Things to do in the area
Our guide to things to do close to the Whitworth.
Visiting the Whitworth and want to know what else there is to do nearby?
One of the joys of Manchester is that it’s a compact city that’s easy to get around. A trip to the Whitworth is no different – with a clutch of fantastic other museums, galleries and attractions nearby.
Only a five-minute walk from the Whitworth is the historically significant Pankhurst Museum, home to Emmeline Pankhurst and where the Women's Social and Political Union, later known as the suffragette movement, was founded. Continue on from here, and you can visit Elizabeth Gaskell’s House, the beautifully restored home of the celebrated Victorian novelist, complete with period rooms, a beautiful garden and tea room.
North of the Whitworth, in the direction of the city centre, is Contact, one of the most innovative theatre, spoken word and performance spaces in the UK. Manchester Academy is its near neighbour – and it’s always worth checking ahead for gig listings at this popular concert venue.
The Whitworth is part of The University of Manchester, and further along Oxford Road is our sister organisation Manchester Museum. Housed within a neo-Gothic, Alfred Waterhouse-designed building, Manchester Museum houses over four million objects in its collections, including the hugely popular full-size replica skeleton of Stan, the T.Rex.
Continue on towards the city centre and you’ll find the Royal Northern College of Music, with its packed calendar of concerts and events, Manchester School of Art – one of the UK’s largest providers of art, design, media and architecture courses – the small but leafy Grosvenor Square and, tucked away inside Manchester Metropolitan University Library, MMU’s Special Collections Museum. Here, there are more than 100 collections and archives to explore, from rare children’s books to Victoria ephemera. You can drop in during opening hours, or book ahead to visit the Reading Room.
Keep walking, and if you take a left after Oxford Road train station, you’ll come to HOME: a purpose-built centre for contemporary art, theatre and film. Nearby is the Bridgewater Hall, a purpose-built concert venue that’s home to the Hallé Orchestra, while further on towards the St Peter’s Square tram stop is the stunning Central Library. Don’t miss Manchester Art Gallery on the other side of the square – home to over 46,000 objects of fine art, decorative art and costume, as well as exceptional temporary exhibitions.
Arts venues in the city centre itself come in all shapes and sizes, from the Royal Exchange Theatre – once the largest room in the world, now home to an iconic in-the-round stage – to the intimate Castlefield Gallery. Hugely popular are the National Football Museum and Science and Industry Museum while specialist venues such as the People’s History Museum, Manchester Jewish Museum and Manchester Craft and Design Centre can reveal different aspects of Manchester’s history and local industries.
That’s not all. MediaCity and The Quays in Salford is less than twenty minutes away by tram from the St Peter’s Square or Deansgate-Castlefield stops. The BBC’s home in the North, MediaCity is where you can find BBC Sport, the BBC Philharmonic Orchestra and more – with the award-winning arts venue The Lowry just across the water. While here, don’t miss IWM North, one of five branches of the Imperial War Museum, housed in an iconic, Daniel Libeskind-designed building.
All of which is just a snapshot of what's happening across Manchester – which is where our friends at Creative Tourist come in. Check out their site for art and culture news, read their best of guides or dip into their comprehensive city guide to get a fuller picture of the city that we are proud to call home.
