Top 27 Manchester Attractions

The cos­mopoli­tan charm of Eng­land’s north­ern­most city, amaz­ing archi­tec­ture and plen­ty of cul­tur­al enter­tain­ment.

What to do in Manchester

Man­ches­ter is a cos­mopoli­tan city that has for­got­ten its indus­tri­al past. The bomb­ings of the Sec­ond World War destroyed many cen­turies-old build­ings, but the best exam­ples of the past era man­aged to resist. They will inter­est those who are fond of archi­tec­ture.

Among the icon­ic sights of Man­ches­ter are col­or­ful dis­tricts. Walks will be inter­est­ing, and pho­tos will be bright. This offer is rel­e­vant for young and inquis­i­tive trav­el­ers.

Muse­ums are aimed at vis­i­tors of dif­fer­ent ages. And the cul­tur­al pro­gram itself promis­es to be rich: the abun­dance of the­aters and gal­leries will allow every­one to choose their leisure time to their lik­ing.

Cathedrals and churches

Church of St. Nicholas

The Art Nou­veau tem­ple was built in 1932. Its exte­ri­or was ful­ly in line with the spir­it of the times, when pro­gres­sive minds yearned for change. The main dec­o­ra­tion of the brick facade is a sym­bio­sis of archi­tec­tur­al forms that seem to flow into each oth­er. An inter­est­ing method of merg­ing struc­tures — next to the mas­sive quad­ran­gu­lar tow­er, the archi­tect placed a small­er semi­cir­cu­lar one.

Huge nar­row win­dows are a lacon­ic dec­o­ra­tion through which light streams into the inte­ri­or. The inte­ri­or is sim­ple and orig­i­nal at the same time, the ceil­ing is gen­er­ous­ly paint­ed in red and blue tones. The church was expand­ed in 1964, adding sev­er­al exten­sions to it, and in 2003 a glob­al restora­tion was car­ried out.

Manchester Cathedral

The Goth­ic-style cathe­dral was built at the begin­ning of the 16th cen­tu­ry under the super­vi­sion of the archi­tect D. Stan­ley, who was relat­ed to the roy­al branch of the Tudors. In the XIX cen­tu­ry, the build­ing fell into a deplorable state due to engi­neer­ing mis­cal­cu­la­tions and build­ing mate­ri­als that could not with­stand the vagaries of the weath­er. Seri­ous restora­tion work had to be done.

The next recon­struc­tion took place after the Sec­ond World War — aer­i­al bombs hit the cathe­dral sev­er­al times. In 1996, mem­bers of the Irish Repub­li­can Army tried to blow it up. But despite numer­ous destruc­tions and alter­ations, many authen­tic decor ele­ments were pre­served. Among them are 30 mis­eri­cords of the 16th cen­tu­ry. The stained-glass win­dows are a rel­a­tive remake of the 19th-20th cen­turies, and the bells were cast less than a hun­dred years ago.

Church of St. Anne

The church of 1763 is an archi­tec­tur­al mon­u­ment. The Neo-Goth­ic build­ing was bad­ly dam­aged dur­ing World War II. Restora­tion work began only in the late 1960s. The tem­ple is built of pink and yel­low sand­stone, there is a bell tow­er at the top, above the entrance there is a rose win­dow with an open­work orna­ment.

The tow­er of the church is a con­di­tion­al mark­er of the city cen­ter. It was used as a plat­form for mea­sur­ing dis­tances. To this day, sur­vey­ors’ marks can be seen on the wood­en gates.

The inte­ri­or of the church is remark­able for its splen­dor and splen­dor. The walls and vaults are gen­er­ous­ly paint­ed with scenes from the life of St. Anne, mar­ble columns hold up the mas­sive nave. Above the oak altar there are stained glass win­dows with reli­gious scenes.

Church of St. George

The Vic­to­ri­an style tem­ple was erect­ed in 1828 to com­mem­o­rate the vic­to­ry of the British fleet at the Bat­tle of Water­loo. The roy­al author­i­ties did not stint and allo­cat­ed more than 15 thou­sand pounds ster­ling for the con­struc­tion — a huge amount for those times.

The main dec­o­ra­tions of the church are an ele­gant point­ed tow­er and high lancet win­dows. The nave is divid­ed into 6 equal com­part­ments, each of which is rich­ly dec­o­rat­ed with stuc­co.

In the mid-1980s, the church was closed due to a lack of parish­ioners, and at the begin­ning of the next cen­tu­ry, the Catholic dio­cese trans­ferred it to the city. Today, the build­ing of the for­mer tem­ple hous­es lux­u­ry apart­ments and a bar.

All Saints Church

The neo-goth­ic church was found­ed in 1867. The mas­sive gray brick build­ing has a slop­ing roof and many lancet win­dows with rich orna­men­ta­tion. In the north­ern part there is a stone chapel. The main gate and a spire with a bell tow­er are locat­ed on the west­ern.

Inside there is an altar made of carved stone, along the way to which there are rows of wood­en bench­es. The walls are dec­o­rat­ed with fres­coes and gild­ed tapes­tries. A spe­cial place is occu­pied by the por­trait of Edward Wel­by Pug­in, the archi­tect of the church. On the can­vas, he is depict­ed in full growth with a plan of the build­ing in his hands.

Architecture

town hall

The build­ing was built in 1877 accord­ing to the design of Alfred Water­house, a big fan of neo-Goth­ic. The facade is dec­o­rat­ed with numer­ous arched open­ings, tur­rets and columns. The build­ing’s dom­i­nant fea­ture is the 85 m high clock tow­er. An iron bell hangs on it, nick­named Big Albert (the town hall stands in the north­ern part of Albert Square).

The inte­ri­ors are chic. The spa­cious halls are dec­o­rat­ed with mosa­ic pan­els depict­ing impor­tant mile­stones in the his­to­ry of Man­ches­ter. Stat­ues of promi­nent cit­i­zens are exhib­it­ed in a sep­a­rate room.

Former Victorian bank building

This inter­est­ing 3‑story build­ing is locat­ed on Mose­ley Street and occu­pies sev­er­al blocks from 38 to 42 at once. The build­ing in the style of an Ital­ian palaz­zo stands out against the back­drop of Vic­to­ri­an build­ings. The facade is made of local hewn stone. The mate­r­i­al was cho­sen so as not to be cov­ered with dust and smog of an indus­tri­al city.

The first floor is rich­ly dec­o­rat­ed with pilasters, the sec­ond — with mas­sive gables and bal­conies. The balustrade on the roof com­pletes the archi­tec­tur­al appear­ance. The inte­ri­or halls have retained their pom­pos­i­ty — this is espe­cial­ly notice­able in the main hall with Roman columns and a mul­ti-lev­el ceil­ing.

central Library

A semi­cir­cu­lar build­ing in the style of a Roman amphithe­ater, dec­o­rat­ed with a mas­sive por­ti­co with columns, was built accord­ing to the design of Har­ris in 1934. It hous­es the Cen­tral Library, which con­sists of 22 depart­ments. The area of ​​the build­ing is about 6,000 sq. m. A mil­lion books, man­u­scripts and man­u­scripts are stored on the shelves with a total length of about 57 km. The library is munic­i­pal and open to all com­ers.

Hume Arch Bridge

The unusu­al arched bridge draws atten­tion with its light steel struc­ture. Its length is 52 m, width is 19 m. Steel cables, mount­ed at an angle, sup­port a 25-meter arc of 6 sec­tions. The arch above the con­crete deck is set at an off­set, which makes the struc­ture appear warped.

The Hume Arch Bridge has won four pres­ti­gious archi­tec­tur­al awards.

John Rylands Library

The Goth­ic build­ing appeared in 1900 in the Deans­gate area. It was built with the mon­ey of entre­pre­neur John Rylands and named after him. Ini­tial­ly, the­o­log­i­cal and reli­gious lit­er­a­ture was stored in the library, over time, the book funds were replen­ished with works from oth­er areas. The most valu­able copy is the first edi­tion of the Guten­berg Bible.

Cum­bri­an sand­stone was used as build­ing mate­r­i­al. Nat­ur­al ven­ti­la­tion is pro­vid­ed by numer­ous air intakes equipped with spe­cial fil­ters to trap dust and smog.

Chathams Library

Chetham Library, opened to the pub­lic in 1653, is con­sid­ered one of the old­est in the UK. Ini­tial­ly, the build­ing housed a school for boys, then a hos­pi­tal. Then the walls of gray sand­stone turned into a vast book depos­i­to­ry.

Now the col­lec­tion has more than 100 thou­sand copies. These are books, man­u­scripts, peri­od­i­cals, most of which date back to the 16th-17th cen­turies. In terms of the sta­tus of the stored mate­ri­als, the Chathams library can com­pete with the book col­lec­tions of the uni­ver­si­ties of Oxford and Cam­bridge.

Portico Library

The book col­lec­tion opened in 1806 and has not closed for a sin­gle day since then. The Greek Renais­sance build­ing was designed by the archi­tect Har­ris. He chose sand­stone for the out­er walls, a local mate­r­i­al that resists the vagaries of change­able British weath­er well. The facade is dec­o­rat­ed with four mas­sive Doric columns, on which rests the ped­i­ment with the name of the library.

In 1987, a gallery was opened under a glass dome, where exhi­bi­tions and pre­sen­ta­tions are held. It is note­wor­thy that the floors, inte­ri­or ele­ments and fur­ni­ture have been pre­served since the 19th cen­tu­ry. The library stores more than 25 thou­sand books and hand­writ­ten texts.

Sunlight House

The glass and con­crete Art Deco build­ing was built in 1932. Its height is 41 m. The build­ing is notable for its round­ed facade and octag­o­nal tow­er crowned with a dome with a small spire. Under the roof there is a 3‑level attic.

The Sun­light House has 14 floors, although the project was sup­posed to have 30. For unclear rea­sons, the city coun­cil protest­ed, and the build­ing was “cut off”. How­ev­er, this did not pre­vent him from being the high­est in Man­ches­ter for sev­er­al decades.

For a long time, this grace­ful build­ing housed the head­quar­ters of the Joseph Sun­light’s Cor­po­ra­tion. Today, offices of var­i­ous com­pa­nies are rent­ed here, shops and a sports club are locat­ed, and an obser­va­tion deck is equipped in the attic.

Theaters

Royal Exchange Theater

An ele­gant neo­clas­si­cal build­ing with wide win­dows, false columns and por­ti­coes with bas-reliefs stands on St. Anne’s Square. Once there was a cot­ton exchange in it, there were brisk auc­tions, busi­ness­men lost and earned for­tunes.

By the mid-60s, the demand for raw cot­ton fell due to the emer­gence of afford­able syn­thet­ic mate­ri­als. The exchange was closed, and its premis­es were giv­en to the city the­ater. Today, clas­si­cal and pro­gres­sive per­for­mances are played on its stage, con­certs and fes­ti­vals are held. The hall, designed for 700 spec­ta­tors, is almost always full.

Opera theatre

The neo­clas­si­cal the­ater build­ing was erect­ed in 1912. The facade is dec­o­rat­ed with antique semi-columns that form dec­o­ra­tive nich­es. The ped­i­ment is dec­o­rat­ed with a bas-relief depict­ing a horse-drawn char­i­ot. Orna­men­tal stripes of stone com­plete the exte­ri­or.

The sta­tus of the opera house received only in 1920. He did not have a per­ma­nent troupe, per­for­mances were main­ly giv­en by vis­it­ing act­ing groups. After 60 years, the the­ater was con­vert­ed into a casi­no, but soon the deci­sion was can­celed and the halls were returned to their for­mer appear­ance. Since then, the Opera House has become one of the most vis­it­ed in Eng­land.

The semi­cir­cu­lar hall can simul­ta­ne­ous­ly accom­mo­date up to 1200 spec­ta­tors. On both sides of the stage there are 3 tiers of mag­nif­i­cent box­es. Con­sole bal­conies are mount­ed above the stalls. The dec­o­ra­tion is dom­i­nat­ed by scar­let and gold — it looks lux­u­ri­ous.

Dancehouse

One of the most vis­it­ed the­aters in Man­ches­ter is locat­ed on Oxford Road. It is famous for its large stage, equipped with mod­ern light­ing and sound equip­ment. The seats are locat­ed in the form of three cas­cades, falling to the stage at a high angle, which pro­vides excel­lent vis­i­bil­i­ty. In total, the hall can accom­mo­date up to 700 spec­ta­tors.

Light­ing depends on the nature of the per­for­mance. Touch­ing roman­tic episodes are accom­pa­nied by twi­light, and dynam­ic scenes are accom­pa­nied by the bright light of chan­de­liers and col­ored lamps. On the ground floor there is a dance hall with huge full-length mir­rors. Sig­nif­i­cant events are often held here.

Palace

The Oxford Street The­ater was opened in 1891 (then called the Grand Old Lady). More than 40 thou­sand pounds ster­ling was spent on the con­struc­tion of a pompous build­ing under the lead­er­ship. At the begin­ning of the 20th cen­tu­ry, Judy Gar­land, Gra­cie Fields and Charles Law­ton shone on its stage.

Dur­ing the war, the the­ater was dam­aged dur­ing air raids and was almost destroyed. There was a cat­a­stroph­ic lack of funds for the restora­tion, and in the 1970s it was decid­ed to abol­ish it. Only 10 years lat­er, it was pos­si­ble to raise mon­ey and prac­ti­cal­ly rebuild the build­ing. Alas, it is dif­fer­ent from the orig­i­nal.

Museums and galleries

Whitworth Art Gallery

The gallery was opened in 1908 in Whit­ford Park, which gave it its name. Today it belongs to the Uni­ver­si­ty of Man­ches­ter. More than 55 thou­sand art objects of the 19th-20th cen­turies are stored in its store­rooms. A spe­cial place is occu­pied by mas­ter­pieces by Van Gogh, Picas­so, Turn­er and Gau­guin.

Sam­ples of tex­tiles are pre­sent­ed in sep­a­rate rooms. This type of indus­try was and remains the main one in the city. Edu­ca­tion­al pro­grams and sem­i­nars are reg­u­lar­ly held on the ter­ri­to­ry of the gallery.

Manchester Museum

The muse­um, found­ed in the 19th cen­tu­ry, is part of the Uni­ver­si­ty of Man­ches­ter. It con­tains exhibits relat­ed to his­to­ry, anthro­pol­o­gy and arche­ol­o­gy — a total of about 4.5 mil­lion arti­facts. Here you can see Tirex dinosaur bones, a col­lec­tion of masks from Peru, Eski­mo weapons, Egypt­ian stat­ues, stuffed ani­mals and birds, old coins from Europe and much more.

The largest and rich­est muse­um in the UK not only hosts exhi­bi­tions, but also engages in sci­en­tif­ic work, as well as lec­tures as part of edu­ca­tion­al pro­grams.

Lowry Art Center

The mod­ern glass-and-con­crete build­ing was built on the Sal­ford Wharf in 2008 and named after the promi­nent artist Lawrence Lowry.

The struc­ture has a com­plex geom­e­try and is a sym­bio­sis of sev­er­al fig­ures: a cir­cle, a tri­an­gle, a square and a rec­tan­gle. From a cer­tain view­ing angle, it is easy to see the sil­hou­ette of the ship in them. You can get inside the cen­ter from any direc­tion. The marine theme is con­tin­ued in the inte­ri­or. The blue mosa­ic floor with sil­ver lines is like an ocean or a map with par­al­lels and merid­i­ans.

Lowry pro­vides space for a vari­ety of con­tem­po­rary art. Exhi­bi­tions of artists, pho­tog­ra­phers are reg­u­lar­ly held here, there is a stage for per­for­mances and per­for­mances.

Art Gallery

The muse­um, opened in 1924, con­sists of three con­nect­ed build­ings. The main build­ing was built by Charles Bar­ry, Britain’s most famous archi­tect, who designed the Palace of West­min­ster. His neo­clas­si­cal cre­ation with Ion­ic columns over­looks Mose­ley Street.

More than 25,000 arti­facts are stored in the muse­um’s store­rooms. Among them are a col­lec­tion of arts and crafts, weapons, finds from the Egypt­ian pyra­mids, antiques and much more. The most impor­tant place is occu­pied by the works of promi­nent British, Ital­ian and Dutch artists.

Museum of Science and Industry

The muse­um was found­ed in 1969, but did not have per­ma­nent premis­es. In 1978, the Man­ches­ter author­i­ties bought the build­ing of the rail­way sta­tion for a nom­i­nal fee of 1 pound and trans­ferred all the exhibits to it.

The exhi­bi­tions tell about the devel­op­ment of indus­try in Man­ches­ter. There are many inter­ac­tive stands among doc­u­ments, pho­tographs and arti­facts. Vis­i­tors can see real indus­tri­al equip­ment from yes­ter­year and watch a sim­u­la­tion of the pro­duc­tion process. A spe­cial place is occu­pied by sam­ples of trans­port — from loco­mo­tives to the real air­craft.

Football Museum

Eng­land is the birth­place of foot­ball, and in Man­ches­ter this game has been ele­vat­ed to a cult. The appear­ance of the muse­um was a pat­tern. The mod­ern build­ing con­tains about 2,500 exhibits, rang­ing from the first team kit of the 1872 Scot­land-Eng­land match to Maradon­a’s T‑shirt, when the “hand of God” sent the ball into the goal. There are many attrac­tions, inter­ac­tive stands and screens that broad­cast the best foot­ball games and moments.

Interesting places

Area Castlefield

Around the 1st cen­tu­ry AD. On the ter­ri­to­ry of Castle­field stood the ancient Roman fort Mamu­ci­um. Over time, it col­lapsed, and the indus­tri­al rev­o­lu­tion final­ly erased traces of the ancient her­itage from the Earth for the sake of build­ing a rail­way and a nav­i­ga­ble artery.

Today the fort has been restored. The remake stretch­es along the Rosh­dale Canal. Here you can see out­build­ings, gates and ware­hous­es — all of them are open for view­ing. Walk­ing along the streets with build­ings of the XVIII-XIX cen­turies will also be a plea­sure. There are bars, restau­rants and muse­ums in the area.

St. Peter’s Square

Locat­ed in the heart of the city, St. Peter’s Square is a pop­u­lar tourist spot. It got its name from a near­by church.

The main local attrac­tion is the build­ing of the Cen­tral Library, erect­ed in 1934 accord­ing to the project of Wright. Until now, it is the largest munic­i­pal book depos­i­to­ry in the world. Near­by is the Free Trade Hall.

In 1819, a bloody dra­ma unfold­ed on the square — a clash between the roy­al troops and pro­test­ers demand­ing a reform of the elec­toral sys­tem.

Chinatown

Chi­na­town is locat­ed in the east­ern part of Man­ches­ter. It was found­ed by the inhab­i­tants of the Celes­tial Empire at the begin­ning of the 20th cen­tu­ry. In a rel­a­tive­ly short peri­od of time, they built a “city with­in a city” with their own sub­cul­ture. The main entrance is on Faulkn­er Street — the scar­let tiered gates are impos­si­ble to miss. There are restau­rants, laun­dries, phar­ma­cies, shops, shops, includ­ing those with Chi­nese med­i­cines. And in 1987, a cul­tur­al cen­ter was opened in Chi­na Town.

Heaton Park

One of the largest parks in the UK cov­ers an area of ​​about 300 hectares. The vast area was pur­chased by the city from the Earl of Wilton in 1902. There is a ten­nis court, a golf course, play­grounds, a gar­den, an obser­va­to­ry, for­est and farm­land. One of the main attrac­tions of the park is Heaton Hall, an archi­tec­tur­al mon­u­ment of the 18th cen­tu­ry.