Attractions in Manchester

Pleasant open countryside with picturesque villages surrounds Manchester, United Kingdom, and there are numerous art galleries, theatres, museums and country houses to visit. Manchester receives hundreds of thousands of visitors each year from all over the world. Britain's second largest city is also one of it's most dynamic and cosmopolitan. There is a growing desire to develop Manchester's individuality, to avoid mediocrity and to encourage high quality design whether it be in the conservation of its 19th century buildings, or in the design of modern buildings, or in the treatment of its open spaces.

Barton Arcade
Deansgate, City Center, Between Deansgate and St. Ann's Square
Beautifully restored Victorian glass arcade with shops and offices.

Boddingtons Brewery Tours
32 Great Ducie Street
Boddingtons Brewery has been located on the outskirts of Manchester since 1778 and has been brewing the famous "Cream of Manchester" since 1853, when Henry Boddington became sole proprietor. Boddingtons is still brewed today using traditional techniques and the traditional recipe, including its own strain of yeast and a blend of English hops that have made it famous since its early days. The Brewery Tap is the Boddington's merchandise retail center for the UK, where you will find a full range of Boddingtons memorabilia as well as fine food and a pint.

Cathedral
This is the third church on this site since its founding in the ninth century. A fragment of stone by the choir and a 14th century arch by the tower are all that remain of the earlier structures. The famed widest nave in England (114ft, as opposed to York Minster's 106ft) is a result of wealthy families adding side chapels to the fifteenth-century church, which were later opened out to provide space for Manchester's large 19th population of worshippers. A 1000lb bomb in 1940 damaged the interior, knocking out most of the stained glass and necessitated the complete restoration of the fine misericords, which depict dragon-slaying as well as more mundane scenes - backgammon players and a calf butcher among them. The 1996 bomb did relatively minor damage, now largely restored

Heaton Park
Four miles North of central Manchester. Accessible via Metrolink.
600 acre park with boating lake, pets corner, golf course, working tram. Neo-classical Heaton Hall is the venue for music events. Concerts and events held in the park during the summer.

Jodrell Bank Science Center and Arboretum
Macclesfield, Cheshire
Displays on astronomy and the universe with activities for children.

Manchester Jewish Museum
190 Cheetham Hill Road, M8 8LW
Manchester's Jewish history is recorded and displayed in this museum, housed in the restored Spanish and Portuguese synagogue. Exhibitions show everyday life in the community back to the 1740s. Education program, demonstrations, music and talks. Please apply for a calendar of events.

The Manchester Museum
The University of Manchester, Oxford Road, M13 9PL
Travel through time and discover ancient civilizations. Come and see the 2000-year-old Egyptian mummies and the footprint of a Mancunian dinosaur! Also, live snakes and crocodiles..

The Pump House: People's History Museum
Left Bank, Bridge Street M3 3ER
Exhibitions and displays reconstruct the lives of ordinary people of the past 200 years, from Victorian cotton workers to today's footballers. The Pump House also has a unique collection of banners. Guided tours available for groups.

St Ann's Church
South side of St. Ann's Square
Baptismal church of Thomas De Quincey . Built in 1712, its lovely Renaissance interior was restored under the masterful direction of Alfred Waterhouse at the end of the nineteenth century, contains strikingly beautiful stained glass.
The church is fronted by a statue of nineteenth-century Free Trader Richard Cobden, joint leader with John Bright of the Anti Corn Law League which finally forced the repeal in 1846 of the restrictive Corn Laws.

Royal Exchange
Houses the famous Royal Exchange Theatre, the country's largest theater-in-the-round, constructed of steel and glass under the building's immense glass-domed roof. Formerly the Cotton Exchange, this building employed seven thousand people until trading finished on December 31, 1968. The old trading board still shows the last day's prices for American and Egyptian cotton.
Also inside are a bookshop and crafts gallery, a café/restaurant and the Royal Exchange Shopping Center: three floors of shops and cafés.