Manchester Directory

Free contemporary visual art gallery in Castlefield. Small space, consistently excellent programming and strong support for emerging artists.

Manchester’s main public library with a circular reading room. Recently renovated, free to enter, hosting events and archives on St Peter’s Square.

The only gallery in Europe dedicated to Chinese and East Asian contemporary art. Free exhibitions on Thomas Street in the Northern Quarter.

The oldest public library in the English-speaking world, founded 1653. Medieval buildings where Marx and Engels studied together. Tours available.

Young people’s theatre championing new writing, diverse voices and experimental work from emerging artists. Recently renovated space on Oxford Road.

Restored Victorian home where Elizabeth Gaskell wrote North and South and other major novels. Period rooms, gardens and literary events on Plymouth Grove.

Manchester’s centre for international contemporary art, theatre and film. Free gallery, two theatres, five cinema screens and a bookshop on First Street.

Free war museum in Daniel Libeskind’s striking aluminium building at Salford Quays. War told through personal stories and the powerful Big Picture Show.

Free neo-Gothic masterpiece on Deansgate housing rare books and manuscripts including fragments of the Gutenberg Bible. Manchester’s most interior.

The best free gallery in Manchester city centre. Pre-Raphaelites, decorative arts, contemporary exhibitions across three floors on Mosley Street.

Working studios for artists and makers in a converted Victorian fish market. Buy ceramics, jewellery and prints direct from creators in the Northern Quarter.

Recently renovated free museum on Oxford Road. Stan the T-Rex, live vivarium, world cultures galleries and hands-on exhibits for families.

Free national museum of football in the iconic Urbis building. Interactive exhibits covering the entire game, from grassroots to World Cup finals.

Emmeline Pankhurst’s former home where the suffragette movement began. Free museum on Nelson Street — a small building with world-changing history.

Free museum of democracy, rights and working people’s history. Home to an extraordinary collection of trade union banners on the banks of the Irwell.

Georgian subscription library from 1806 with a beautiful reading room, regular literary events and a bar. Still lending books on Mosley Street.

Theatre-in-the-round inside Manchester’s most beautiful Victorian building.

Theatre-in-the-round housed inside a futuristic glass pod suspended within the grand Victorian Cotton Exchange. One of the most extraordinary theatre spaces in Britain.