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Times
6 hours ago
- Entertainment
- Times
23 of the best things to do in Manchester
Manchester has always done things differently. This is, after all, the city of Madchester, the indie music scene that started in the late 1980s. It's the land not of curry and rice, but rice and three curries, where a plate of rice is ladled with three different choices at a remarkably reasonable price. This is the city of food halls, over a dozen hugely popular dining zones surrounded by different specialist food kitchens, usually in architecturally significant buildings. This is the city whose former docks at Salford have been rebranded as MediaCityUK and now host the nation's broadcasters, and whose former warehouses have been converted into trendy loft apartments and co-working spaces. This is the city of football, with the two Premier League giants Man City and Man United reeling in fans from all over the world. And it is the city of two major performance venues, the cutting edge Aviva Studios and the massive Co-Op Live, which can host 23,500 people. Here's our pick of the best things to do in Manchester. And if we've missed any? Share your suggestions in the comments. This article contains affiliate links, which may earn us revenue You'll need historical context to make sense of downtown Manchester's disorientating mash-up of concrete and glass, red brick and stone. Swot up on the significance of the architecture, the canals, the warehouses and the palatial buildings where merchants arranged their exchanges of goods by signing up for the daily walking tour that leaves from outside the Central Library on St Peter's Square. The library itself, with its extraordinary domed Reading Room D, is one of the first ports of call. Until a couple of years ago the former Worsley New Hall estate, eight miles west of the city centre, was a sorry sight; the decayed house had long since been sold to a scrap merchant and demolished, while its heated walled garden, which had once nourished exotics such as peaches and melon, was in disarray. Luckily the Royal Horticultural Society arrived and transformed it into a designer garden made for modern-day Instagrammers. Spend a leisurely afternoon here admiring the water features, manicured lawns and the woodlands beyond. • Discover our full guide to Manchester So important is the business of football to Manchester that there's a whole university devoted to it: the University Campus of Football Business (UCFB). Two giant teams, Manchester United and Manchester City, create their own economy here, attracting hundreds of thousands of visitors every year — some die-hards even stay at Old Trafford's Hotel Football. All in all, the city is a fitting location for the National Football Museum, housed in a giant fin of glass and steel in the heart of downtown, which examines the history and the social impact of 22 players and a ball. Manchester's Northern Quarter has regularly been a stand-in for the likes of period Manhattan and Boston in blockbuster Hollywood movies such as Captain America and Darkest Hour. Its industrial architecture has made a moody setting for the likes of Peaky Blinders and Queer as Folk, so Visit Manchester's self-guided film and TV trail is a natural addition to city tourism. Particularly now that screen tourism, aka set-jetting, is such a growing trend. Given that it has five main higher education institutions, and a student population of over 100,000, it is not surprising that Manchester's music venues are flourishing. You'll find New Century Hall in the NOMA district, 20 minutes' walk north of the city centre and Manchester Piccadilly station. The venue reopened in 2022 and is iconic for its part in the Madchester (indie music and dance) scene. It is also home to a food hall, New Century Kitchen. Manchester has a whole host of great hotels, but the one that stands out for both style and history is the Midland, across the road from the Central Library. It was built in 1903 as a railway hotel for Manchester Central (now a conference centre). Charles Rolls met Henry Royce here, and the Beatles were famously refused access to the restaurant for being inappropriately dressed. The hotel has an opulent tearoom overlooking St Peter's Square, serving cucumber and cream cheese sandwiches (no crusts, of course) and scones with Mrs Darlington's jam, with treats such as blackberry and dark chocolate mousse and Bakewell tart. Innovation and creativity are not just the preserve of the arts in Manchester, eating out is different here too — particularly if you choose one of its growing number of food hall experiences. The pioneer is the Northern Quarter's Mackie Mayor, an airy, light-filled market hall from 1858 which is now lined with individual outlets offering everything from Thai stir-fries to Japanese ramen, all of which can be ordered through one app from the comfort of your seat. Then there's GRUB, five minutes' walk from Manchester Victoria station, with street food inside a converted textile warehouse. Escape to Freight Island, in the former Mayfield railway depot, is a combination of an eatery and music venue, with video screens and dancing. And Society MCR has Indian, Italian and Korean street food traders by the Bridgewater Hall. Manchester's independence and youthful vigour is most evident in the trendy Northern Quarter. It's a place of street art, tattoo parlours, hipster bars, vintage clothing stores and dozens of co-working coffee houses where young professionals can peer into laptops while sipping on oat milk lattes. Be sure to check out Vinyl Exchange, which opened in 1988 and is now the largest seller and buyer of second-hand and rare CDs, records and DVDs in the northwest. The main axis is Oldham Street, and Thomas Street and parallel Edge Street are part-pedestrianised, with outdoor restaurant seating. There's repurposing going on wherever you look in Manchester, but the highest-profile project of recent years has been the conversion of the former Salford docks into a thriving leisure and media hub. After becoming redundant in the 1980s when ocean-growing ships grew too large for the Manchester Ship Canal, the area has been renovated into the hip Salford Quays — a mix of residential and commercial blocks, restaurants and retail, with water sports replacing the spots that were once taken up by ships. It's all located a 30-minute tram ride from downtown Manchester. MediaCity, in Salford Quays, is made up of devolved offices and studios of the BBC and ITV and the hulking, shiny Lowry arts centre, which has a handful of theatres and a gallery space showing some of its 400-strong collection of LS Lowry's artworks. Across the water, via a sculptural-looking footbridge, are two more key institutions: the Imperial War Museum North and ITV Studios, where you can tour the famous cobbled lanes of Coronation Street. Manchester United's Old Trafford dominates the skyline behind. Red or blue? Luckily, you won't have to choose as you can tour the stadiums of both Manchester City and Manchester United. Take a deep breath and revel in the glory as you walk down the players' tunnel and out on to the pitch — the only thing missing will be the roar of the fans. City's Etihad Stadium has the advantage of being walking distance from the centre, and it sits in a campus of sporting facilities that were originally created for the 2002 Commonwealth Games — look out for the velodrome and athletics track. Sit in the dugout and inspect the changing rooms and you'll find it's impossible not to be swept along by the cult of a big team. Frankly, this is a wild-goose chase, because there isn't really a centre to Manchester. It's a city of quarters, although there's a triumvirate of centres of sorts within walking distance of each other. The civic centre is St Peter's Square, dominated by the imposing Victorian gothic Town Hall. Then there's Piccadilly Gardens, the communications centre, with its bus and tram intersection and its patch of greenery with fountains. Finally, the commercial centre is the redeveloped Exchange Square, surrounded by flagship stores on one side and the quaint cottages of the Shambles and the cathedral on the other. • Best places for afternoon tea in Manchester• Best family hotels in Manchester Manchester's reputation as a host for large-scale live performances was partly based on the Manchester Arena, whose capacity for 21,000 made it the largest indoor arena in the UK until Co-Op Live came along. Opened in 2024, with room for 23,500 spectators, Co-Op Live also houses 32 bars. Of about 120 events held at the venue annually, some 100 are music, the rest are a mix of sports, comedy and family entertainment. Meanwhile, out beyond the Museum of Science and Industry on the banks of the Irwell is another new arts venue — Aviva Studios — in a signature building that looks a bit like a moon lander, for affordable live performances of all varieties. See the intricacy and ingenuity with which the new waterways and railways of the Industrial Revolution were interwoven at a basin in Castlefield, where the Rochdale and Bridgewater canals meet and are crossed by a fretwork of ribbed bridges bearing scurrying trains. The warehouses on the wharves here are mostly repurposed, some into bars and restaurants, but you can still spot where the barges were floated right inside. This new cheap transport had the effect of halving the price of coal (and therefore power) in the city, resulting in a massive increase in productivity. Meanwhile the National Trust have transformed the Castlefield Viaduct into a green 'sky garden' walkway similar to those in Paris and New York. The Science and Industry Museum is spread through former brick warehouses and a historic covered market, and you'll find a collection of spinning and weaving machines that triggered the Industrial Revolution (that still work today) at its core. Also worth seeing is one of the world's first railway stations, which dates back to the 1830s, and Stephenson's line that connected Manchester and Liverpool. Look up and note the stark contrast between Deansgate's repurposed Great Northern railway depot and the new skyscrapers of Deansgate Square looming behind while you're in the area; that's Manchester's past and future in one snapshot. They may happily coexist only 100 metres apart, but the gap between the Northern Quarter's Afflecks and the commercial district's Arndale Centre couldn't be wider. Afflecks — described as an emporium of eclecticism — is an indoor marketplace complete with hippy-trippy booths spread over several floors and reached through lurid-walled stairwells, and about 70 traders selling everything from crystals to retro monkey boots. The Arndale, on the other hand, is packed with 200 mass-market high street shops and big-name eateries, and is one of the largest shopping centres in the UK. In its heyday, Manchester's giant Royal Exchange played a significant part in the cotton trade. Today the Edwardian great hall has been reborn as a cultural hub with what looks like an alien spacecraft squatting inside. This seven-sided module, suspended from four enormous columns, showcases innovative theatre, while a studio theatre fills the space once occupied by the toilets. You'll find another example of repurposed trading places just down the road: the ethereal, light-filled Corn Exchange has retained its original Edwardian beauty and is now entirely occupied by a diverse range of restaurants. Manchester grew at a rapid pace during the 18th century, before being heavily bombed during the First and Second World Wars. While there's not much left from the early days, Chetham's Library, founded in 1653, is the oldest public library in Britain. It sprang to life as accommodation for the clergy of the pint-sized cathedral, located just across the way, before the philanthropist Humphrey Chetham turned it into the first public library in northern England. A young Friedrich Engels, an associate of Karl Marx, came here to study the unjust working conditions, releasing the appropriately titled The Condition of the Working Class in England in 1845. Thick sandstone walls, sloping oak floors, and antique volumes of vellum still carry the dust of the Industrial Revolution. Chetham's, which is in a music school, runs 75-minute tours Monday to Saturday. The smell of spare ribs and barbecue sauce is a dead giveaway that you're nearing Chinatown, whose main axes are Faulkner Street and George Street. These roads are lined with restaurants, food shops and karaoke bars, with a number of Japanese, Thai and Korean outlets too. It's more of a late-night district, as is its direct neighbour that runs alongside the Rochdale Canal — Manchester's buzzing Gay Village. Venture to the bar terraces in Canal Street, which vibrate with music and are proudly festooned with rainbow flags. From the front, this pillared portico just up the road from St Peter's Square looks dour and uncompromising. Inside it's far fresher, and has been expanded at the back with modern galleries — some of which have changing exhibitions. Climb the heavily ornamental stairway to see the core of the gallery's collection, with a lot of excellent pre-Raphaelite paintings. There are plenty of big-name brush masters on show, including Rossetti and Waterhouse but the charm of the collection lies in the less famous but beautifully observed canvases depicting the likes of lovers' tiffs and pompous society concerts. It's typical of Manchester's irreverence that the Albert Hall, a grade II listed former Methodist's Hall on Peter Street is now home to one of its most famous bohemian drinking holes: Albert's Schloss. Pilsner is shipped over from the Czech Republic each week for this Mancunian interpretation of a bierkeller, which often has live music. Just around the corner, under the arches of the former Central Station, refreshments are home-distilled and served in giant goblets at the home of Manchester Gin. Green spaces are few and far between in Manchester, but you can let little ones loose in the expansive Heaton Park — keep them entertained here with the boating lake, animal centre, treetop adventure and golf course. The more handsome Fletcher Moss to the south is partly laid out as a botanical garden and is in the sweeping tram-connected suburb of Didsbury, with shops, cafés and impressive musical scene connections: Factory Records — a key label for the Manchester band Joy Division and its spin-off, New Order — had its first offices here. Manchester's ubiquitous trams — part of the Bee Network — are by far the best way of whizzing around town. Frequent, reliable and clean, they snake along the city streets at an easy pace, allowing plenty of time to admire the changing cityscapes. The light blue line to Eccles runs out over the Manchester Ship Canal to MediaCity; the dark blue line runs out to the airport and passes through leafy Chorlton. Hop off here to explore a quirky left-leaning suburb rich in organic delis, independent bars and lifestyle stores. You'll soon see why musical icons such as Morrissey, Badly Drawn Boy and the Stone Roses lived here. • Best Manchester airport hotels• Best hotels in Manchester What are your favourite things to do in Manchester? Please share in the comments below
The Irish Sun
17 hours ago
- Business
- The Irish Sun
Man City sign biggest kit deal in history as £1BILLION Puma sponsorship eclipses Utd's Adidas contract
MANCHESTER CITY have signed a £1billion kit deal with Puma. The contract is the biggest in history, beating Real Madrid's £950million deal with Adidas. 2 Man City have agreed a £1bn deal with Puma Credit: Getty It eclipses rivals City began their partnership with Puma in 2019 for £650m. The new agreement will see the Prem giants collect £100m per season from the manufacturer for ten years. It comes despite City still being in the midst of a legal battle with the Premier League over their 115 charges. READ MORE IN FOOTBALL Like Erling Haaland's ten-year contract, the deal could be viewed as a vote of confidence regarding the outcome of that case. Ferran Soriano, the chief executive of City Football Group, said: 'We joined forces with Puma with the ambition to challenge ourselves and go beyond the expectations. 'We have achieved this and more over the last six seasons. 'Today's renewal and extension solidifies our relationship and projects it to an even brighter future.' Most read in Football BEST FREE BETS AND BETTING SIGN UP OFFERS 2 It is also one of the longest kit deals in the top flight. United's deal is also ten years while Emotional Jack Grealish spotted pouring heart out to beloved Man City fans after Oasis gig Puma is also a partner of the City Football Group clubs Melbourne City, Girona, Lommel, Mumbai City, Montevideo, Palermo, Bolivia, Bahia and Estac.
Metro
a day ago
- Sport
- Metro
Manchester fan, 20, admits slapping Jack Grealish after three word jab
A football fan who slapped Man City's Jack Grealish after the star called him a 'little, ugly wanker' has been banned from matches for three years. Alfie Holt, 20, pleaded guilty to a single count of assault on Grealish after an encounter at the Manchester Derby in April, a court heard. Prosecutor Shazia Aslam told the court Grealish was leaving the field after the Derby at Old Trafford, which was broadcast on Sky TV with a sell-out crowd. She said both sets of fans were very vocal and abusive. The court heard that as players left the field, heading for the tunnel, Holt stood very close by, shouting abuse at Man City players. Holt told police later that he had been drinking 'in town' with his dad before the game, before he began shouting abuse at football players, including Phil Foden, who ignored him. Wake up to find news on your club in your inbox every morning with Metro's Football Newsletter. Sign up to our newsletter and then select your team in the link we'll send you so we can get football news tailored to you. But it was the jeer of 'Knobhead!' at Grealish that prompted the verbal altercation. Grealish replied: 'You little, ugly wanker,' prompting Holt to 'flip' and slap the famous footballer. Grealish wasn't injured. Magistrates were shown a brief clip of the incident, which had no sound. Ms Aslam added: 'The defendant uses force against a player. Players are extremely vulnerable to this sort of conduct and need to be protected.' Holt, a Manchester United season ticket holder in the Stretford End, was also given a three-year Football Banning Order and was fined £120, with £85 costs and a surcharge of £48. The defendant told the court: 'I did not expect him to say what he said to me, and I have reacted. I regret it. That's it.' Melanie Winstantley, defending, said Holt had no previous convictions and had never been arrested before, so the incident was completely out of character for him. His Man Utd season ticket, which he has had for 12 years, had already been revoked, which is a 'significant punishment' to him. She added: 'He's admitted what he's done, he's owned what he's done. It's a very minor assault.' More Trending Ms Winstanley also said Grealish had 'doubled back' after going into the tunnel to speak to Holt. 'He didn't have to do that. It's not unusual for players and fans to engage in banter at football matches. I'm not trying to excuse the behaviour,' she added. Passing sentence, chairwoman of the magistrates' bench Jill Hodges told the defendant she accepted Holt had pleaded guilty and he appeared to regret his actions, but said there needs to be 'punishment and deterrence' for the behaviour. The court heard fines cannot be deducted from Holt's Personal Independence Payments, so his parents, with whom he lives, have agreed to pay them in full within 28 days. Get in touch with our news team by emailing us at webnews@ For more stories like this, check our news page. MORE: Three arrested after 'loving' father stabbed to death outside Knightsbridge casino MORE: Angry Trump fans burn their MAGA hats over Epstein files mystery MORE: Tenant left mountain of 3,000 beer cans in flat and only paid rent once
Leader Live
a day ago
- Sport
- Leader Live
Man Utd fan admits ‘slap' assault on Man City's Grealish
Alfie Holt, 20, pleaded guilty to a single count of assault on Grealish, who he said had called him a 'little ugly wanker', after the Manchester Derby in April, Manchester Magistrates' Court heard. Holt, a Manchester United season ticket holder in the Stretford End, was also given a three-year Football Banning Order and was fined £120, with £85 costs and a surcharge of £48. The defendant, of Haven Drive, Droylsden, Tameside, told the court: 'I did not expect him to say what he said to me and I have reacted. I regret it. That's it.' Shazia Aslam, prosecuting, told the court Grealish was leaving the field after the Manchester Derby at Old Trafford, which was broadcast on Sky TV with a sell-out crowd and was always a 'contentious affair.' 'Both sets of fans were very vocal, shouting abusive comments to rival players,' Ms Aslam said. The court heard that as players left the field, heading for the tunnel, Holt stood very close by, shouting abuse at Man City players. 'As the complainant, Jack Grealish, a Man City player, enters the tunnel area, he hears the defendant shouting comments towards him. He turns and walks towards him. Both have an exchange of words. 'As the complainant walks away, the defendant slaps the complainant across the face. There was no injury. He was arrested outside the stadium.' In a witness statement, Grealish told police he could not hear what the defendant was shouting due to the crowd noise, so he walked towards him and tried to engage in conversation and leaned in to speak to the defendant. He was still unable to hear, so he moved to walk away when he was slapped. After his arrest, Holt told police he had been drinking before the game 'in town' and went to the match with his father. He told police he was shouting abuse at Man City players, including Phil Foden, who ignored him. He then shouted, 'Knobhead' at Grealish, who reacted and a 'verbal altercation took place,' the court heard. Holt told police Grealish said to him: 'You little, ugly wanker,' and he 'flipped' and reached out and slapped the footballer. Magistrates were shown a brief clip of the incident, which had no sound. Ms Aslam added: 'The defendant uses force against a player. Players are extremely vulnerable to this sort of conduct and need to be protected.' Melanie Winstantley, defending, said Holt had no previous convictions and had never been arrested before, so the incident was completely out of character for him. His Man Utd season ticket, which he has had for 12 years, had already been revoked, which is a 'significant punishment' to him. She added: 'He's admitted what he's done, he's owned what he's done. It's a very minor assault.' Ms Winstanley also said Grealish had 'doubled back' after going into the tunnel to speak to Holt. She added: 'He didn't have to do that. It's not unusual for players and fans to engage in banter at football matches. I'm not trying to excuse the behaviour.' Passing sentence, chairwoman of the magistrates' bench Jill Hodges told the defendant she accepted Holt had pleaded guilty and he appeared to regret his actions, but there must be 'punishment and deterrence' for such behaviour. The court heard fines cannot be deducted from Holt's Personal Independence Payments, so his parents, who he lives with, have agreed to pay them in full within 28 days.
North Wales Chronicle
a day ago
- Sport
- North Wales Chronicle
Man Utd fan admits ‘slap' assault on Man City's Grealish
Alfie Holt, 20, pleaded guilty to a single count of assault on Grealish, who he said had called him a 'little ugly wanker', after the Manchester Derby in April, Manchester Magistrates' Court heard. Holt, a Manchester United season ticket holder in the Stretford End, was also given a three-year Football Banning Order and was fined £120, with £85 costs and a surcharge of £48. The defendant, of Haven Drive, Droylsden, Tameside, told the court: 'I did not expect him to say what he said to me and I have reacted. I regret it. That's it.' Shazia Aslam, prosecuting, told the court Grealish was leaving the field after the Manchester Derby at Old Trafford, which was broadcast on Sky TV with a sell-out crowd and was always a 'contentious affair.' 'Both sets of fans were very vocal, shouting abusive comments to rival players,' Ms Aslam said. The court heard that as players left the field, heading for the tunnel, Holt stood very close by, shouting abuse at Man City players. 'As the complainant, Jack Grealish, a Man City player, enters the tunnel area, he hears the defendant shouting comments towards him. He turns and walks towards him. Both have an exchange of words. 'As the complainant walks away, the defendant slaps the complainant across the face. There was no injury. He was arrested outside the stadium.' In a witness statement, Grealish told police he could not hear what the defendant was shouting due to the crowd noise, so he walked towards him and tried to engage in conversation and leaned in to speak to the defendant. He was still unable to hear, so he moved to walk away when he was slapped. After his arrest, Holt told police he had been drinking before the game 'in town' and went to the match with his father. He told police he was shouting abuse at Man City players, including Phil Foden, who ignored him. He then shouted, 'Knobhead' at Grealish, who reacted and a 'verbal altercation took place,' the court heard. Holt told police Grealish said to him: 'You little, ugly wanker,' and he 'flipped' and reached out and slapped the footballer. Magistrates were shown a brief clip of the incident, which had no sound. Ms Aslam added: 'The defendant uses force against a player. Players are extremely vulnerable to this sort of conduct and need to be protected.' Melanie Winstantley, defending, said Holt had no previous convictions and had never been arrested before, so the incident was completely out of character for him. His Man Utd season ticket, which he has had for 12 years, had already been revoked, which is a 'significant punishment' to him. She added: 'He's admitted what he's done, he's owned what he's done. It's a very minor assault.' Ms Winstanley also said Grealish had 'doubled back' after going into the tunnel to speak to Holt. She added: 'He didn't have to do that. It's not unusual for players and fans to engage in banter at football matches. I'm not trying to excuse the behaviour.' Passing sentence, chairwoman of the magistrates' bench Jill Hodges told the defendant she accepted Holt had pleaded guilty and he appeared to regret his actions, but there must be 'punishment and deterrence' for such behaviour. The court heard fines cannot be deducted from Holt's Personal Independence Payments, so his parents, who he lives with, have agreed to pay them in full within 28 days.
