Showing 1-14 of 14 results
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Chetham's Library & School of Music
Beautiful Chetham's is the city's oldest complete structure (1421). It wouldn't be half as interesting were it not for the fact that during the mid-19th century two of its regular users were Messrs Marx and Engels, whose favourite seats were by the large bay window in the main reading room.
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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.
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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.
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Lowry
Directly across the canal from the war museum is a futuristic ship in permanent dock. No, not really, but the Lowry looks a bit like one. It caused quite a stir when it opened in 2000, but has proved an unqualified success, attracting more than a million visitors a year. The complex is named after one of England's favourite artists, LS Lowry, who is mostly noted for his industrial landscapes and impressions of northern towns. The Lowry contains more than 300 of his paintings and drawings. It also encapsulates two theatres, galleries, shops, restaurants and bars.
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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.
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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.
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Manchester Museum
A city institution for over 100 years, the Manchester Museum is an extensive and fascinating mix of natural history and social sciences. It has galleries devoted to everything from archaeology to zoology. But its drawcard is Egyptology; a number of mummies and everyday artefacts from the town sites of Kahun and Gurob were donated in 1890.
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Museum Of Science & Industry
The city's largest museum comprises 2.8 hectares spread about two huge Victorian warehouses and the world's oldest passenger railway terminal. If there's anything you want to know about the Industrial (and postindustrial) Revolution and Manchester's key role in it, you'll find it 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.
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Museum of Science and Industry
The city's largest museum is spread about two huge warehouses and the world's oldest passenger railway terminal. If there's anything you want to know about the Industrial Revolution and Manchester's key role in it, you'll find it among this collection of steam engines and locomotives, factory machinery from the mills and exhibitions.
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Museum of Transport
Nearby, the wonderful Museum of Transport is packed with old buses, fire engines and lorries built in the last 100 years.
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Old Trafford Stadium Museum
The Old Trafford Stadium 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 so you can view your favourite goals.
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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.
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People's History Museum
NB: this museum is closed for major renovations, and is due to reopen in late 2009.
This engrossing museum, housed in an old Edwardian pumping station, aims to deliver a fresh, comprehensive look at the social history of the working class over the past two centuries. The well laid-out exhibits include the desk at which Thomas Paine (1737-1809) wrote Rights of Man (1791) and themes such as the Peterloo Massacre and the sufragette movement.
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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.
Showing 1-14 of 14 results
