MANCHESTER UNITED
The city’s quirky charm and irrepressible spirit shine on despite tragedy in England
FEISTY, passionate and brimming with spirit, Manchester showed its character when its denizens came together after May’s sickening terrorist attack at a concert. The capital of northern England is not a place you can keep down for long — its proud heritage, industrious creativity and distinctively experimental sense of cool will always burst through. Mancunians, as they’re called, are a warm, witty bunch. And Manchester’s a relentlessly enjoyable city in which to cultivate the resilience we all need right now.
FACTORY LIFE
It’s as easy as boarding Virgin Atlantic, which flies direct from JFK to Manchester from $740 roundtri. Here are six ways to get a dose of northern soul.
SOCCER SUPERSTARS
Manchester is indisputably one of the world’s great soccer hotbeds — although it’s called football in these parts, thank you very much. Getting tickets for both Manchester United ( ManUtd.com) and Manchester City ( Man City.com) home games during the season between August and May can be a tough ask, but both run engrossing stadium tours. Shell out $23 for a jaunt around United’s Old Trafford ground, which covers history, spectacle and behind-the-scenes insight. The free National Football Museum ( NationalFootballMuseum.com) is also great fun. It has plenty of geeky wormholes for true fans, sprinkled with interactive challenges for the less obsessed. These include sweat-inducingly energetic tests of goalkeeping reflexes and the chance to play commentator over classic footage.
Manchester’s strongest suit, heritage-wise, is industrial. Handsome red-brick cotton mills and warehouses still dot its center, albeit now converted into mini-malls, offices and apartments. The enormous Museum of Science and Industry ( MSIManchester.org.uk) covers the city’s gifts to the world — from cotton to computers — with free entry. The also gratis People’s History Museum ( PHM.org.uk), concentrates on the political upheaval of the Industrial Revolution. Protests for the right to vote, campaigns for better working conditions and the union movement are presented in the context of British and international democracy.
GREAT PLATES
Now for the fun bits. The Northern Quarter is Manchester’s gleefully inventive, fiercely independent and eternally lively neighborhood. Afflecks Palace ( Afflecks.com), a multi-floor cross between a department store and a market, sums up the area best. It’s mildly chaotic and goes from grungy to goth, then cutesy to country, within a few steps. The restaurant and bar scene is similarly all over the place, albeit with a leaning towards globe-spanning cheap eats. Modern British food at The Northern Quarter Restaurant and Bar ( TNQ.co.uk) includes seared pigeon, poached duck egg and gin-cured salmon, whipped up along with a produce tour of the UK. Meanwhile, Bakerie ( BakerieMCR.com) focuses on sandwiches and stews with sample-sized wines.
IN THE PUB
Manchester’s drinking soul lies in its fantastic old pubs. The Briton’s
Protection ( Facebook. com/BritonsProtection) is a classic 19th-century throwback, with wood paneling galore and an intimidatingly long line of real ales on tap. Farther north, the Marble Arch ( Facebook. com/TheMarbleArch) is a blaze of Victorian tiling, and acts as the flagship for Manchester’s top craft brewery.
TOP TUNES
The Smiths, New Order, Joy Division, Oasis and the Stone Roses are among the acts that launched here, and New Manchester Walks ( NewManchester Walks.com) runs $10 walking tours around key sites, such as the record shop Morrissey worked in and legendary (if now defunct) venues such as the Haci--
enda and the Boardwalk. To seek out the next generation of talent, mid-sized Gorilla ( This Is Gorilla. com) — in the rapidly redeveloping creative hub around the Oxford Road train station — mixes up established artists and upand-comers.
SLEEPS WITH A STORY
The Midland (from $172; QHotels.co.uk) is an archetypal old dame where Charles Rolls first met Henry Royce before creating their iconic car franchise. Then there’s the Radisson Blu Edwardian (from $248; RadissonBluEdwardian.com/Manchester) in the former Free Trade Hall, where Charles Dickens tried his hand at acting, Winston Churchill gave speeches and Bob Dylan got called Judas for playing electric guitar.