Art & culture

A growing literary community and reputation have led to a year-round calendar of book-based activities in Manchester, as well as an acclaimed Literature Festival each October. All four local universities run creative writing courses, bringing a wealth of new and established authors to the city: from new professor Jeanette Winterson at The University of Manchester’s Centre for New Writing to national Poet Laureate Carol Ann Duffy at Manchester Metropolitan University’s Writing School.

Professor of Creative Writing Winterson hosts public literary conversations at the Centre throughout the year, punctuated by readings from respected peers and emerging talent in both fiction and poetry. Over at MMU, readings and ‘in conversation’ evenings are held at both the International Anthony Burgess Foundation (often free) and the Royal Exchange Theatre, and the bookshop serving both universities, Oxford Road’s Blackwell, also stages its own events. City centre rival Waterstone’s, on Deansgate, hosts yet another year-round programme, featuring prominent literary names.

If that isn’t enough, the International Anthony Burgess Foundation runs a series of debates, readings, exhibitions and workshops from its appealing converted mill on Cambridge Street, where papers and artefacts belonging to the venerated Manchester novelist can also be seen. Innovation is central to experimental poetry night The Other Room, while the Poetry School runs workshops for aspiring bards at venues including the Cathedral.

With further writer events at the historic City and John Rylands Libraries, both on Deansgate, there’s no shortage of literary pursuits available in Manchester. So put that book down and get yourself out there!

Ancoats, just beyond the Northern Quarter across Great Ancoats Street, was the world’s first industrial suburb – once home to around 54,000 workers.  As industrialisation developed the area became a centre for Manchester’s new Irish community and also housed the city’s Little Italy, but it went into steep decline after the Second World War and almost all of its (often slum) Victorian housing has now been cleared.

Some of the city centre’s only houses remain on George Leigh and Anita (once ‘Sanitary’) Streets, however, and there are still plenty of mills, warehouses and other buildings of interest to see.  Highlights include including the Art Deco Daily Express Building, the city’s first municipal housing block Victoria Square, Murray’s Mills, St. Peter’s Church and the Crown and Kettle pub, with its famously intricate ceiling.

After years of increasing dereliction Ancoats was made a conservation area in 1989 and since then there have been several waves of regeneration, although much of this has been stalled during the financial downturn.  Despite new and re-developed offices and apartments and great art projects like Dan Dubowitz’s ‘Peeps‘ dotted around the area Ancoats has still not been integrated into the modern city centre, but its relative isolation makes it a fascinating place to wander and get a rounded impression of the city’s roots.

As the world’s first industrial city, Manchester boomed in the 19th century; its population quadrupling in the 50 years from 1800. But by the 1850s there was also a growing national movement against mechanisation, and the alienation from nature which mass production was perceived to have brought. In fine art the Pre-Raphaelite Brotherhood of Rossetti, Holman Hunt and Millais led the way, championing romanticised beauty and ‘art for art’s sake’ and calling for a return to pre-1500 aesthetics.

Initially funded by donations, and a leading municipal gallery since 1882, Manchester Art Gallery has a wonderful collection of works by the PRB, from Rossetti’s imposing Asarte Syriaca (modelled by his muse and lover, William Morris’s wife Jane) and Millais’ atmospheric Autumn Leaves to a collection of morality-infused paintings by Holman Hunt. A small, glowing version of his The Light of the World, depicting a kindly Christ symbolically knocking at the door, makes it obvious why this was one of Victorian Britain’s most popular Christian images.

One of the most famous paintings by PRB-predecessor and inspiration Ford Madox Brown, Work, was purchased by MAG back in the 1860s, and is still proudly displayed today (further pieces can be seen in the Town Hall’s Great Hall, where he painted 12 murals on the history of Manchester).  And the gallery is particularly strong on work by the second wave of Pre-Raphaelites, featuring classically inspired nymphs and goddesses by Burne Jones, Waterhouse, Leighton, Spencer Stanhope and Albert Moore. 

Victorian neo-Gothic is a signature architectural style in Manchester, and few examples beat the Town Hall. Built in 1877 it was designed by Alfred Waterhouse – also responsible for The University of Manchester – whose structure hugging the triangular site trumped the architectural competition.

The exterior should be viewed from Albert- and St. Peter’s Squares to fully appreciate its impact, and the scale of the 288-foot clock tower which was actually enlarged during construction. But as this is a working building many interior areas can also be accessed during office hours (please remember that events/weddings may be in progress).

Enter through the main entrance, passing statues of scientific pioneers John Dalton and James Joule and the Sculpture Hall – complete with cafe – on your right. Ascending to the first floor you’ll spot stylised bees, representing industry, in the mosaic floor and the names of former mayors in the glazed ceiling; and if you’re lucky will be able to peek at Pre-Raphaelite Ford Madox Brown’s murals of the city’s history in the Great Hall. Across the landing the Lord Mayor’s Parlour, Banqueting Room and Conference Hall are among the building’s most lavish rooms.

A formal tour is the only sure way to see the clock tower and internal courtyard, with the latter usually closed to the public. Shut off from modern life it offers an evocative glimpse of sooty Victorian Manchester – if you can’t get access be sure to take a peek through one of the corridors’ leaded windows.

Today Salford Quays is an appealing tourist destination, hosting The Lowry arts centre, the Imperial War Museum, an outlet shopping centre and MediaCityUK. But if you hop on a tram to the area why not try a psychogeographical approach and tune into what used to be Manchester Docks, once Britain’s third-largest port despite being 36 miles inland.

The Quays sit around Manchester Ship Canal, the world’s largest when built in 1894 to bypass the Port of Liverpool and bring the sea to Manchester. The audacious project took 17,000 men seven years but Manchester Docks were soon a whirlwind of imports and exports, as the first industrial estate – Trafford Park – developed next door. Business boomed until the mid-1960s but international shifts to too-wide container ships were devastating, and in 1982 the docks closed.

The housing, business and leisure facilities you’ll see today began to emerge when Salford’s council started redeveloping the deteriorating docks in the 1980s. A second wave of regeneration brought The Lowry, a public plaza, shops, offices and apartments in 2000, and the site soon beat 70 others to host the Imperial War Museum North.

These attractions may now be the main reason to visit the Quays but a little historical insight should help you spot glimpses of the docks’ bustling past: from the Art Deco Dock Office and stationary twin cranes to Detroit Bridge, once part of the cargo railway. The Lowry’s heritage trail of community artworks should help, too – ask for info at their information desk.