Sights in Northwest England
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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…
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Everton FC
Liverpool's 'other' team are the blues of Everton FC, who may not have their rivals' winning pedigree but they're just as popular locally. Tours of Goodison Park run throughout the year except on the Friday before home matches.
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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…
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John Rylands Library
An easy candidate for top building in town, 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 a surp…
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Beatles Story
Liverpool's most popular museum won't illuminate any dark, juicy corners in the turbulent history of the world's most famous foursome – there's ne'er a mention of internal discord, drugs or Yoko Ono – but there's plenty of genuine memorabilia to keep a Beatles fan happy. Particularly impressive is the full-size replica Cavern Club (which was actually tiny) and the Abbey Rd studio where the lads recorded their first singles, while George Harrison's crappy first guitar (now worth half a million quid) should inspire budding, penniless musicians to keep the faith. The museum is also the departure point for the Yellow Duckmarine Tour.
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Manchester Art Gallery
A superb collection of British art and a hefty number of European masters are on display at the city's top 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 newer gallery features a permanent collection of 20th-century British art starring Lucien Freud, Francis Bacon, Stanley Spencer, Henry Moore and David Hockney. Finally, the Gallery of Craft & Design, in the Athenaeum, houses a permanent collection of pre-17th-century art, with works predominantly from the Dutch and early Renaissance masters.
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Williamson Park
Lancaster's highest point is the 22-hectare spread of Williamson Park , from which there are great views of the town, Morecambe Bay and the Cumbrian fells to the north. In the middle of the park is the Ashton Memorial, a 67m Baroque folly built by Lord Ashton (the son of the park's founder, James Williamson) for his wife.
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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 inter…
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Speke Hall
This diagonally patterned Tudor home dates from 1490-1612, and is filled with gorgeously timbered and plastered rooms. The house contains several 'priest's holes', where the hall's sympathetic owners hid Roman Catholic priests during the anti-Catholic 16th and 17th centuries.
A marvellous example of an Elizabethan half-timbered hall, Speke Hall was formerly surrounded by thousands of acres of land, but these days all that remains is the drive and an oasis of meticulously maintained gardens; the hall's Chapel Farm became the nucleus of nearby Liverpool Airport. A bus runs from Lime St to Speke Hall, but the walk from the bus stop is about a kilometre and a half.
Tours to Pa…
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Liverpool FC
Doff o' the cap to Evertonians and Beatle-maniacs, but no single institution represents the Mersey spirit and strong sense of identity more powerfully than Liverpool FC, England's most successful football club. Virtually unbeatable for much of the 1970s and '80s, they haven't won the league championship since 1990, but in 2005 they became European champions for the fifth time and followed it with an FA Cup in 2006.
The club's home is the marvellous Anfield, but plans are afoot to relocate to a new 60,000-capacity stadium a stone's throw away in Stanley Park before 2010. The experience of a live match is a memorable one, especially the sound of 40,000 fans singing 'You'll …
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City Walls
A good way to get a sense of Chester's unique character is to walk the 2-mile circuit along the walls that surround the historic centre. Originally built by the Romans around AD 70, the walls were altered substantially over the following centuries but have retained their current position since around 1200. The tourist office's Walk Around Chester Walls leaflet is an excellent guide.
Of the many features along the walls, the most eye-catching is the prominent Eastgate, where you can see the most famous clock in England after London's Big Ben, built for Queen Victoria's Diamond Jubilee in 1897.
At the southeastern corner of the walls are the wishing steps, added in 1785; loca…
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Walker Art Gallery
Touted as the 'National Gallery of the North', the city's foremost gallery is the national gallery for northern England, housing an outstanding collection of art from the 14th to the 21st centuries. Its strong suits are Pre-Raphaelite art, modern British art and sculpture – not to mention the rotating exhibits of contemporary expression. It's a family-friendly place, too: the ground-floor Big Art for Little People gallery is designed especially for under-eights and features interactive exhibits and games that will (hopefully) result in a life-long love affair with art.
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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. Slated to open in 2011, 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…
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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…
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Merseyside Maritime Museum
The story of one of the world's great ports is the theme of this excellent museum and, believe us, it's a graphic and compelling page-turner. One of the many great exhibits is Emigration to a New World, which tells the story of nine million emigrants and their efforts to get to North America and Australia; the walk-through model of a typical ship shows just how tough conditions on board really were.
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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.
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.
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Lancaster Castle
Lancaster's imposing castle was originally built in 1150. Later additions include the Well Tower, more commonly known as the Witches' Tower because it was used to incarcerate the accused of the famous Pendle Witches Trial of 1612, and the impressive twin-towered gatehouse, both of which were added in the 14th century. Most of what you see today, however, dates from the 18th and 19th centuries, when the castle was substantially altered to suit its new, and still current, role as a prison.
You can only visit the castle as part of a 45-minute guided tour, but you do get a chance to experience what it was like to be locked up in the dungeon.
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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. 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.
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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.
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Liverpool Cathedral
Liverpool's Anglican cathedral is a building of superlatives. Not only is it Britain's largest church; it's also the world's largest Anglican cathedral, and it's all thanks to Sir Giles Gilbert Scott, who made its construction his life's work. Sir Scott also gave us the red telephone box and the Southwark Power Station in London, now the Tate Modern. The central bell is the world's third-largest (with the world's highest and heaviest peal), while the organ, with its 9765 pipes, is likely the world's largest operational model.
The visitor centre features the Great Space, a 10-minute, panoramic high-definition movie about the history of the cathedral. It's followed by your o…
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Imperial War Museum North
War museums generally appeal to those with a fascination for military hardware and battle strategy (toy soldiers optional), 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.
The exhibits cover the main conflicts of the 20th century through a broad selection of displays, but the really effective bit comes every half-hour when the entire exhibition hall goes dark and one of three 15-minute films (Children and War, The War at Home or Weapons of War) is projected throughout. Visitors are encouraged to walk around the darkened room so as to get the…
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Chester Cathedral
Originally a Benedictine abbey built on the remains of an earlier Saxon church dedicated to St Werburgh (the city's patron saint), it was shut down in 1540 as part of Henry VIII's dissolution frenzy but reconsecrated as a cathedral the following year. Although the cathedral itself was given a substantial Victorian facelift, the 12th-century cloister and its surrounding buildings are essentially unaltered and retain much of the structure from the early monastic years. There are 1¼-hour guided tours to really get to grips with the building and its history.
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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.
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World Museum Liverpool
Natural history, science and technology are the themes of this sprawling museum, whose exhibits range from birds of prey to space exploration. It also includes the country's only free planetarium. This vastly entertaining and educational museum is divided into four major sections: the Human World, one of the top anthropological collections in the country; the Natural World, which includes a new aquarium as well as live insect colonies; Earth, a geological treasure trove; and Space & Time, which includes the planetarium. Highly recommended.
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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.
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