MANCHESTER
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DISTANCE FROM LONDON: 2 hours 10 mins. by train
Finneston Crane
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MANCHESTER FOR FREE
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JUST 50KM UP the M62 motorway – or a 50-minute rail journey away – Liverpool’s noisy neighbour, Manchester, makes a strong claim for being Britain’s second city (though the Brummies of Birmingham would disagree). Known as ‘Cottonopolis’ in the 19th century, when its textile products accounted for around half of Britain’s exports, Manchester bathes in its rich industrial heritage. The compact city centre is strewn with majestic Victorian-era relics, including the monumental neo-Gothic town hall and the palazzoesque Manchester Art Gallery. Weather-beaten mills and warehouses have been transformed into a raft of bars, eateries and cultural gems, with several overlooking the canals that once ferried goods across the city. Manchester’s coolest district is the Northern Quarter, an uber-trendy hive of alternative clothes shops, hipster hangouts and gourmet dining spots, as well as second-hand record stores and live music haunts. While the Mancunian gigging scene has dipped since the 1980s and 90s, when New Order, the Smiths and the Stone Roses fuelled the psychedelic Madchester period, you can still imbibe good live music every night, with everything from up-and-coming house DJs to Oasis tribute acts.
MUSEUM OF SCIENCE AND INDUSTRY: MOSI to Mancunians, this brilliant museum – fringed around the world’s first passenger railway station - stocks vintage locomotives, steam-powered mill wheels and colourful textile displays dating back to Manchester’s industrial pomp.