NORTHWEST ENGLAND Redesign and Bloodygoodmusic:Lookandlisten Foryourself
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© Lonely Planet Publications 554 lonelyplanet.com Northwest England 555 0 20 km NORTHWEST ENGLAND 0 12 miles Lake District To Carlisle (35mi) Tebay National Park Forest Hall Northwest England Reeth Thwaite Hawkshead Ravenglass Windermere Kendal Sedbergh Newby Hawes Bridge Dentdale Aysgarth A595 CUMBRIA Yorkshire Britain’s industrial heartbeat thumped loudest in the northwest of England, which may be Dales Kirkby National Park Grange- M6 NORTH a fact of great fascination to historians and gadget boffins, but it’s hardly an invitation to Ulverston over- Lonsdale YORKSHIRE Sands visit; after all, what could there possibly be of enduring interest in jam-packed conurbations Arnside Dalton- Horton-in- and the heaving hulks of the industrial past? Ingleton Ribblesdale To Douglas, in-Furness Carnforth Isle of Man A65 Barrow-in- Morecambe (42mi) Furness Bay Stainforth Crammed into the relatively tight confines are a couple of the most exciting cities in Britain, (See Inset) Grassington Morecambe Settle Malham a picture-postcard whose rich layers of history are revealed in its multitiered architecture and Heysham Lancaster the most eye-popping, stomach-turning rollercoaster we’ve ever been dizzy on. Oh, and the Long Preston 54ºN LANCASHIRE Forest of Bolton birthplace of the world’s best-ever band, bar none. Life, music, history and hedonism. And Bowland le Abbey 3ºW Dunsop b ib Bridge Slaidburn R for those eager for a bit of respite from the concrete pawprint of man, there’s some of the Newton Gisburn Skipton Preesall A59 Irish Fleetwood most beautiful countryside in England. Not bad for a region that changed the world. Whitewell Sawley Earby Sea Garstang Waddington Chipping Cross Hill Cleveleys A6 Ribble Clitheroe Keighley That’s right, for the northwest was the very place where the Industrial Revolution was Isle of Man Valley 0 10 km Hurst Pendle Hill Colne Blackpool Green (558m) 0 6 miles Longridge Nelson Haworth born and raised into the overwhelming force of capitalism; where, in Manchester, the world’s Whalley Bride Ribchester first modern city was conceived; and where the endless possibilities of the Age of Reason Padiham BRADFORD Irish Bellaugh Kirkham Burnley Sea Preston were put through their original paces. Ramsey Warton M65 Hebden Accrington Bridge Isle Blackburn A646 Peel of Man Lytham Halifax St Anne's Rawterstall These days, however, the northwest is all about looking forward, about being the region Douglas Leyland Darwen Haslingden Todmorden Port Bacup CALDERDALE that leaves its imprint on the 21st century in the way that it did for the last couple. A tall Erin A565 Castletown Southport Chorley Ramsbottom Littleborough order, no doubt, but the region knows a thing or two about mighty achievements, urban M61 54ºN M6 Rochdale KIRKLEES redesign and bloody good music: look and listen for yourself. To Douglas, Ainsdale Bury Isle of Man Bolton Marsden (See Inset) SEFTON Ormskirk Formby Farnworth A62 Oldham Wigan NORTHWEST ENGLAND Crosby Leigh Manchester HIGHLIGHTS Kirkby A580 Bootle St Helens Wallasey M62 Hyde Exploring the stunning Imperial War Liverpool Liverpool M57 M60 Glossop Bay Stockport Hoylake Warrington Altrincham Museum North ( p560 ) in Manchester Isle of Man Birkenhead Port Sunlight M Widnes M56 Walking in Roman footsteps around Ches- Dee er se Runcorn Estuary y Tatton Wilmslow ter’s city walls ( p568 ) Prestatyn Heswall M53 Speke Park Whaley Rhyl Liverpool Manchester Bridge Airport Knutsford Airport Getting queasy on the rollercoasters at NORTHWEST ENGLAND Blackpool Frodsham Holywell Blackpool’s Pleasure Beach ( p583 ) Ellesmere Northwich Buxton Flint Port Macclesfield Exploring the Isle of Man ( p585 ) – not just A55 Manchester A556 Queensferry Middlewich Peak District for tax-dodgers and petrol-heads Holmes Chapel National Liverpool Denbigh Chester Winsford Park Mold Experiencing the simply marvellous World WALES Tarporley Congleton CHESHIRE A523 A53 Museum Liverpool ( p574 ) Sandbach Chester Ruthin Leek Catching the ferry across the Mersey ( p582 ): Broxton Crewe Nantwich hum the song while enjoying the best views e A41 Stoke- Wrexham e Eglwyseg D M6 on-Trent of Liverpool (511m) Newcastle- under-Lyme Audlem STAFFORDSHIRE Corwen Whitchurch Llangollen POPULATION: 6.7 MILLION AREA : 5473 SQ MILES 556 MANCHESTER •• History lonelyplanet.com lonelyplanet.com MANCHESTER •• Orientation 557 Information of any urban centre in Europe, a modern me- ORIENTATION Post Discover England’s Northwest (www.visitnorthwest.com) tropolis that has embraced 21st-century style All public transport converges at Piccadilly Post office (Brazennose St; h9am-5.30pm Mon-Fri) is the centralised tourist authority that covers and technology like no other in Britain. Gardens, just southeast of the cathedral. Di- the whole of the northwest. Not only does Manchester have a wealth of rectly north is the on-the-up boho Northern Tourist Information fascinating museums that reflect its unique Quarter, with its offbeat boutiques, hip cafés Tourist office (%0871 222 8223; www.manchester Getting Around role in the pioneering developments of the In- and fabulous record shops. A few blocks south- .gov.uk; Town Hall Extension, St Peter’s Sq; h10am- The two main cities, Manchester and Liver- dustrial Age, but it has managed to weave the east is the Gay Village, centred on Canal St, and, 5.30pm Mon-Sat, 10am-4.30pm Sun) Sells tickets for all pool, are only 34 miles apart and are linked mementos of its past with a forward-looking, just next to it, Chinatown, basically a bunch of sorts of guided walks, which operate almost daily year- by hourly bus and train services. Chester is ambitious programme of urban development restaurants clustered around Portland St. round and cost adult/child £5/3. only 18 miles south of Liverpool, but is also that has already offered us a vision of what the Southwest of the centre is Castlefield and easily accessible from Manchester by train or future holds in store. Deansgate Locks, a supertrendy development SIGHTS & ACTIVITIES via the M56 motorway. Blackpool is 50 miles that has successfully converted the 19th-century City Centre to the north of both cities, and is also well HISTORY canalside industrial infrastructure into a groovy The city’s main administrative centre is the connected. Try the following for transport Canals and steam-powered cotton mills were weekend playground for the city’s fine young superb Victorian Gothic town hall (tours £4; information: how Manchester was transformed from a things. Further west again – and accessible via htours 2pm Sat Mar-Sep) that dominates Albert Greater Manchester Passenger Transport Author- small disease-infested provincial town into a Metrolink – are the recently developed Salford Sq. The interior is rich in sculpture and ornate ity (www.gmpte.com) For extensive info on Manchester very big disease-infested industrial city. It all Quays, home to the fab Lowry complex and the decoration, while the exterior is crowned by and its environs. happened in the 1760s – with the opening of Imperial War Museum North. Not far away is an impressive 85m-high tower. You can visit Merseytravel (%236 7676; www.merseytravel.gov.uk) the Bridgewater Canal between Manchester the Old Trafford football stadium, where Man- the building on your own, but as it’s the city’s Taking care of all travel in Merseyside. and the coal mines at Worsley in 1763, and chester United’s stars earn their keep. main administrative centre you won’t get the National Express (%08705 808080; www.national with Richard Arkwright patenting his super same access as you do by organised tour, express.com) Extensive coach services in the northwest; cotton mill in 1769. Thereafter, Manchester INFORMATION which departs from the tourist office. Manchester and Liverpool are major hubs. and the world would never be the same again. Bookshops Just behind the town hall, the elegant Roman When the canal was extended to Liverpool Cornerhouse (%200 1514; www.cornerhouse.org; 70 Pantheon lookalike Central Library (%234 1900; St and the open sea in 1776, Manchester – now Oxford St) Art and film books, specialist magazines and Peter’s Sq; admission free; h10am-8pm Mon-Thu, 10am-6pm MANCHESTER dubbed ‘Cottonopolis’ – kicked into high kitschy cards. Fri & Sat) was built in 1934. It is the country’s gear and took off on the coal-fuelled, steam- Waterstone’s Deansgate (%832 1992); St Anne’s Sq largest municipal library, with more than 20 %0161 / pop 394,270 powered gravy train. (%837 3000) miles of shelves. If ever London was to quit being capital – or was There was plenty of gravy to go around, but fired for some kind of terrible wrongdoing – the good burghers of 19th-century Manchester Emergency MANCHESTER ART GALLERY Manchester would be a readymade substitute made sure that the vast majority of the city’s Ambulance (%436 3999) A superb collection of British art and a hefty with the necessary wherewithal to take on swollen citizenry (1801, population 90,000; Police station (%872 5050; Bootle St) number of European masters are on display the job. It’s a modern metropolis embracing 100 years later, two million) who produced at the city’s top gallery (%235 8888; www.manches change like few others in Europe; it’s where most of it never got their hands on any of it. Internet Access tergalleries.org; Mosley St; admission free; h10am-5pm NORTHWEST ENGLAND much of the best music of the last couple of Their reward was life in a new kind of urban Central Library (%234 1982; St Peter’s Sq; per 30min Tue-Sun). The older wing, designed by Charles decades came from; and it has the world’s best- settlement: the industrial slum. Working con- £1; hinternet access 1-6pm Mon-Sat) Barry (of Houses of Parliament fame) in 1834, supported football team. Oh, and it likes to ditions were scarcely better: impossibly long easyInternetcafé (8-10 Exchange St; per 30min £1; has an impressive collection that includes 37 call itself the uncrowned capital of the north.