For a snapshot of Manchester’s heritage, start in St. Peter’s Square. Here, you can gaze upon the Pantheon-inspired dome of Manchester Central Library, and the Edwardian baroque grandeur of the Midland — the hotel where Mr. Rolls and Mr. Royce reputedly agreed to team up. A cross marks the site of the long-razed St. Peter’s Church; a statue of Emmeline Pankhurst pays tribute to the leader of the suffragettes.
The past is both obvious and hidden in this ordinary-seeming pocket of the city: ”We’re standing upon dead people, whose bones are being rattled by the trams,” explains Jonathan Schofield, an editor-at-large at Manchester Confidential who runs his own guided tours, to our group of travel journalists. Long-forgotten graves — the vaulted crypt of St. Peter’s Church — were discovered during tramline construction.
Standing in this historic square, I can also see something unexpected, shiny and new, not far from the yesteryear architecture: four sleek, skyline-transforming towers, one of them taller than anything else in Manchester. Sprouting on what was essentially nothing (a former parking lot), the highrises are the swanky Deansgate Square apartments and the most conspicuous sign of the city’s rapid growth.
Manchester has shape-shifted many times before, evolving from a Roman fort and settlement to the world’s first industrial city — a grimy, overpopulated hub of textile mills, nicknamed “Cottonpolis,” during the Industrial Revolution. (A permanent gallery at the Science + Industry Museum details how cotton, and exploitative labour, made the metropolis rich.)
A city in decline by the post-industrial ’80s and ’90s, today Manchester is again in the midst of massive change. People are moving into the core, including a younger generation and ex-Londoners wanting more affordable homes. “It’s remarkable, really. About 25, 30 years ago, there were probably 400 people living in the city centre. Now, with all the (new) residences, there’s about 100,000,” says Schofield.
New destinations — spanning arts and culture, dining and entertainment, and rare green space — are springing up all over. Anticipation is high for the Harry Styles-backed Co-op Live, which will be the U.K.’s largest indoor arena when it opens next year — fitting for a city whose music legends are too many to adequately list here (for starters: the Smiths, Joy Division, Oasis).
Old warehouse buildings have morphed into offices, studios and design-conscious boutique hotels, like the Alan, which opened last year. What was once the city’s most squalid factory-filled quarter, Ancoats, is on the cool list for its stylish bars and splurge-y restaurants, including Mana, the city’s first Michelin-starred spot in more than 40 years.
Industrial sites are being wholly reimagined. DieCast, which debuted its first phase this month, has remade a metalwork factory into a sprawling venue for dining, dance-partying and Insta-friendly frozen daiquiris. Similarly, Escape to Freight Island has turned a disused train depot into a jumbo food and drink hall. At the entrance, I notice Mancunian poet Argh Kid’s description of his town, writ large: “A haven for heathens, hoodies and hipsters, hijabis and Hebrews, high brow intellectuals and however-you-sexuals … It’s home to all.”
Next door, the restored River Medlock, until recently hidden under a concrete culvert, snakes through Mayfield Park, Manchester’s first new city park in a century. The once-derelict area is now a kid-welcoming landscape, dotted with trees and wildflowers. It’s not the only new project to green a once-industrial patch: the Castlefield Viaduct has turned a 330-metre-long, Victorian-era steel railway bridge into a little urban park (à la New York’s High Line).
But by far the buzziest opening of the moment is the home of Factory International, which organizes the Manchester International Festival (MIF). Named Aviva Studios, it’s a landmark that has taken nearly 10 years and a fortune: more than £210.8 million. The site is just one part of the St. John’s redevelopment, a whole new neighbourhood in the Castlefield conservation area. The arts venue soft-launched in June, at the start of this year’s MIF.
“We’ve all backed this place because Manchester is a city with scale and ambition and a history of innovation. But it’s not a city that dwells in the past, however illustrious that past may have been. It’s a forward-looking city,” Darren Henley, chief executive of Arts Council England, explains to the global media gathered to preview the venue.
The vision is that Factory International will be a catalyst for change, creating jobs and economic opportunities and, of course, luring tourists from all over the world. Totalling roughly 143,700 square feet, it will host everything from major exhibitions to large-scale concerts. Its public spaces, on the banks of the River Irwell, will liven up the emerging neighbourhood with music, markets and more.
Factory International’s official ribbon-cutting will take place in October, but if you can get there this summer, you’ll catch the inaugural draw, “Yayoi Kusama: You, Me and the Balloons.” Running until Aug. 28, this is the beloved Japanese artist’s largest exhibition of inflatable sculptures, curated to show off the enormity of the warehouse — polka-dotted tendrils extending toward the 69-foot-high ceiling, gargantuan cartoonish characters peering down.
Though the Manchester International Festival calls this new building home, the biennial isn’t confined inside its walls. This year’s programming stretched across venues and also encouraged arts enthusiasts to get outside and see the city, sometimes in whimsical ways.
Take “The Find” by Ryan Gander, an invitation to explore in the form of a treasure hunt. The British artist and self-described amateur philosopher scattered 200,000 gleaming coins in mystery spots across the city centre, challenging everyone to search high and low. Custom-minted with wisdom (“Just listen,” “Your silence is louder than their raised voice”), they’re mini collectible artworks.
I assume it’s a quest with unlikely success, but by my trip’s end, I’ve chanced upon one, two, three, four — coins placed here and there, on a ledge, in the corner of a windowsill. It’s a too-obvious metaphor, but I take the point: Manchester has gems to discover, more than you may expect, if you keep your eyes open.
Wing Sze Tang travelled as a guest of VisitBritain and Marketing Manchester, which did not review or approve this article.
If you go
How to get there: Air Transat operates direct flights from Toronto to Manchester (about seven hours). Manchester is also an easy train trip from London, with the quickest options taking about two hours.
Where to dine: Higher Ground, one of the city’s most anticipated restaurants when it finally opened this year, is already earning awards for its British bistro fare spotlighting seasonal ingredients. For an excellent take on the traditional meat pie, head to the casual Great North Pie Co., also an award winner. Choose from fillings like 14-hour braised beef and ale, or roast chicken and mushroom, served with optional (but actually essential) gravy. To cap your night, sip a cocktail while admiring the heritage setting at Refuge, the glamorous bar inside the Kimpton Clocktower Hotel.
What else to do: The many free cultural attractions include the Manchester Art Gallery, the Whitworth Art Gallery and Manchester Museum, the city’s flagship museum, which reopened in February after a £15-million redevelopment. Especially unique is the museum’s new South Asia Gallery, devoted to stories from the diaspora, created with 30 diverse co-curators from the South Asian community. Fans of street art will see plenty in the city, especially in the trendy Northern Quarter.
