Local attractions
Museum of Science and Industry
Liverpool Road, Castlefield, Manchester. M3 4FP
Tel: 0161 832 2244 | www.mosi.org.uk
With permanent galleries spread across five listed historic buildings and collections ranging from early textile machinery to modern X-ray equipment, there's a lot to discover and experience at the Museum of Science and Industry.
Entry is free, and you'll have access to an enormous number of galleries and museums, including the Air and Space Gallery, The Science Gallery, The Electricity Gallery, the 4D Theatre, the Interactive Experiments centre, and much, much more.
From the Wharf - 0.3 mile to/from the Museum of Science and Industry, about a 5 minute walk.
Manchester United
Sir Matt Busby Way, Old Trafford, Manchester. M16 0RA
Tel: 0161 868 8000 | www.manutd.com
Home of Manchester United, one of world's most popular and successfull football teams. No more need be said.
From the Wharf - 1.8 miles to/from Old Trafford, 5 minute drive, 35 minute walk, or... on match days why not take the free canal barge.
Royal Exchange Theatre
St Ann's Square, Manchester. M2 7DH
Box Office: 0161 833 9833 | www.royalexchange.co.uk
The Royal Exchange Theatre is a seven-sided, glass-walled capsule, literally suspended from huge marble pillars situated in The Great Hall of the historic Victorian Cotton Exchange Buildings in Manchester city centre. The unique design means all seats are less than nine metres from the circular stage giving views from all angles. Our policy is to express the bewildering, complex wonderment of life through the full spectrum of theatre.
Manchester has an incredibly vibrant arts cultures, with some twenty different theatres, halls and arenas offering drama productions, dance, music in all its forms and ballet.
This site here will tell you what's in Manchester's theatres: www.manchestertheatres.com/calendar.htm
From the Wharf - 1 mile to/from the Royal Exchange Theatre, about a 15 minute walk.
Opera House Manchester
3 Quay Street, Manchester. M3 3HP
Telephone Booking: 0844 871 3018
Parking: For those with a sat nav the postcode for Spinningfields is M3 3BE and the postcode for Great Northern is M2 5QA
The New Theatre, as it was named, opened on Boxing Day 1912. Struggling to compete with other establishments, it was sold to United Theatre Ltd in 1915 and was renamed the New Queens Theatre.
Between the years of 1916 and 1920, Sir Thomas Beecham chose to perform there on several occasions and it was in honour of this great man that, in August of that year, the theatre was renamed The Opera House.
Over the years this building has 'seen' life change around her. Surviving the Second World War, it operated as a cinema for a time and later became a bingo hall.
In 1984 the Opera House became a theatre once more and over the years, has staged the most magnificent shows such as Barnum, Phantom of the Opera, Oliver and many more. After major refurbishment in 2003 the Opera House continues to attract the best in entertainment, standing proud on Quay Street as a part of Manchester History.
Manchester has an incredibly vibrant arts cultures, with some twenty different theatres, halls and arenas offering drama productions, dance, music in all its forms and ballet.
This site here will tell you what's in Manchester's theatres: www.manchestertheatres.com/calendar.htm
From the Wharf - 0.5 miles to/from the Manchester Opera house, about a 5-10 minute walk.
Palace Theatre Manchester
Oxford Street, Manchester. M1 6FT
Telephone: 0161 245 6600
The Palace Theatre of Varieties opened on Whit Monday 1891 and had cost its owners the then colossal sum of £40,500. The seating capacity at the time was 3,675 and ticket prices ranged from 6d in the balcony to 4/- in the stalls.
All the great names from the Music Hall era appeared in the following two decades including Marie Lloyd, Harry Lauder, Little Tich, Lillie Langtry, Vesta Tilley and Charlie Chaplin.
In 1913, the interior of the theatre was renovated under the direction of architect Bertie Crew and re-opened after seven months with Harry Houdini - and a much reduced seating capacity of 2600. The Palace Theatre, always in tune to the taste of the audience, captured the heady atmosphere of the 1920's and 1930's with extravagant revues, full-length musicals and lavish pantomimes. The 1940's brought the stars of radio whilst the 1950's and 1960's saw everything from ballet to be-bop, opera to rock 'n' roll, Hamlet to Look Back in Anger.
In the late 1970's the Palace Theatre underwent a major refurbishment, extending the stage and dressing room facilities to accommodate such high-profile companies as the Covent Garden Opera and the Kirov Ballet and restoring the auditorium and Front of House facilities to their Edwardian splendor.
The Theatre re-opened in 1981 with Andrew Lloyd Webber's Jesus Christ Superstar and has retained its position as the premier provincial touring venue with productions ranging from Nicholas Nickleby to Les Miserables; the Covent Garden Opera to Saturday Night Fever; Luciano Pavarotti to Victoria Wood and Disney's Beauty and the Beast to King Lear.
Chronicling its great history, the Palace Theatre has an extensive programme archive, a 1,000 Hall of Fame named supplement, detailed prime source material from the 1890's and a thirty-page history of the theatre.
This site here will tell you what's in Manchester's theatres: www.manchestertheatres.com/calendar.htm
From the Wharf - 0.7 miles to/from the Palace Theatre, about a 10-15min minute walk.
The Manchester Museum
The University of Manchester, Oxford Road, Manchester. M13 9PL
Telephone: 0161 275 2634 | www.museum.manchester.ac.uk
Tues-Sat: 10am-5pm
Sun, Mon, Bank hols: 11am-4pm
27-31 Dec: 11am-4pm
Closed: 24-26 Dec, 1 Jan
We're the Museum on Oxford Road with the dinosaurs, mummies and live animals. We also have loads of other great stuff from the natural world and different cultures.
Our Collections Study Centre is open to everyone wanting to carry out research - including students, artists, budding archaeologists, naturalists and anthropologists. We also provide a free Identification Service in the areas covered by our collections. So whether it's a coin, an unusual rock, bring it to the Museum and leave it for our specialists to identify.
Our new Ancient Worlds galleries are now open. These three new galleries highlight our collections from Manchester and the region, and from ancient civilizations such as Greece, Rome and Egypt.
From the Wharf - 1.4 miles to/from the Manchester Museum - a 27 minute walk or a 5 minute drive.
The Imperial War Museum
The Quays, Trafford Wharf Road, Manchester. M17 1TZ
Telephone: 0161 275 2634 | www.iwm.org.uk/visits/iwm-north
Open daily 10am - 5pm
Last admission 4.30pm
Closed 24, 25 and 26 December
Visit the award-winning IWM North in our tenth birthday year to discover powerful stories that reveal how war shapes lives, from a soldier's last letter home to the twisted steel of New York City's World Trade Center. Housed in Daniel Libeskind's iconic building representing a globe torn about by conflict, IWM North offers a free day out like no other.
From the Wharf - 2.3 miles to/from the Imperial War Museum North, and about a 7 minute drive.
National Football Museum
Urbis Building, Cathedral Gardens, Manchester. M4 3BG
Telephone: 0161 605 8200 | www.nationalfootballmuseum.com
Opening hours: Monday - Saturday 10am-5pm; Sunday 11am-5pm
We are proud to care for the world's greatest football collection - over 140,000 items - including the FIFA Collection.
We explore football - past and present - through world class exhibitions, looking at the game from every angle, telling the stories that matter to all of us.
The National Football Museum exists to explain how and why football has become 'the people's game', a key part of England's heritage and way of life. It also aims to explain why England is the home of football, the birthplace of the world's most popular sport.
NFM aims to be the first point of contact with football for non-fans and an introduction to wider aspects of culture and history for football fans. NFM has a particular focus on those sections of the community that do not usually visit museums and galleries.
From the Wharf - 1.3 miles to/from the National Football Museum, and is a 25 minute walk or a 5 minute drive.
People's History Museum
Left Bank, Spinningfields, Manchester. M3 3ER
Open Mon-Sun, 10am - 5pm. Open Bank Holiday Mondays.
The People's History Museum derives its origin from the Trade Union, Labour and Co-operative History Society. From the 1960s the society formed a small collection and between 1975 and 1986 ran a museum in Limehouse Town Hall in London. The collections were then in storage until the Greater Manchester authorities made a funding offer. A new trust was created and the museum re-opened in 1990, initially at 103 Princess Street.
In May 1994 new museum galleries were opened in the Pump House on Bridge Street. This is the only surviving Edwardian hydraulic pumping station in the city and it used to supply power to the warehouses and even wound the Town Hall clock and raised the curtain at the Opera House.
The museum was known as both the National Museum of Labour History and the Pump House People's History Museum. In 2001 the museum decided to use one name to embrace the whole organisation: People's History Museum.
In October 2007 the museum closed to the public to allow for the start of a multi-million pound re-development scheme. A bigger and better People's History Museum re-opened on 13 February 2010.
From the Wharf - 0.7 miles to/from the People's History Museum, and about a 13 minute walk.
The AO Arena
Victoria Station, 21 Hunts Bank, Manchester. M3 1AR
Telephone: 0161 950 5000 | Booking: 0844 847 8000 | ao-arena.com
Mon-Fri 10:00-16:00
Sat-Sun 12:00-16:00
Manchester's AO Arena, managed and operated by ASM Global, is one of the busiest venues in the world and the largest indoor arena in Europe.
Opened in 1995, the Arena has staged the biggest names in live entertainment including U2, The Rolling Stones, Madonna, Lady Gaga, Pavarotti and the record-breaking 2010 / 2011 residency by local comedian Peter Kay.
Attracting over one million visitors each year, the 21,000 capacity Arena was named 'International Venue of the Year' in 2002 by industry publication Pollstar and has been nominated an unrivalled ten consecutive times.
From the Wharf - 1.3 miles to/from the AO Arena, and is a 25 minute walk, or 7 minutes by car.
Heaton Park
The Farm Centre, Manchester City Council, Manchester. M25 2SW
Telephone: 0161 773 1085 | www.manchester.gov.uk/heatonpark
Heaton Park is a huge family park owned and managed by Manchester City Council.
It is located 4 miles north of the city centre where there is so much to see and do that you'll keep coming back again and again.
The Animal Centre is open all year round and has a wide variety of Farm Animals to come and make friends with. As well as the usual animals you would find on a farm such as pigs goats and geese there are some other very interesting animals that are waiting to meet you too.
Heaton Park has an exciting events programme from astronomy evenings and children's activities through to large scale dramatic and musical productions. Heaton Park hosts many events like these every year and because of its proximity to the motorway network and Metrolink it is easily accessible and attracts a wide audience from across the region.
Heaton Park's Championship Golf Course, is managed by Mack Golf, and has won two awards for the best municipal course in the country.
From the Wharf - 5.4 miles to/from Heaton Park, about 15 minutes by car.