Category Archives: News

We do do a Russian Manchester tour but we want to put in an early plug for our Russian London all-day extravaganza: “Spies, Saboteurs, Soviets and Samovars”.

In condemning Jeremy Corbyn for being ambiguous and vague about the Russian Salisbury poisoning scandal no one seems to have mentioned the obvious reason for his reticence to criticise. One of his predecessors as Labour Party leader – Hugh Gaitskell – was possibly poisoned by the Russians at their embassy in 1962 as “punishment” for hounding communists out of the Labour Party. Continue reading →

See the Nymphs (and a host of Pre-Raphaelite-era women) on our “Pre-Raphaelite Women of Manchester Art Gallery” tours. Regular dates, Thursday evenings at 5.30pm. Please book with eventbrite.

They dazed and dazzled. They starred and shone. They glowed and gleamed through the canvas and the frames. They were the most mysterious and mesmerising women in Victorian Britain. They were amongst the most feted women of the 19th century, captured for all time in intensely saturated luminous colour by William Holman Hunt, John Everett Millais, Dante Gabriel Rossetti and their circle, but their names are still barely known to the public: Jane Burden, Elizabeth Siddal, Emma Watkins, Alexa Wilding…

They were the Pre-Raphaelite women featured in some of the most important British paintings ever created including Autumn Leaves, Astarte Syriaca, Work, The Light of the World and The Hireling Shepherd which live in Manchester Art Gallery. Continue reading →

Click here to see the New Manchester Walks spring and summer 2018 programme, in chronological order. 

All the usual favourites – the Pankhursts, Salford Quays, Peterloo, the historic Canal Cruise, Ancoats, Hacienda-era music – plus the return for now of the Underground; a different Underground, wittier and wiser.

Soon available in leaflet form on the website and in your hand.   Continue reading →

The death of Dame Jennifer Jenkins aged 96 in early February gives me the opportunity to honour how this formidable lady helped Manchester become an unlikely tourist destination. Jennifer was head of the Historic Buildings Council in the 1970s when she toured the then rotting, rotten south-west corner of Manchester city centre with the head of Planning, Warren Marshall, and agreed to promote his proposal to honour the remarkable history of the area by creating the first Urban Heritage Park, what is now chic, successful Castlefield… Continue reading →

Tonight, Thu 17 January, we organised a tour, “Spooky Manchester”, which started at the Victoria Station wallmap at just after 5.30pm.

There were about 25 people on the tour. Consequently I was most disconcerted to discover … Continue reading →

It’s very sad news for Manchester with the untimely death of Pete Shelley, co-founder and mostly lead singer of Buzzcocks.

Let’s not forget that Buzzcocks (never The Buzzcocks) were pioneers. They were the first ostensibly local Manchester group in Year Zero: 1976. The Manchester area had not had a really local major group since The Hollies. 10cc were too internationalist in outlook. Van Der Graaf Generator were clearly from another planet. But Buzzcocks were clearly local. Nobody born more than 5 miles from Irlams o’ Th’ Height could understand anything they were singing about on that first wonderful, peerless, still awe-inspiring release, the Spiral Scratch EP, released early in 1977.

At first Continue reading →

Here is the piece I’ve written for the Manchester Evening News about the history of the site around Bootle Street due to be demolished so that Ryan Giggs and Gary Neville can erect two nasty noxious overgrown buildings that will ruin part of Manchester.

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If the highly-controversial St Michael’s development around Bootle Street near Manchester Town Hall goes ahead it will eradicate in one blow a huge slice of little-known but fascinating Manchester history. The proposed towers will require the demolition of three buildings: the former Bootle Street police station, the Ralph Abercrombie pub next door and the Reform Synagogue on Jackson’s Row. Think of all the villains that have passed through Bootle Street. But think also of the innocent… Continue reading →

Yes, we are bigging up our lovingly-honed, in-depth tour of the architectural and bibliographical gem that is the reopened Central Library. Ideal for private groups; we’ve taken around so many.

The New Manchester Walks team has devised a wonderful tour, rich in history, architecture, design and drama.

We will explain how the building works, explain the fascinating symbolism inside, touch on the library’s previous homes (Charles Dickens opened the first such building in 1852), view the exquisite reading room, and open up areas you might not find yourself… Continue reading →

It’s Manchester’s only 5-star hotel, built out of the city’s most important building – the Free Trade Hall. It’s a tour packed with the most mouth-watering history, followed by scrumptious tea Continue reading →

Good news. We have a new date for the double tour of Chetham’s and Manchester Cathedral.
Monday 5 September, 2pm
* Meet by the Victoria Station wallmap. Continue reading →