Manchester remains Britain’s premier Northern city, the great cottonopolis, inland seaport and transport centre of the Industrial Revolution, cultural home of the Hallé Orchestra and Coronation Street, host to a wealth of thnic and religious groups from all over the world, vibrantly re-creating itself for the twenty-first century.  Within its boundaries are some of the most remarkable historic and cultural sites in the North of England, and some particularly unusual and enjoyable experiences for visitors.

This lecture sets the major sites of architectural and historic importance – Alfred Waterhouse’s Town Hall (1867), Edward Welby Pugin’s Monastery of St Francis, Gorton(1863), Basil Champneys’ John Rylands Library (1900) – alongside less prestigious but equally fascinating structures such as the Liverpool Road Station (1830), Watts’ Warehouse (1858) and the Victoria Baths, Chorlton-cum-Medlock (1906), and compares them with the best of modern British architecture in the city and its environs, including the Lowry Centre, Salford (Stirling Wilford/Michael Wilford & Partner, 2000) and the Imperial War Museum North (Daniel Libeskind 2002).

For background information about sites relevant to this lecture, please click here.