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Photo: Richard Rogerson, CC BY-SA 2.0 via Wikimedia Commons
Cathedral Yard (Visitor Centre at 10 Cateaton Street, around the corner). Cathedral M-F 8AM-7PM, Sa 8AM-5PM, Su 8:30AM-7:30PM, check website for service times and events; Visitor Centre is open M-Sa 10AM-4:30PM, Su 11:30AM-4PM. One of the few surviving medieval buildings in Manchester, the cathedral is a beautiful, dark Gothic building inside and out. It has a modern interactive Visitor Centre built around the excavations of the medieval 'Hanging Bridge' with an excellent licensed restaurant and gift shop. Entry to all attractions is free. Gamers may recognise the cathedral from its controversial setting in the video game Resistance: Fall of Man.
Manchester Cathedral, formally the Cathedral and Collegiate Church of St Mary, St Denys and St George, in Manchester, England, is the mother church of the Anglican Diocese of Manchester, seat of the Bishop of Manchester and the city's parish church. It is on Victoria Street in Manchester city centre and is a grade I listed building.
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Library M-F 9AM-12:30PM, 1:30-4:30PM, closed Bank Holidays, call in advance; School is closed to general public. Chetham's is an independent private school of music and public library housed in the medieval priests' college next to the Cathedral. The library is the oldest public English library in the world. It is possible to look around without an appointment, but if you want to take a look at any of the collection, you will need to arrange this with the librarian beforehand.
Based in the visually striking glass sloping Urbis building designed by Ian Simpson Architects. England's only national museum for football (aka soccer) is spread over six floors. Museum café near exit. Admission ticket prices lower if booked on line.
Attraction opening times vary. Originally the home of Manchester's newspaper offices, the Printworks is now a covered street where it's night time all day long. It is the home of several well-known restaurants including Hard Rock café Manchester (the only English Hard Rock outside of London) and drinking establishments, as well as a large Vue cinema, home of Manchester's IMAX screen.
Concert Hall associated with Chetham's School of Music. Predominantly Music; Classical, Folk, Jazz
The neo-classical Royal Exchange was the commercial heart of Manchester's and therefore the world's cotton trade. The main trading hall, essentially a neo-Roman basilica, was at one time the largest commercial room in the world. It fell into disuse in the 1960s, but was rescued in the 1970s by the restoration of the building and the addition of an ultra-modern theatre in-the-round for Sir Robert D.H. Scott's '69 (now Royal Exchange) theatre Company. It stands in the centre of the main trading floor, squatting like an alien invader's spaceship, but is actually supported on the hall's load bearing columns. Ill-disposed members of the audience sitting in the theatre's surrounding on-stage banquette seats are well-placed to trip the actors up physically. Extensive wine merchant cellars have now been converted into a shopping centre and the wings surrounding the theatre hall contain offices and Barristers' chambers. Pop in during the day for a coffee or something stronger at the tranquil and elegant licensed cafe in the main hall: the entrance is up the stairs in St. Ann's Square or on Cross Street. As well as the wonderfully-restored interior and three dramatic coloured-glass domes, you can admire the trading board, which still shows the price of cotton around the world on the last day of trading in 1969. There is also a small, expensive craft shop inside.
The largest indoor arena in Europe (21,000 capacity) hosts most of the world's most famous music and comedy acts, plus theatre and international boxing.