How the Industrial City of Manchester Turned into a Top Travel Destination

 Welcome to manchester – the northern industrial city, that's probably most wellknown for its football or for the fact that it has produced musical legends like oasisand the stone roses, but the city's industrial heritage means it'snot exactly famous for it's beauty and therefore isn't usually on everyone's travel. Bucketlist, however, it's the only uk city to be namedone of the places to be in 2023 by both lonely planet and national geographic. I'm here today to find outif.

That's really the case I'll be checking out some of the places, mentionedby lonely planet and national geographic, as well as some mancunian institutions. So let's get going, I'm starting out with a wander through theancoats district – which was once the beating heart of the city's industry. Manchester is famous for being the first industrialisedcity in the world and was the uk's leading producer of cotton and textiles during the industrial revolution.

Nowadays, ancoats is one of the coolest districtsin, the city, with lots of up and coming restaurants, cafes and bars. Manchester has had somewhat of a postpandemicrevival with lots of exciting new projects and openings like the castlefield viaducthere, which is now a high line city park. The park is built on an old steel railway viaduct, with the aim of creating more green space in the city. It's a really interesting example of how manchester's new developments pay homage to the city's industrial heritage, both lonely planet and national geographicmentioned, the development of manchester's jewish museum as a reason to visit the city manchester's jewish museum is another recently developed building.

So, let's go check it out in 2021, the museum reopened with a buildingtwice the size as before, it's attached to an old synagogue which hasalso been refurbished. I'm meeting alex cropper to find out why shethinks the museum is so important to the city. It's really important in a city like manchester to tell the diversity story.

It's a city that is constantly changingand who's living here and every wave of migrants that have arrivedin the city have changed it and made an impact and added richness and culture and colour to the space. And so it's really important that buildingslike this. To tell that story, and I'd love it if there was a building likeus representing all the different community groups in manchester - and I think it's a big part of who the city is today and our gallery is full of stories of youknow from the 19th century, but Also from people living in manchester today and makingan impact in the city right now tell me a bit about the redevelopment of the jewish museum here.

Yeah so there's been the jewish museum, herein manchester since 1984, and that was just the synagogue building and for a long time the museum team herewanted to expand and knew they could do so much more if we had more space and so we reopened in 2021. With this new extensionattached to the old synagogue building - and we got this gallery was stood in today, so we could tell the stories about manchester's jewish communities. We got our cafe, which is a really importantpart of our museum experience, because it's not just a place to get a butty at the end of your visit.

It really is part of an experience where thefood is part of the narrative we're telling about the people who arrived here in the cityand, the traditions and cultures they brought with them, and you know we're stood on a map here. We're talking about red bank where the jewishcommunity settled you know generations ago, red bank is an area. Now is completely changing. I mean revitalised, so it's nice to be part of that experience as the museum to be one of the cultural attractions in this area.

That's part of that development, since food is such an important part of themuseum, let's try some, I go for a classic shakshuka and vegan kischke and it's delicious manchester is one of europe's fastest growingcities, but it's seen even more redevelopment than usual since the pandemic. There seem to be innovative projects being set up all over the city. This big white building over here is underconstruction right now, so we can't get any closer, but it's set to open in june as a majorart space and cultural hub, there seems to be a bit of a running jokewith the locals that the country is low on cranes, Because they're all here in manchester, the city's development hasn't just been aboutnew buildings. Creating more green spaces has been at the heart of the city's growth.

Mayfield park is manchester's first ever citycentre public park, and it was designed as an urban escape. You can see that they really made an effort to preserve manchester's industrial parts. In the midst of this huge, beautiful, green space, unique to the city, I guess, okay, I have to check this out.

This is definitely made for people smaller than me. Let's go that was actually much scarier than I anticipated all right. Let the nausea begin. Oh, I actually feel sick, I'm getting too old for this kind of thing.

Okay, let's get serious again time for some more culture band on the wall is manchester's oldestlicensed, music venue and it just recently reopened again last year after undergoingsome major refurbishments, manchester has always had a thriving culturescene, especially when it comes to music. I'm meeting santana guérout to find out moreabout how the city shaped the music scene here band on the wall puts on eclectic, performancesfrom artists from all over the world like this ukrainian folk quartet, or this british folk, rock and reggae fusion band music in manchester is obviously – you've got some huge names like stone roses: oasis the smiths like there's that history here. Why do you think manchester has been such a hotspot for music? It's always been liketrying to redefine itself lots of diy things happening.

I think that's wherethe music came from and also the influences that came into the city, so we've always had quite a big immigrational influx so from the irish influx back in the days to yeah to the south asian influx to the jamaican influx. So there's always been kind of something goingon in manchester which influenced the music, and I think you can hear it. I think thereforethe great music that came out and the great artists that came out of manchester.

Can you tell me a little bit about the way that band on the wall has developed over the last few years? Obviously it's a mancunian institution, but how has it developed, I think in the 1940s or 1930s we've had alandlord that tried to get the space used as much as possible, so used to put the bandliterally on the wall in order to have more dance floor and more People in the venue, so that's where the name comes from smart move. Yes, absolutely so we've been here for some time as well. Our first refurbishment was in 2009 openedup to a 340 cap, and now last year we did another expansion into the cocozza and are now a 500 capacity and are running pretty much every day. How do you see the future of music in the city forever? Growing? We've got loads and loads of great venues.

We've got a pool of absolutely amazing artists, still redefining itself all the time and yeah absolutely still working on allthe local artists as well to bring them out of manchester manchester has been named like the place to be this year. It's been the only uk city to be named asone of the must visit spots in the world. Why do you think that is? We've got loads of entertainment, not just music, but we've got music. We've got wonderful, restaurants, bars, pubs, clubs, you've got football.

There is a wonderful greenery, you've got the canals. You've got a littlebit of everything for each taste and yes, I mean I moved here. 13 years agoand was supposed to only stay for six months. A trip to manchester wouldn'tbe complete without visiting one of city's famous craft beer bars some of the finest craft beer in the worldis brewed right here in manchester.

So a trip to the marble arch inn seems likethe perfect end. To my day, very good they've got some seriously wacky flavours on offer. Peanut butter and cacaoimperial stout smells like chocolate.

Amazing. I can smell the ginger before you taste it. You need to try yeah I'll.

Try this one thanks! So much absolutely. Would you like a pint yeah, go on? Thank you and cheers welcome to manchester. Thank you.

So is the beer that you guys have here? Is it all locally brewed? The brewery did initially start in the back room of the pub where the kitchen is now in just a very, very tiny units, but as popularity and demand grew, we needed a bigger premises. So we then moved to a railway arch, just aroundthe corner from the pub which was quite pioneering in a way because half the breweries in manchesterare operating out of a disused railway arch, but we were the first to do it. Do you feel like there's quite a lot of interestin craft beer from everyone, or do quite a few? People just want to come and sit in apub and have a pint and that's what they go for.

Marble is in a really unique position. Whereit's sort of toes the line between the modern craft and the traditional, so the two sides of the coin in manchester'sbrewing scene, where there are a handful of breweries that have been owned by the samefamily for generations. They go back over 100 years and they will stick to like thevery traditional english styles of beer. We have the newer emerging trends, the craftones that will focus on really big hoppy, ipas or imperial stouts, and all of that we at marble do both well.

I have to say I've beenpleasantly surprised by manchester. It might not be as beautiful as some othercities but there's definitely a vibe and an atmosphere here that a lot of other places just don't have, and if the alternative scene is more yourthing manchester is definitely the city for you.

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