Quay contender
Certain areas of Britain have become known for their urban cool. Shoreditch is one, but arguably it has a contender in Manchester Quays.
The quays are the land and waterbased areas around the Ship Canal in Salford, now becoming a cultural and leisure hub.
Opened in 1894, the waterway links inland Manchester with the Mersey Estuary near Liverpool, but its industrial heyday was over by 1970.
When the quays was chosen as the site for the Imperial War Museum North (IWMN) its transformation was sealed.
In the past few the BBC moved into Media City Studios there and fans now camp outside the new Coronation Street set, hoping to catch a glimpse of the stars.
One of the best ways of seeing it all is to take to the water.
Several cruise companies, including City Centre Cruises, offer tours of the Ship Canal with commentary and very friendly staff. Boats set off past the shiny new buildings, before puttering towards the edge of Trafford Park and giving people a view of Manchester United’s impressive stadium.
Two essential visits are the IWMN and the Lowry Gallery.
I’m already a fan of London’s war museum of the same name, but its northern brother smashes any conception of what such a place should be like.
The first thing that greeted me was the remains of a car blown up by a suicide bomber in Baghdad in 2007.
The building, created by Daniel Libeskind, is designed to disarm you, with walls jutting out at jaunty angles into a vast exhibition space.
The reason becomes clear when a moving picture show is projected onto the walls detailing the experiences of those involved in conflict.
And what other museum offers a 100ft viewing tower, where you can see the ground through mesh under your feet? I bowled up to the lift and remembered too late that I hate heights.
The other must is the The Lowry art and entertainment complex which houses bars, a theatre and the gallery dedicated to LS Lowry and his famous industrial landscapes which always feature hunched workers.
You get the back story of how his art changed when he was forced to move from an affluent area to the slums – and nurse his dying mother.
This summer a complete re-display of the collection will be set up with more gallery space than ever before dedicated to the Salford artist. New works will be on loan and put on show. Many of the pieces haven’t been seen in public for years and the expanded exhibition – of 400 works – will highlight what life was like in Salford in the early 1900s.
The quays boast a selection of bars and restaurants to sit back and take stock, while The Lowry Outlet offers discounted shopping, when you need a little change from industrial culture.