Tour Guiding in Manchester!

As a proud northern lad, I have a bit of a gripe with people believing the myth that the only place in the UK worth looking at is London. For this reason, I tend to promise that if anyone is visiting Manchester or Liverpool, I’d show them the local sights, as a free tour guide...

So, on Wednesday and Thursday of this week I went to meet up with a lovely lass called Carol Chen. She’s from Taipei, Taiwan and is currently in the UK after touring Europe. I met her whilst in Barcelona, and she was there the night I first made my offer, which (rather bravely considering the weather) she took me up on.

It was a freezing night in Manchester on Wednesday, and I headed up after work to show her round with absolutely no plan whatsoever on where to go. This was probably a good idea, as with Manchester you can wander round wherever you like and see things. Talk about winging it as a walking tour guide!

We met at St. Peters Square, where there’s currently a massive Christmas Fair on. There’s a few in Manchester at the moment, and I’d got confused and gone to another one, typical of me!
Anyway, when I finally met her and her friends, I decided to show her some of the sights down towards the M.E.N. Arena, which was packed full of music fans and ticket touts as the band Paramore were playing there that night.

Whilst walking down towards the M.E.N. I told her about the local architecture and a brief history of the area and its links back to Roman history. We walked around to the gothic Cathedral, then passed the giant screen where people gather to watch major sports events by the side of the (Manchester Wheel). We then went to the Triangle, where I spoke about the city’s history as a trade hub and the Triangle’s past history as the old Corn and Produce Exchange. In exactly the same area I showed them the Urbis Gallery and across from it the world famous Chetham’s School of Music.

Shortly after this we visited Victoria Station and I spoke for a short while about the history of the North West during the First World War and showed them the war memorial to rail workers who fell during the conflict, which still had the Armistice Day wreath’s there – a powerful experience for anyone appreciating the significance of such an event, even from an eastern culture.

On a slightly less sombre note, we set off via the Printworks entertainment complex and spoke about its more humble days as its name suggests. We walked towards the more arty and alternative heart of Manchester, Afflecks Palace. Though it was now closed as it was after 6PM, the face of the building and local sculptures spoke for themselves. Whilst there we traced our route back towards Picadilly Gardens, with the poetry written onto the pavements as entertainment (now sadly crumbling away) After visiting Picadilly gardens and the historical statues there, we headed down towards Chinatown, where we ended the tour for that night.

My payment for such a cultural tour; dinner at the Taiwu restaurant on Oxford Road. I was pretty much the only person who didn’t speak Mandarin in there. I had some amazing dishes, eaten in a traditional eastern way of chopsticks, rice bowl and a small plate, with a little something called Wuson Tea, all of which I had never had before. Talk about a mutual education!

Thursday's little excursion was just Carol and I, as her friends was resting. As I was in work that day, we just nipped to the Lowry Art Gallery, a stunning building and an even better theatre. I pointed out some architectural comparisons with other buildings, both locally and abroad, and we headed along Salford Quays appreciating the views and inspired local poetry written along the waterfront there.

The gallery was amazing, with the traditional works of Lowry and other exhibitions by Maggie Truding and an intimate photography exhibition by Steven Armand. Both were a visual feast from somewhere I had visited during its opening 10 years ago with a friend of mine, Kev Ratcliffe.

Unfortunately, by the time I’d got back into the city centre via the Metrolink tram system, it was time for me to leave and head home. No fancy dinner that day, though I did buy a few postcards of Lowry’s artwork.

Top Travel Tip; Buying Art

Buying art postcards is a cracking cheap way of making your own framed pieces of art without paying the price of a print. I bought my Lowry pieces for 60p, which is ridiculously cheap when compared to the print price of £35 each.