To think that Manchester is awful?

I'm from Yorkshire but lived IN Manchester for 10 years. I don't need to watch whatever it is you've mentioned.

Yes, London and Liverpool.

It's not the most pleasant of city centres, aesthetically and in terms of nice stuff to do - there's a lot of much better city centres in the UK.

Manchester is best if you're a student or you're comfortably off and live in a Mumsnetty area (some bits of Chorlton, Didsbury, almost anywhere within Trafford) and you can easily avoid the city centre.

Has anyone else seen security guards in Greggs stores other than in Manchester?

YANBU I don't like Manchester particularly. I think the city centre is confusing if you don't know it well. I have to go for work and DS is at uni there so I'm a reasonably frequent visitor but I wouldn't chose to visit otherwise.

Liverpool, on the other hand, has fantastic architecture, an easy to navigate city centre and is generally a better place to visit as a tourist IMO.

But she kind of is? She’s walked from a train station to a visitor attraction. It should be better. People have commented on how amazing and international the Universities are but the whole top end of Upper Brook Street is just the rear end of ugly grey mismatching modern Uni buildings now - I was shocked last time I went back. The ‘amazing historic architecture’ is being swallowed up and hidden. If your last experience of Manchester is when you studied there in the 90s you wouldn’t recognise it now.

The biggest laugh I’ve had on this thread is people telling OP off for daring to not appreciate how great Manchester is then saying she should go to…Beech Road in Chorlton?! Way to validate the OP

I think you’re being very unreasonable.

Please give our city another chance. It does have a major problem in that there have always been two centres, Deansgate and Piccadilly. When I was a child, the posh shops were around Deansgate and the department stores near Piccadilly. This meant a long trek between the two.

It’s not somewhere I’d go shopping these days, but there’s plenty to see for anyone who’s interested in history and architecture. We have at least four theatres, the Bridgewater Hall, a world class concert hall, two art galleries, several museums and many good restaurants.

Dont knock it - after all, you haven’t actually seen it.

I've seen plenty of this. What middle class Southerners don’t realise is they too have an accent - the same one as a lot of Tory-voting c*nts. Tell her to remind them of this and to stop inserting an unnecessary ‘r’ sound into words.

I agree, my least favourite city I've been to!

Off topic but I am in Newcastle today for work and wow it is gorgeous. I had no idea how pretty it is. Not at all like I thought it would be.

If you just went to Elizabeth Gaskells house and walked around there, then yes there is plenty you have missed.
That being said you could have walked to the Whitworth Art Gallery and done Manchester museum - did you? Did you hop on a bus and go up Oxford Road into town? You should have done some research

As a born and bred mancunian I rarely go into the city these days. There are some interesting suburbs in s manc which have undergone a regeneration of sorts. Withington has upped its game massively. And stockport is still trying to find it's feet but my money's that it will be next.

It's still relatively cheap to live there compared to the south so i think manchester will evolve as a place for London ex pats... but it's maybe not quite there yet.

Crikey. That seems a bit of a sweeping statement! Most cities with a long established history and a multicultural population should have plenty of interesting things.

The area where Piccadilly Gardens were is awful now.

I used to go to Manchester 2 or 3 times a year for work. Both the city centre and out by the airport. Never really liked the place and I certainly wouldn't live there.

Much preferred Liverpool (& I'm a Londoner)!

There is a word for it 'stravaige'. It's a Scottish word meaning to wander aimlessly but it sounds like 'stray vague'.
I am back in London next month for a few days and have earmarked a day alone to do just this!

All I can say about the northern cities I’m familiar with - Manchester, Liverpool, Leeds - is look up. Look above the shops and restaurants, some of the architecture and history in the city centre buildings is splendid. Maybe not in the same league (expense) as London but it’s there. The old banks, corn exchanges, former glamorous hotels, post offices, other historic public buildings. The details are wonderful!

This x100 but I have never been able to articulate it until you said it! Am a Londoner born and bred so I spent years and years picking a different borough and walking around aimlessly and discovering all kinds of weird and wonderful things. I would never get bored or tired for some reason because of the infrastructure and I could walk for hours on end. I used to walk between tube stations for fun. It's just a proper city for flanneurs. Think this might explain why I always feel trapped and bored when I visit other cities...

No longer live in London - too expensive :( but am always surprised by how much I just walk and walk and walk when I go back

I am from south of Manchester and my family's from Liverpool but I've been in the London and the SE for twenty two years (half my life) and I was sadly disappointed with both Manchester and Liverpool when I've been back recently. They were both like the grim parts of London had been lumped together, without the glamorous bits or the historic buildings which make London such an interesting and exciting place. Guess I'm a southerner now 😫

We have been a few times for games at Old Trafford, and to go to velodrome near Etihad. I am sure there are some nice parts, possibly Salford Quays? But we find it run down, a traffic filled nightmare and just so ruddy grim. In fairness, we don’t know it well, and I am sure for students it’s possibly a good place, but there hasn’t been anything to attract us back other than the sport.

I'd agree with the OP. I grew up in Manchester and then came back when I had DC.

Manchester was great in my teens with lots of pubs and clubs. Since I came back (25 years ago) lots of the city has been knocked down and rebuilt (badly) and it just feels grotty.

There are nice bits around Deansgate, the Royal Exchange and King Street West though. We only go in for the theatre etc now.

I work in Manchester once a week from the midlands. It has grown on me massively. Piccadilly is fucking horrendous but once you get down to Exchange Square and Corn Exchange it's really nice.

New Greggs in the acute block next tonthe A&E portacabins is quality....

I was in Manchester a couple of days ago for work and it was awful.

The airport is even worse, and I took a full blown panic attack in it.

My DD is from the arse end of Manchester and went to uni in York. She loved it. Met people from all walks of life and made friends she is still in touch with now.

I grew up here and I know for a fact the accent changes all the time depending on which bit of the city you are in. It's much stronger in the northern parts.

I have lived here for 24 years and did not know that Elizabeth Gaskells house was behind the hospital/ near the university district.

If you'd done any research you could have had a nice wander. I'd have gone from there to the Whitworth Art Gallery and eaten lunch at Kro Bar (bit studenty, the Whitworth cafe is lovely as is the one in the Manchester Museum).

It's not the most obvious bit of town to visit. You missed the Rylands Library which would probably have been just up your street.

Next time you visit, drive and go to Quarry bank Mill if you like history.

Manchester is a very manageable sized city, bigger than Bristol admittedly. Like most working cities rather than tourist cities you need to do some research to get the best out of it.

If you'd asked here first we could have told you.

It's a bit like if you went to Bath but skipped the historic centre and the regency houses and wandered round a housing estate and some kebab shops at the back of the hospital (literally what you did but in Manchester). It wouldn't mean Bath is shit, just that wandering round near B&Q or whatever isn't the most picturesque bit of town.