Category Archives: News

Every year we remember the bomb that destroyed a huge part of central Manchester on the 15th of June 1996.

The tour goes through the entire story, right up to posing a number of possible reason for why it happened. 

Ed Glinert, alone amongst the Manchester guides, asks the difficult questions that others ignore:

Was it really the IRA?
If so, why.
And no, it’s not the same pillar box! Continue reading →

When the euphoria for City’s European Cup success recedes…

Come on, how could they not win it with that sort of financial backing? So how comes Paris St Germain with similar backing (Qatar, not Abu Dhabi) and Mbappe and Messi haven’t? Neymar.

Manchester is home to the National Football Museum. In the metropolis we have the world’s best-supported club and the richest. Are we the world’s leading football city? Not yet. Although Manchester has become only the second metropolis in Europe with two European Cup winners, we’re still someway behind Milan. How ironic that Manchester has secured this honour by beating a Milan team! Yet Milan, the city has 10 European Cup wins to Manchester’s 4. So some catching up to do.  Continue reading →

Hi folks.
The free tour experiment is drawing to a close.
It’s not worked.
The final blow was this last fortnight.
* 115 people registered for the Hacienda 40th anniversary tour on 21 May – 12 turned up.
* 23 people registered for Strangeways last Saturday – no one turned up.
* 79 people registered for The Smiths this Sunday – eight turned up. Continue reading →

No, we didn’t run into Joey Barton or Jim McDonald.

There were 23 registrations for this morning’s tour (Saturday 4 June) and at the starting time, 11am at Victoria Station wallmap, no one was there!

What a waste of everyone’s time.

I’ve been doing these tours for free but one or two people are spoiling it for everyone. To add insult to injury… Continue reading →

An enthralling FA Cup Final, and the metropolis of Manchester was the winner.

Millions, possibly billions, around the world and maybe on other planets tuned in to see the most remarkable start to any of the 142 F A Cup Finals, and here at New Manchester Walks Towers we’ve seen most of them.

But the watching world – from Vermont to Vladivostock; from Ouagadougou to Ogmore – thought: “We must go to this Manchester. What an exciting place!” Continue reading →

Today is the 142nd Football Association Challenge Cup Final and one with a distinct local interest. The following piece has been adapted from my forthcoming book on Manchester United and it concerns United’s first final – in 1909, which took place in the now long-vanished Crystal Palace stadium, so named… Continue reading →

Thu 20 June L S Lowry’s Manchester
Meet TfGM Travelshop, Piccadilly Gardens, 11.30am.

Fri 21 June May Angel Meadow pub tour
Meet Victoria Station wallmap, 6pm.

Sat 22 June Manchester Music: 40 Years of Unknown Pleasures Meet HOME, 11am.
Sat 22 June Secrets of the Northern Quarter
Meet Queen Victoria Statue, Piccadilly Gardens, 2.30pm.

Sun 23 June Alan Turing Tortured Genius of the Computer Age
Meet Manchester Museum reception, 11.30am.
Sun 23 June Strangeways No Escape!
Meet Victoria Station wallmap, 2.30pm. Continue reading →

Next Walks
Sun 27 June, Hitler’s Plans for Manchester, 11am from Victoria Station wallmap. 
Sat 27 June, Exploring the Manchester Docks, Salford Quays and Media City, 3pm from Salford Quays Metrolink.

Next Zooms
Wed 23 June, Liverpool’s Wonderful Waterfront, 8pm.
Fri 25 June, George Orwell’s 1984, 6pm.
Fri 25 June, Underground Manchester, 8pm.
Mon 28 June, L S Lowry’s Lonely Life, 6pm.
Mon 28 June, The Pre-Raphaelites of Manchester Art Gallery, 8pm.
Tue 29 June, Manchester Town Hall: the Full Tour, 6pm.
Tue 29 June, Midland Hotel: The Rolls Royce of Zoom tours, 8pm. Continue reading →

Why the bee for Manchester?

In the aftermath of Manchester’s tragedy the bee is appearing throughout the city as a solidarity symbol and a tattoo choice. The bee – the worker bee – is already evident throughout Manchester on municipal structures. In the Town Hall the platform outside the Great Hall is called The Bees and is decorated appropriately. The city’s coat of arms features a globe coated with bees; worker bees. At Manchester Art Gallery the most famous and admired painting is Work by Ford Madox Brown.

So how did the bee first appear in prominence? Continue reading →