Manchester

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Sights & Museums

The blending of history and heritage in Manchester is a constant, highly active and very visible process. Driven by the 1996 IRA bomb and the staging of 2002's Commonwealth Games, the last decade has seen as furious a programme of rebuilding as the city has experienced since the cotton mills and their attendant slums sprang up in 19th-century Cottonopolis. Today, any exhaustive city guide would be made redundant within days, as new building conversions spring up citywide like stop-motion footage of fungus on a nature documentary.

Unsung treasures
A conurbation of this size can only support so much new activity, and the dramatic burst of new attractions which arrived just in time to flutter the city's eyelashes towards the gaze of the world for the Commonweath Games has inevitably calmed down. With no further new major attractions planned, locals await instead the relaunch of Elizabeth Gaskell's House, John Rylands Library, Gorton Monastery and Victoria Baths.

When all this finally occurs it would be nice to see the city blow its trumpet a little more about its lesser known exhibition spaces. Chetham's Library is still more likely to receive visits from touring Chinese communists than Manchester's own citizens, while museums dedicated to police, transport or the city's Jewish community remain quietly unsung. A city that can boast a significant hand in communism, computers, atomic theory and splitting the atom and that's given us so many era-defining moments, from inflatable bananas on the football terraces to scallies skanking in flares, really shouldn't be boasting so many hidden treasures and best-kept secrets. Much of greater Manchester currently resides on the 'tentative' list of UNESCO world heritage sites. Perhaps the future will be a little less provisory.

And with such an incredible musical heritage - Oasis, Joy Division and New Order, Morrissey and the Smiths, Buzzcocks, the Hollies, the Stone Roses, Bee Gees, Happy Mondays, Simply Red, M People, Badly Drawn Boy - even rock deity Lemmy used to live in Stockport - visitors on a musical heritage trail will find much to occupy them. Current hot hopes like the Longcut or the Answering Machine might perhaps be spoken of in the same revered tones by the next edition of this guide. Or perhaps it will be one of a hundred others currently honing their craft in the city's rehearsal rooms.

We've drawn attention to a handful of sites (the Haçienda, Salford Lad's Club, Strangeways), but there are so many more skulking away. Granted, their narky mind-yer-own-business attitude is all part of the allure - sentimentality plays little part in the Mancunian psyche and most bands are too busy getting on with things to stop and celebrate the past - but is it beyond the bounds of reasonable imagination to picture a centre (dare one say museum?) commemorating Manchester's formidable musical pedigree?

A final note for the thousands who arrive here every year tickled by the notion of spending a few minutes on Coronation Street. The most famous set on television is not open to the public, and hasn't been since the closure of the Granada Studios tour in 1999. Indeed, at the time of writing, the 'Street' may not even remain in its current location at all. But this is all part of the mercurial pattern of heritage and change in Manchester. You may not be able to see the Websters, Duckworths et al enacting their daily lives, but for pretty much everything else, welcome to our city.

Neighbourhoods
Much of the centre is heavily commercial, the Northern Quarter strenuously fashionable while Chinatown is great for eating out.

The medieval quarter, from St Ann's Square to the cathedral, boasts the city's most pleasing architecture. Castlefield is where epochs collide most impressively, from the Roman settlement where Manchester began, to the canals that are the enduring fingerprints of the Industrial Revolution.

Salford Quays is far more visitable now than a decade ago, when it was a museum-less concept waiting to spark. North Manchester is mainly residential, but offers much impressive parkland - including Heaton Park, the jewel in the city's green crown, containing Grade I-listed Heaton Hall, and other less heralded gems like Boggart Hole Clough - while beyond affluent South Manchester and Stockport the path heads towards Cheshire and fertile National Trust territory.

Manchester, as already observed, doesn't usually go out of its way to proclaim its greatness. The interested visitor can consequently experience an element of discovery in the simplest journey. The compact centre makes walking an attractive option. A much-underrated activity in Manchester, as in many UK cities, is walking and observing the upper levels of buildings; once the gaze rises above the drearily repetitive chain-store fronts, unexpected architectural delights are often revealed. Try the old warehouses around Balloon Street, or the grandeur of King Street. Guided walks from the Visitor Centre can add context and historical facts.

Otherwise, the established attractions are uniformly good. Even those that divide opinion, ike Urbis, are fascinating buildings, and a large part of the city's sightseeing can be done for free. The good folk of Manchester tend to ignore most of the treasures on their doorstep, so you're unlikely to suffer the crowds that can blight some of London's attractions.

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