Sights in Manchester
-
A
Old Trafford (Manchester United Museum & Tour)
Home of the world’s most famous club, the Old Trafford stadium is both a theatre and a temple for its millions of fans worldwide, many of whom come in pilgrimage to the ground to pay tribute to the minor deities disguised as highly paid footballers that play there. Ironically, Manchester United are not as popular in Manchester as their cross-town rivals Manchester City, whose fans have traditionally regarded United’s enormous wealth and success in strictly Faustian terms. United fans snigger and dismiss this as small-minded jealousy, but they too have become disillusioned with the price of success and during the 2009–10 season protested vehemently against the club’s owner…
reviewed
-
B
Museum Of Science & Industry
The city’s largest museum comprises 2.8 hectares in the heart of 19th-century industrial Manchester. It’s in the landscape of enormous, weather-stained brick buildings and rusting cast-iron relics of canals, viaducts, bridges, warehouses and market buildings that makes up Castlefield, now deemed an ‘urban heritage park’. If there’s anything you want to know about the Industrial (and post-Industrial) Revolution and Manchester’s key role in it, you’ll find the answers among the collection of steam engines and locomotives, factory machinery from the mills, and the excellent exhibition telling the story of Manchester from the sewers up. With more than a dozen permanent exhibi…
reviewed
-
C
People's History Museum
A major refurb of an Edwardian pumping station – including the construction of a striking new annexe – has resulted in the expansion of one of the city’s best museums, which is devoted to British social history and the labour movement. You clock in on the 1st floor (literally: punch your card in an old mill clock, which managers would infamously fiddle so as to make employees work longer) and plunge into the heart of Britain’s struggle for basic democratic rights, labour reform and fair pay. Amid displays like the (tiny) desk at which Thomas Paine (1737–1809) wrote Rights of Man (1791) and an array of beautifully made and colourful union banners are compelling interactive…
reviewed
-
D
National Football Museum
It’s the world’s most popular game and Manchester is home to the world’s most popular team, so when this museum went looking for a new home (from its previous location in the stand of Preston North End Football Club [FC], winners of the first professional league championship in 1889), it made sense that it would find its way to the stunning glass triangle that is Urbis. The museum will be a major stop in the football fan’s Manchester pilgrimage and promises a major revamp of the displays exhibited in Preston. There’ll be the usual array of footy memorabilia as well as a host of interactive, multimedia displays that will (hopefully) explain the game’s overwhelming populari…
reviewed
-
E
John Rylands Library
An easy candidate for top building in Manchester, this marvellous (and suitably ominous looking) Victorian Gothic library was one hell of a way for Rylands’ widow to remember her husband, John. Less a library and more a cathedral to books, Basil Champneys’ stunning building is arguably the most beautiful library in Britain – although there’s not much argument when you’re standing in the simply exquisite Gothic ‘Reading Room’, complete with high-vaulted ceilings and stained-glass windows. It’s such a breathtaking building that you could easily ignore the magnificent collection of early printed books and rare manuscripts. A £16 million refit has resulted in the addition of …
reviewed
-
F
Lowry
Looking more like a shiny steel ship than an arts centre, the Lowry is the quays’ most notable success. It attracts more than one million visitors a year to its myriad functions, which include everything from art exhibits and performances to bars, restaurants and, inevitably, shops. You can even get married in the place. The complex is home to more than 300 paintings and drawings by northern England’s favourite artist, LS Lowry (1887–1976), who was born in nearby Stretford. He became famous for his humanistic depictions of industrial landscapes and northern towns, and gave his name to the complex. It has two theatres – the 1750-capacity Lyric and 460-capacity Quays – host…
reviewed
-
G
Urbis
The stunning glass triangle that is Urbis is a museum about how a city works and - often - doesn't work. The walls of the three floors are covered in compelling photographs, interesting statistics and informative timelines, but the best parts are the interactive videos, each of which tell stories about real people from radically different backgrounds and how they fare in Manchester.
It's all well and good to theorise, but there's nothing like a real story to hammer home the truth. Homelessness, rootlessness and dislocation are major themes of urban living, and Urbis doesn't shy away from encouraging visitors to consider what it's like to sleep on a park bench.
reviewed
-
H
Godlee Observatory
Maybe it's the vertiginous spiral staircase, but hardly anyone ever visits the fabulous Godlee Observatory, one of the most interesting places in town. Built In 1902, it is a fully functioning observatory with its original Grubb telescope in place; even the rope and wheels that move the telescope are original. Not only can you glimpse the heavens (if the weather allows), but the views of the city from the balcony are exceptional. It’s located at the University of Manchester Institute of Science and Technology (UMIST). Alternatively, you’ll get great views of the city from the Hilton bar atop the city’s tallest skyscraper, the Beetham Tower.
reviewed
-
Elizabeth Gaskell House
About 3 miles south of the city centre is Elizabeth Gaskell House, a Grade II detached Regency-style villa that was the home of novelist Elizabeth Gaskell, who lived here from 1850 to 1865 (and whose family continued to live here until 1913). It is a rare property: besides its unique literary associations (Charlotte Brontë and Charles Dickens were regular visitors), it is one of the few homes in Manchester whose interior has been carefully maintained and restored to its original elegance. The house has limited opening hours; to get here, take bus 50, 113, 130, 147, 191 or 197 from Piccadilly Gardens, or take the train to Ardwick.
reviewed
-
I
Imperial War Museum North
War museums generally appeal to those with a fascination for military hardware and battle strategy, but Daniel Libeskind's visually stunning Imperial War Museum North takes a radically different approach. War is hell, it tells us, but it's a hell we revisit with tragic regularity. Although the audiovisuals and displays are quite compelling, the extraordinary aluminium-clad building itself is a huge part of the attraction, and the exhibition spaces are genuinely breathtaking. Libeskind designed three separate-but-linked structures, or shards, that represent the three main theatres of war: air, land and sea.
reviewed
Advertisement
-
J
Castlefield Urban Heritage Park
The Roman fort that gave birth to Manchester was built in Castlefield in AD 79. Later, this became heart of industrial Manchester, a landscape of enormous, weather-stained brick buildings and rusting cast-iron relics of canals, viaducts, bridges, warehouses and market buildings. Castlefield has now been redeveloped into an Urban Heritage Park.
Aside from the huge science museum, the big draw here is the Castlefield Basin. The Bridgewater Canal runs through it; in summertime thousands of people amble about the place and patronise its fine pubs and trendy restaurants.
reviewed
-
K
Lancashire County Cricket Club
Cricket is a big deal here, and the Lancashire club, founded in 1816 as the Aurora before changing its name in 1864, is one of the most beloved of all England's county teams, despite not having won the county championship since 1930. The really big match in Lancashire's calendar is the Roses match against Yorkshire, but if you're not around for that one, the other games in the county season are a great day out. The season runs throughout the summer. International test matches are also played here occasionally. Take the Metrolink to Old Trafford.
reviewed
-
Whitworth Art Gallery
Manchester’s second most important art gallery has a wonderful collection of British watercolours. It also houses the best selection of historic textiles outside London, and has a number of galleries devoted to the work of artists from Dürer and Rembrandt to Lucien Freud and David Hockney. All this high art aside, you may find that the most interesting part of the gallery is the group of rooms dedicated to wallpaper – proof that bland pastels and horrible flowery patterns are not the final word in home decoration.
reviewed
-
L
Manchester Museum
If you’re into natural history and social science, this extraordinary museum is the place for you. It has galleries devoted to archaeology, archery, botany, ethnology, geology, numismatics and zoology. The real treat here, though, is the Egyptology section and its collection of mummies. One particularly interesting part is devoted to the work of Dr Richard Neave, who has rebuilt faces of people who have been dead for more than 3000 years; his pioneering techniques are now used in criminal forensics.
reviewed
-
Museum of the Greater Manchester Police
One of the city’s best-kept secrets is this superb museum housed within a former Victorian police station. The original building has been magnificently – if a little creepily – brought back to life, and you can wander in and out of 19th-century cells where prisoners rested their heads on wooden (!!) pillows; visit a restored magistrates’ court from 1895; and examine the case histories (complete with mugshots and photos of weapons) of some of the more notorious names to have passed through its doors.
reviewed
-
M
Manchester Art Gallery
A superb collection of British art and a hefty number of European masters are on display at Manchester Art Gallery. The older wing, designed by Charles Barry (of Houses of Parliament fame) in 1834, has an impressive collection that includes 37 Turner watercolours, as well as the country's best collection of Pre-Raphaelite art. The new gallery features a permanent collection of 20th-century British art starring Lucien Freud, Francis Bacon, Stanley Spencer, Henry Moore and David Hockney.
reviewed
-
Runway Visitor Park
Immensely popular with plane spotters, the Runway Visitor Park is also the only place in Britain where you can climb aboard Concorde (by separate tour) and explore the inside of a DC-10, an Avro RJX-100 (the last civilian airliner built in the UK) and an RAF Nimrod, which was in active service in Afghanistan as recently as 2010. The park is signposted off the A538 between Junction 6 of the M56 and the airport tunnels, but can also be reached via bus transfer from the airport itself.
reviewed
-
N
Pankhurst Centre
The Pankhurst Centre is the converted childhood home of Emmeline Pankhurst (1858-1928), a leading light of the British suffragette movement. It has displays on her remarkable life and political struggles. The museum is on Nelson St, which marks the southern boundary of the University of Manchester and the northern side of the Manchester Infirmary.
reviewed
-
O
Manchester Jewish Museum
The Manchester Jewish Museum, in a Moorish-style former synagogue, tells the story of the city's Jewish community in fascinating detail, including the story of Polish refugee Michael Marks, who opened his first shop with partner Tom Spencer at 20 Cheetham Hill Rd in 1894. From Piccadilly Gardens, take bus 59, 89, 135 or 167.
reviewed
-
P
Chetham's Library & School of Music
Built in 1421, is the city’s oldest structure that’s still completely intact – and was where Messrs Marx and Engels used to study (by the big bay window in the main reading room). It is only open by prearranged visit, as it is part of a national school for young musicians.
reviewed
Advertisement
-
Old Trafford Museum
The museum, which is part of the tour but can be visited independently, has a comprehensive history of the club, and a state-of-the-art call-up system that means you can view your favourite goals – as well as a holographic ‘chat’ with Sir Alex Ferguson.
reviewed
-
Q
Town Hall
The city’s main administrative centre is this superb Victorian Gothic building. The interior is rich in sculpture and ornate decoration, while the exterior is crowned by an impressive 85m-high tower.
reviewed
-
R
MEN Arena
A giant arena north of the centre that hosts large-scale rock concerts (as well as being the home of the city’s ice-hockey and basketball teams). It’s about 300m north of Victoria Station.
reviewed
-
S
Central Library
Just behind the town hall, the elegant Roman Pantheon lookalike Central Library was built in 1934. It is the country's largest municipal library, with more than 20 miles of shelves.
reviewed
-
T
City of Manchester Stadium
Manchester's best-loved team is the perennial underachiever, Manchester City. The team is based at the City of Manchester Stadium.
reviewed
