Manchester might not be high on many people’s list but if you’re flying all the way to London, a short train trip can take you to the United Kingdom’s second biggest city where you can easily spend a few relaxing days shopping, clubbing and visiting museums and art galleries.
The Northern quarter is filled with retro fashion stores, well curated op-shops, and some truly amazing record stores. The city’s hipster suburb is filled with great places to eat from long established, and very affordable curry houses to creatively named new establishments offering pulled pork and macaroni cheese sandwiches.
Music is a big part of Manchester’s history, this is the home of The Smiths, New Order, Happy Mondays and Take That originated from the city as well! Spending some time in the city’s bars and music venues is an essential part of any trip.
Manchester has a vibrant gay scene with the popular Canal street gay village offering a multitude of gay bars and clubs to visit. Spread over two blocks Canal Street offers a variety of bars, restaurants and hangouts. More than one evening can be lost to bar hopping from one venue to the next. There’s well over 20 different LGBTIQ spots to visit.
For many LGBTIQ people Manchester has been brought to life through the creative work of Russell T Davies. In the late ‘90s Davies used his native Manchester and Canal Street as the setting for the original British version of ‘Queer as Folk’ and recently he’s used the city as a backdrop for his dual series ‘Cucumber’ and ‘Banana’.
While there actually is no club Babylon on Canal Street, the bars and clubs are much smaller than the fictional mega-club, you can however visit the building with was used as the exterior of Babylon in the TV series. Its home to club Cruz 101. Pretending you’re a cast member in ‘Queer as Folk’ is hard to resist.
Also easy to find is the Northern quarter is Adelphi House, the building used as the warehouse home of Henry, Freddie and Dean in ‘Cucumber’ and ‘Banana’.
Manchester’s high street is filled with fashion stores and all the big department chains and you can easily spend a whole day shopping. Compared to the hustle and bustle of London’s Oxford Street shopping in Manchester is quite a relaxing experience.
The city is also home to a wide variety of art galleries, libraries and dozens of museums. Manchester’s Central Library is the biggest in the UK and recently underwent a major redevelopment and Chetham’s Library is believed to be the oldest library in the country.
For more info head to www.visitmanchester.com
Graeme Watson
