Manchester

Photo © KKarlin

Travel Guide Europe United Kingdom England North West England Manchester

Introduction

Manchester

Nowhere in England is the contrast of Victorian Industrial past and affluent modern present clearer than in Manchester. Cotton mills and canals sit alongside the shiny complexes of multinational business, restaurants and bars. Manchester is a thriving centre for culture and music, it boasts a multitude of music venues, museums and shops. With it's feet in an impressive musical history Manchester is home to New Order, The Smiths, Oasis, The Verve, Spiral carpets, Mr Scruff, Lamb, Elbow and the scene that grew up around the Hacienda among a million others including the bubbling and very current music scene. Manchester is the not to be missed, laid back and cool capital of the north.

Terminology
For a brief period in the later 20th century there was a Metropolitan County Council for Greater Manchester. The City of Manchester was the largest of the Metropolitan Districts in this area. All these are now unitary authorities and the City of Manchester has no local government control over the others. However it is quite common to find the term 'Manchester' used to cover some areas outside of the city - such as Salford and Trafford in this article.

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Neighbourhoods

Manchester is composed of many districts. Those of the most noteworthy:

City centre
Rusholme (for the famous curry mile)

South

Fallowfield (student accommodation campus).
Withington
Chorlton-cum-Hardy
Old Trafford
East and West Didsbury

West

Salford and Salford Quays

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Sights and Activities

Museums and exhibition centres

The Lowry Centre is an intriguing complex containing a collection of Lowry's paintings as well as two theatres.
Manchester Museum has had a wide variety of collections and exhibitions, including a large collection of Egyptian artefacts. The museum is in the University area.
Whitworth Art Gallery is award winning and recently refurbished.
The Urbis hosts various exhibitions and events.
Imperial War museum North (Salford quays) is a small but well put together museum with a viewing tower to look out over the quays.

Music and clubs

Manchester boasts a thriving club scene as well as many fantastic venues for live music. Indie and Rock as well as dance are all the main big time players in Manchester and you will never be short of somewhere to go.

Smaller venues for live music include:

Larger venues:

Night clubs

Many and varied! For more main stream evenings try the Deansgate and Printwork areas of the city centre.
South has a reputation for a crackin Indie friday night.
The warehouse project and Sankeys both run notorious dance nights. For student type evenings with Indie/rock you won't find better than 42nd Street or 5th Avenue.

Theatre, Dance and Classical music

See the Theatre calender for what's on.

Other main attractions

Manchester Town Hall is the most imposing town hall in Britain.
Old Trafford is home of http://www.manutd.com/default.sps?pagegid={63600C0C-B276-4CB1-8FB1-3460BE926722} (< ERROR: the link title is too long!).
The city centre is a World Heritage area covering the cotton mills and canals.
John Rylands Library is a recently restored beautiful Victorian Gothic library.

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Weather

As with anywhere in Northern England, don't be surprised if there's a little rain. Summers are around 20 °C lasting from June to early September. Winters are mild with occasional frost or snow possible during the December to February period.

	Jan	Feb	Mar	Apr	May	Jun	Jul	Aug	Sep	Oct	Nov	Dec
Avg Max	6.4 °C	6.6 °C	8.9 °C	11.6 °C	15.3 °C	18.2 °C	19.6 °C	19.5 °C	17 °C	13.7 °C	9.1 °C	7.1 °C
Avg Min	1.3 °C	1.2 °C	2.5 °C	4.3 °C	7.3 °C	10.2 °C	12 °C	11.9 °C	10 °C	7.5 °C	3.6 °C	2 °C
Rainfall	69 mm	50 mm	61 mm	51 mm	61 mm	67 mm	65 mm	79 mm	74 mm	77 mm	78 mm	78 mm
Rain Days	18.2	13.1	15.6	14.4	15.1	14.4	13.6	15	15	16.5	17	17.4

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Getting There

By Plane

Manchester Airport (MAN), located about 14 kilometres from the centre of Manchester, is well served, including many intercontinental routes. Quite a few budget airlines use Manchester Airport as well.
Some of the main destinations served include Ljubljana, Cork, Dublin, Paris, Antwerp, Malta, Toronto, Chicago, New York, Cyprus, Tenerife, London, Lyon, Edinburgh, Amsterdam, Belfast, Geneva, Mallorca, Brussels, Gothenburg, Prague, Atlanta, Copenhagen, Corfu, Crete, Helsinki, Marrakech, Munich, Zürich, Dubai, Abu Dhabi, Milan, Glasgow, Düsseldorf, Reykjavik, Budapest, Dubrovnik, Rome, Venice, Cancun, Orlando, Luxor, Mombasa, Doha, Karachi, Oslo, Stockholm, Riyadh, Singapore, Istanbul, Philadelphia, Athens, Barbados, Las Vegas and dozens of destinations around the Mediterranean.

To/from the airport

Rail: Manchester Airport railway station is located between Terminals 1 and 2. It is linked to the terminals using a Skylink moving walkway. Trains are operated either by Northern Rail or TransPennine Express and connect the airport to Manchester Piccadilly Station and other railway stations mainly throughout northern England, although some trains even go to Edinburgh in Scotland.
Bus: Buses serve many locations throughout Greater Manchester, including the 24-hour bus service Skyline which runs every 10 minutes or so (every 30 minutes at night) to Manchester city centre. There is also Skyline operating every hour to Altrincham via Wythenshawe and Sale. National Express has buses to places further away, even to Dublin.
Car: The airport is a 20-minute drive from Manchester city centre and is reached by the M56 motorway, with a dedicated approach road from the motorway at junction 5. There are many parking places at the airport, and rental cars and taxis are all widely available.

By Train

Trains in and out of Manchester run frequently. There are three main city centre stations, Picadilly for main access, entry straight to the city centre, Victoria also in the centre and Oxford road which is closest for University access.
See National Rail for more information about schedules and prices.

By Car

Manchester has an outer ring road the M60 which is heavily congested at rush hour (4:00-6:00pm) but is useful for quick access. From the South use the M6 or M6 toll. From Leeds M62.

Driving into the centre is tricky and it is advisable to use the frequent and reliable bus services available. There are 'Park and Ride services' around the city. Check the GMPTE Busses website for more information.

By Bus

Direct services to London, Edinburgh, Glasgow, Liverpool, Birmingham and many other destinations are available with National Express and Megabus

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Getting Around

By Public Transport

Manchester Piccadilly is the main station, with regular links to Manchester Airport. Manchester Victoria is the second biggest station, serving mainly local routes.

The Metrolink, the light rail system in Manchester, runs from Bury in the North right through to Altrincham in the South, passing through the city centre and Manchester Piccadilly. There is also a line running to Eccles from the city centre. Services on the Bury and Altrincham lines run from around 6:00am to 12:30am weekdays and to around 1:00am at weekends.

The free Metroshuttle bus leaves Manchester Piccadilly every few minutes and takes a route through the city centre and past the other major railway stations and tram stops along the way.

By Foot

The city centre is compact enough to access most places on foot.

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Eat

The Eighth Day is a long running vegetarian restaurant, it also has a health food store attached. On Oxford Road, near to the University Area.
San Carlo is an atmospheric Italian restaurant serving delicious food. On King Street West, off Deansgate.
Rice is an Asian fast food outlet in Piccadilly Gardens- quick and tasty, eat in or takeaway.
Arndale Market is the recently re-located and rejuvenated, the new market contains a range of delicious and reasonably priced eating options including sushi, Chinese, Italian, fresh soups and Indian.

For the best curries, head to Curry Mile, a short taxi ride or bus journey to Rusholme, just out of the centre.
Numerous options for Indian, Pakistani, Sri Lankan and Bangladeshi cuisine.

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Drink

Sinclair's Oyster Bar is in Shambles Square, one of the cheapest places in the city to get a pint.
Rodeo is a tiny little bar specialising in cocktails, in the trendy Northern Quarter.
Odd Bar is a cool and quirky little bar, also in the Northern Quarter.
Matt and Phred's is a Live Jazz Club, on Tib Street.

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Sleep

Property	Address	Type	Popularity
Amblehurst Hotel	44 Washway Road Sale, Cheshire	Hotel	-
Elton Bank Hotel	62 Platt Lane Rusholme	Hotel	83
Hatters on Newton Street	50 Newton Street	Hostel	83
Hawthorn Hotel	137-143 Stand Lane Radcliffe, Manchester	Hotel	80
Hatters at Hilton Chambers	15 Hilton Street	Hostel	84
Hotel International	34 London Road	Hotel	-
Monton House Hotel	116 -118 Monton Road Monton	Hotel	75
New Central Guest House	144 Heywood Street	Guesthouse	-
Deansgate Apartment	74 Bridge Street	Apartment	-
Pymgate Lodge Airport Hotel	147 Styal Road Heald Green	Hotel	82
Stay Inn Manchester	55 Blackfriars Road Salford	Hotel	82
The Grapes	47 Market Street	Guesthouse	74
Trafford Hall Hotel	23 Talbot Road Old Trafford	Hotel	79
Victoria Hall II	281 Upper Brook Street	Hostel	77
YHA Manchester	Potato Wharf Castlefield	Hostel	81
Fairways Lodge and Leisure Club	George Street Prestwich	Hotel	84
Sandown Hotel	745 Rochdale Road Manchester	Hotel	81
Hotel Inn Manchester	187-189 Chapel Street	GUESTHOUSE	71
The Handforth Lodge	188 Wilmslow Road Handforth	Guesthouse	78
My-Places Serviced Apartments	107 Chatsworth House 19 Lever Street	Apartment	-
Willow Bank Hotel	340 Wilmslow Road Fallowfield	Hotel	77
The Bowdon Hotel and Leisure Club	Langham Road	Hotel	-
Weston Hall	Sackville Street Manchester	Hotel	81
My-Places Worsley Serviced Accommodation	Chatsworth Road Worsley	Apartment	-
My-Places Corporate Serviced Apartment 68	68 Elizabeth Street	Apartment	-
My-Places Prestiege Serviced Apartment 3	3 Abbotsfield Court Lancashire	Apartment	-
Campanile Manchester	55 ORDSALL LANE REGENT ROAD SALFORD	Hotel	-
Walkabout	13 Quay Street Manchester	HOTEL	63
Butterfly Guest House	89 Grove Lane, Cheadle Hulme, Stockport Cheshire	GUESTHOUSE	76
Salford Arms Hotel	146 Chapel Street Salford Manchester	HOTEL	79
Ashton House Hostel	Ashton House 196 Corporation Street	HOSTEL	71
Ram Lodge	393 Wilmslow Road Manchester	HOTEL	70
Lansdowne Hotel Manchester	346 Wilmslow Road	HOTEL	-
My-Places Skyline Serviced Apartment	Manchester City Centre Green Quarter	Apartment	-
My-Places Albion Serviced Apartment	Polland Street	Apartment	-
My-Places Vallea Court Serviced Apartment	Manchester City Centre Green Quarter	Apartment	-
Castlefield Hotel	Liverpool Road	HOTEL	-
Hendham House Hotel	3-4 Beechmount	HOTEL	76
Iida Apartments	1 Jordan Street	APARTMENT	-

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Learn

Manchester University

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Keep Connected

Phone

Post

The Royal Mail provides postal services in the United Kingdom. The Royal Mail's store fronts are called Post Office and offer services ranging from sending letters and packages to foreign currency exchange. Use the branch locator to find the nearest Post Office branch. An alternative includes TNT Post.
It's common for a post office to be incorporated into a grocery store, where there will be a small counter located at the back of the store for dealing with post related matters. All post offices are marked with signs that say 'post office' in red lettering. Post boxes can be found at any post office and standalone large red post boxes on the streets or red boxes in the sides of public buildings.