empty for decades. The Hallé later took it on and restored it as a place for rehearsals, recordings and live performances. Candlelight concerts, which pair classical arrangements with candlelit settings, now use the same space.
When and where?
The next session of Candlelight: Peaky Blinders is on Saturday 9 January 2027 at Hallé St Peter’s in Ancoats. The concert presents the music of Peaky Blinders reimagined in a candlelit classical setting, performed by other musicians rather than anyone connected with the show.
The listing is currently a waitlist, so you can join it now and wait for tickets to open. The start time, running time and price have not been confirmed yet.
If you want to pair the concert with a screen-history visit, Victoria Baths is open to the public as a restored building. Check its own website for current opening hours before you go.
Candlelight: Peaky Blinders
9 January 2027 19:00
Hallé St Peter's
