Merchants’ palaces, Gothic towers, Baroque fantasies and Classical temples: Manchester city centre is lined with architectural splendour, from the soaring spires of Manchester Town Hall to the mathematical purity of the Friends’ Meeting House; from the exquisite Renaissance effects of the Athenaeum to the Art Deco embellishments of Sunlight House.

No wonder the Builder magazine once described Manchester as “a more interesting city to walk over than London. One can scarcely walk about Manchester without coming across frequent examples of the grand in architecture. There is nothing to equal it since the building of Venice.

On “The Manchester Architecture Trail”, we take you through the city’s streets – on a different route each week – looking at its most impressive buildings, era by era, style by style, architect by architect, showing off Manchester’s first designer buildings from the early 19th century right through the ages to today’s stunning skyscrapers.