Historic Buildings - Manchester Airport Car Parking from SkyParkSecure
Historic buildings near Manchester Airport
Manchester Town Hall
Why should I visit?
Manchester Town Hall is known for its unusual and exquisite Gothic architecture. It is probably Manchester’s most important historic building and a must-see for tourists. The Town Hall is the heart of local government in Manchester. The Town Hall’s complex employs around 3,500 staff and provides the headquarters for Manchester City Council.
When is it open? Manchester Town Hall is open Monday to Friday from 9am to 4.30pm (phone ahead for weekend entry). How much does it cost? Admission to Manchester Town Hall is free.
How do I get there? Manchester Town Hall is on Albert Street in the heart of the city. Click here for a map and travelling instructions.
By bus: Get off at one of the bus stops on St Peter's Square, Albert Square or Princess Street.
By train and Metrolink: Get a Metrolink from Manchester Piccadilly, Manchester Victoria or Deansgate train stations to St Peter's Square, the nearest Metrolink station to Manchester Town Hall.
By car: Parking is often difficult around the Town Hall. You may be able to find a space in one of the pay and display parking bays. There are a small number of spaces reserved for disabled drivers at the front of Central Library in St Peter's Square. *Note: Manchester Town Hall complex has two buildings. The original Town Hall building and the Town Hall extension. The complex is surrounded by Albert Square, Princess Street, Peter Street and St Peter's Square. Lloyd Street separates the older Town Hall building from the newer Town Hall extension.
How can I get more information? Visit online or ring 0161 234 5000.
About the Town Hall
In the 1860s the old Town Hall in King Street became too small for the booming textile realm of Manchester. Alfred Waterhouse (1830 – 1905) won a competition with ingenious plans for a new Town Hall. He managed to fit a large hall, a Council chamber, offices, reception rooms and living space for the Lord Mayor, into the awkward triangle-shaped site. The Town Hall was designed in the thirteenth century Gothic style but it boasted a 19 th century heating system and other ‘modern’ conveniences. Manchester Town Hall ’s pinnacle stone was laid on December 4th 1875, and its official opening was celebrated on 13 September 1877. The clock on the Town Hall’s magnificent clock tower was started on New Year's Day 1879. There are 24 bells in the tower, one of which, the Great Hour Bell, weighs more than 8 tonnes!
The outside of the Town Hall features a number of superb sculptures, including statues of Henry III, Elizabeth I, and St George. Manchester Town Hall ’s main entrance has an archway seven feet thick supporting the main tower. Seven staircases lead from level one to level two. The three spiral staircases are known as the English, Scottish and Irish staircases because each country donated granite for them. Mr Waterhouse designed the "easy tread stairs" specifically so that Victorian ladies in their finery could go up the stairs without having to look down. The second floor is the most impressive, and includes the Lord Mayor’s Parlour, the Reception Room, the Banqueting Room, the Conference Hall, which was the original Council Chamber. Above the landing in front of the Great Hall is a glazed skylight bearing the names of all the mayors, lord mayors and chairs of the Council since Manchester received its Charter in 1838. The Great Hall’s ceiling shows the countries and towns with which Manchester traded. The landing outside the Great Hall is known as the Bees, for its mosaic floor has a pattern of bees. The bee is the symbol of Manchester’s industry and is also on Manchester’s coat of arms.
Manchester’s importance in the cotton trade is celebrated with beautiful white strands and cotton flowers on the mosaic floors. A number of beautiful historic Murals decorate the Town Hall, including The Romans Building a Fort at Mancenion, the Expulsion of the Danes from Manchester, the Establishment of Flemish Weavers in Manchester in 1363, the Proclamation regarding Weights and Measures in 1556, and John Kay, Inventor of the Fly Shuttle in 1753.
Manchester Cathedral
Why should I visit? Manchester Cathedral has some of the finest medieval carving in Europe and a whole wall of twentieth-century stained glass by the artist Anthony Hollaway. If you can catch a daily service, you’ll hear some beautiful choral music.
When is it open? Manchester Cathedral is open Monday to Friday from 8 am to 7 pm, Saturday from 8 am to 5 pm and Sunday from 8:30 am to 7:30 pm. For further details please telephone 0161-833 2220
How much does it cost? Admission to Manchester Cathedral is free.
How do I get there? Manchester Cathedral
By Train: Get off at Manchester Victoria and go down Victoria Street. By Car : If you are travelling from the North and East, take the M62 and leave by junction 17 (A56) . This is a main road passing the Cathedral and is signposted for Manchester City Centre etc. Travel along this road for approximately 5 miles. When you pass the Boddington Brewery on your left followed by the new MEN Arena the Cathedral is under the bridge on the left. I f you are travelling from the South and West, take the M6, M62 and M602.
Take the left turn into Deansgate and continue to the end. Manchester Cathedral is on the right. Ring 0161 835 4030 for help if you get lost. Ample parking is available at the NCP at Old Exchange Station approach and in the MEN Arena which are both close to Manchester Cathedral.
How can I get more information? Visit Manchester Cathedral online, or www.manchester.anglican.org or ring 0161 833 2220.
About Manchester Cathedral Evidence of an early Saxon church in Manchester comes from the Angel Stone , which was discovered embedded in the wall of the original South Porch of the Cathedral in the 19th century, and which has been dated to around 700 CE .
It was around the year 1075 that King William the Conqueror gave all the land between the River Ribble and the River Mersey to Roger de Poitou, son of the Earl of Shrewsbury.
He in turn gave the Manor of Manchester to the Greslet or Gresley family.
In 1086 Manchester was recorded in William the Conqueror’s Domesday Book, which mentioned that the place had a Parish Church and it is believed that this church was located at the corner of St Mary’s Gate and Exchange Street.
However, this site was deserted when in 1215 Robert Greslet, Lord of the Manor and 5th Baron of Manchester decided to build the current church adjacent to his manor house (now Chetham’s Library). This became the Parish Church of Manchester. The quire stalls have a hinged seat arrangement known as a 'misericord'. The name is derived from the Latin word for pity, 'misericordia’, the word being first applied to the relaxation of a rule and then to the seat which gave support to the back during long services. Hidden on the underside of thee seats are carvings of mediaeval tales and legends . The misericords are thought to be some of the finest in Europe . Many of them depict a moral, in one of them a woman is scolding a man for breaking a cooking pot, a warning to careless husbands perhaps? In another, men are playing back-gammon, no doubt the carvers had heard the mediaeval priests denouncing the game as the devil’s own device for hindering church attendance.
John Rylands University Library
Why should I visit? John Rylands University Library in Manchester is a superb 1890s Gothic building housing one of the finest collections of printed works and manuscripts in Europe. The Library features free exhibitions and a special collections division from the University of Manchester.
The John Rylands Library merged with Manchester University Library in 1972 to form the John Rylands University Library of Manchester.
When is it open? John Rylands University Library in Manchester is open from Monday to Friday from 10am to 5pm and on Saturday by appointment only.
How much does it cost? Admission to the John Rylands University Library is free.
How do I get there? The John Rylands Library building is on Deansgate in the city centre of Manchester.
How can I get more information? The library recommends that you contact them before your visit on 0161 834 5343, or visit them online.
Before you go to Manchester Airport be sure to book your airport parking.
