Manchester

Few cities have shaped popular music like Manchester. From the post-punk of Joy Division and New Order and the jangle of The Smiths, through the baggy 'Madchester' scene of the Stone Roses and Happy Mondays that revolved around the legendary Haçienda nightclub, to the swagger of Oasis, the city produced a run of bands that defined British music. That heritage is everywhere for the curious visitor: music walking tours trace the venues and landmarks, record shops and vintage stores fill the Northern Quarter, the Manchester Craft and Design Centre and small venues keep the scene alive, and the city's clubs and gig venues — from intimate rooms to the huge Co-op Live and AO arenas — host a relentless calendar. The story of the Haçienda and Factory Records is woven into the fabric of the place. Whether you're a fan tracing the past or just out for a great night, music is central to Manchester's identity and its still-thriving nightlife.

Manchester is one of the great football cities, and even non-fans feel its pull. Manchester United, one of the most famous clubs in the world, plays at Old Trafford, the 'Theatre of Dreams', offering a museum and stadium tour; Manchester City, transformed into a global power, plays at the Etihad Stadium, also with tours; and a matchday in either is an unforgettable experience. In the city centre, the National Football Museum celebrates the sport's English roots and global game. Alongside the football, Manchester's Victorian heritage is magnificent: the soaring neo-Gothic Town Hall (under restoration but a landmark), the breathtaking John Rylands Research Library — a cathedral-like neo-Gothic temple of books — the grand Central Library rotunda, and the great warehouses and exchanges of the cotton boom, many now reborn as hotels, bars and apartments. The Manchester Cathedral and the medieval Chetham's Library (where Marx and Engels studied) add older layers. This blend of football passion and Victorian grandeur gives the city much of its character.

Manchester's creative heart is the Northern Quarter — a grid of red-brick streets that has become the city's hippest district, packed with street art and murals, independent boutiques and design shops, record stores, vintage-clothing emporia, craft-beer bars, third-wave coffee and some of the best independent food and nightlife in the city, anchored by Affleck's, a rambling indoor market of alternative stalls. To understand how Manchester became the world's first industrial city, head to Castlefield, where the canals, locks and towering railway viaducts of the world's first industrial canal basin survive amid converted warehouses and bars, and to the excellent Science and Industry Museum, set in the world's oldest surviving passenger railway station, which tells the story of cotton, steam and innovation. The People's History Museum charts the city's radical past — the Peterloo Massacre, the suffragettes (the Pankhursts were Mancunian), the trade-union movement — that also shaped the modern world. Together they reveal a city that changed history and reinvented itself.

A short tram ride from the centre, the regenerated docks of Salford Quays show modern Manchester at its most ambitious — the gleaming MediaCityUK, home to the BBC and ITV; the Lowry, a striking arts centre and theatre housing the work of the painter L. S. Lowry; and, across a footbridge, the dramatic Daniel Libeskind-designed Imperial War Museum North. Back in town, Manchester eats and drinks superbly: the legendary 'Curry Mile' in Rusholme for South Asian food, the buzzing bars and restaurants of Spinningfields and Deansgate, the food halls of Mackie Mayor and the markets, and a wave of acclaimed modern restaurants that have transformed the city's reputation. The nightlife is among Britain's best, spanning the Gay Village around Canal Street, the clubs and live venues, and countless pubs and bars. A young, diverse, sport-and-music-mad city with a warm, witty character, Manchester is also the gateway to the Peak District national park on its doorstep and the wider north. It's a place that rewards visitors with energy, culture and a genuine welcome.