Manchester See & do
Manchester’s cultural jewels glitter more brightly than most. Superb modern architecture complements the history, art and science.
And who, after all, can resist a good looking, cultured Brit?
But Manchester’s museums display more than just a pretty face. Experience the fusion of design and meaning and take a ride out to the ultra-modern waterside district of Salford Quays to see what we mean.
Facing it, across the water, is the magnificent shimmering metal façade of the Lowry concert hall. Inside, discover the gallery devoted to Manchester’s own LS Lowry, the artist who captured the face of an industrial metropolis. This is also a great place for brunch, in the shimmering waterside light of a sunny summer’s day.
Back in the city, ascend the glass elevator to the top of Urbis, a shard of glass at the heart of the city, and then slowly descend through this giant glass wedge, learning the story of the modern city. Learn a lot about Manchester and its people in the process.
Discover the cultural power of Victorian Manchester behind the handsome, classical façade of the Manchester Art Gallery. There’s an outstanding collection of pre-Raphaelite art, dating from the era when Manchester was Cottonopolis, the capital of the industrial revolution. The story moves on, with important works of early 20th century English art too.
This is the city that made the modern world with its mills, its warehouses and its exchanges, its railways and canals. No surprise, then, to find an amazing new museum of Science and Industry on the site of the world’s first passenger railroad station.
Oh yes. Manchester has a lot to be proud of. But Pride, of course, comes just once a year.
For one delirious week in late August, the LGBT community is centre stage when – in the nicest possible way – Manchester Pride dominates the city, with a weekend of non-stop partying in the Village itself, and the Pride parade winding its way through the streets of the city.
England's first queer arts festival was founded in Manchester in 1992, and every year since then Queerupnorth (www.queerupnorth.com) has gone from strength to strength, as the biggest and most significant event of its kind in Europe.
The very best in new queer cinema is in the frame every April and May in Manchester thanks to the Queerscreen program within the Commonwealth Film Festival (www.commonwealthfilm.com).
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