Manchester Town Hall is located in Albert Square in the city centre - it is home to the main area…read moreof the city's famous yearly Christmas Markets. It is one of the nicer, older buildings in the city being built in the mid-1800s and in many ways is your typical victorian building. It has been refurbished of late and the town hall now has a small Post Office in the annexe - it is also well located being right next to Manchester Central Library and part of it is also in St Peter's Square, which is one of the main stops on the city's light railway transport, Metrolink. It is still used today for various reasons other than the Post Office, it also is a small base for the police and it can sometimes be used for voting counting in elections, more notably the 2016 EU referendum where the United Kingdom voted by majority to leave the European Union. The guide of finding key areas of the town hall could perhaps be displayed better, especially when approaching it from Albert Square and St Peter's Square, being quite large it does stretch across both. A really nice old building in the city with some use today - as far as town halls go this is pretty cool. 4*

Last night I was lucky enough to attend an event at Manchester Town Hall. It was Grant's True Tales…read more(http://www.grantswhisky.com/uk/truetales/about), and it was absolutely spectacular. I experienced a whisky tasting, some exceptional cocktails and personal, entertaining stories told by some very interesting people, including that lovely Alistair McGowan, one of the country's nicest comedians. But most of all I got to see the Town Hall, full access. We all know it's an incredible building, but ascend the stairs, see the mosaic tiles on the floor and the bees which adorn them, go into the main hall and see what event managers can actually do with the space. We saw logos projected on walls amidst the ornate windows, heard the soft buzz of the live music from the Food and Drink festival outside, drank some beautiful whisky cocktails and got to meet a bunch of like-minded people. Even if you're not someone who falls in love with buildings the way I do so quickly and willingly, you'd have to have a heart of stone not to be overwhelmed by the Town Hall. It's staggeringly big, as beautiful as any cathedral, and it's steeped in history that's practically tangible as you walk around. But the cherry on the icing? Even the toilets are stupendous! Adding a lovely lavvy into the mix just finishes it off now, doesn't it...

Sheep grazing on pastures green... what a delightful picture to gaze upon when you visit Wales or…read morethe Lake District! Alas, not all of us in Manchester go to either Wales or Cumbria often, but many of us do crave these idyllic moments. The good news is that you can fulfill this void, provided you have a good imagination. All you have to do is to go to Liverpool Rd, and on the road from The White Lion pub to a reconstructed Mamucium fort you will find a sculptural group by Ted Roocroft (1986). A rather minimalist name - Sheep - accompanies a similarly no-nonsense group of three sheep, of which two are watching you while the third is enjoying her green dinner.

Never knew Manchester had a Chinatown but apparently it's the second biggest one outside of London…read more That being said, it encompasses only a few blocks (that we could see) but still it's fun to wander around and window shop - and have some dim sum or other more authentic dishes other than kung pao or general Tso chicken.

Manchester is a beautiful city itself. Having Chinatown adds an extra oomph. I didn't hit any…read morevendors when I was there for my UK trip but I just walked through it since I wasn't staying in Manchester and was waiting to go to Sheffield. 153/2017

This building has recently been brought back into use after being disgracefully left to rot for…read moredecades by "developers". I went there for the Manchester print design faire and the central courtyard made it an ideal venue with seating, street food, and a bar allowing everyone to refuel between browsing sessions.

Having walked in and out of Piccadilly Station many times over the years and never even clocked…read morethat LRFS was there, just goes to show I'm not as observant as I think I am. This beautiful Edwardian Grade II-listed building has been unused and left to the elements in a semi-state of dereliction for the past 30 years after Greater Manchester Fire Service moved out, with its previous owners (Britannia Hotels) proposing to redevelop it several times but doing nothing. Mercifully, Manchester City Council served them with a compulsory purchase order a few years ago and it's now going to be completely refurbished by property developers Allied London. In recent weeks, there have been a series of organised tours of the accessible parts of the building and then a Made Here event where the large courtyard and part of the ground floor was used for a pop up market and designers' exhibition with street food traders and a bar. It gave us locals an opportunity to see what had been locked behind those rusting doors all these years. The proposals for the refurb include workspace, a restaurant, apartments and a hotel. I can't wait to see it brought back to life and start serving Manchester again; but just hope (like many in the city) that they really keep its old heart and soul intact.

Smithfield Market Hall is located just on the edge of the Northen Quarter and it's a real shame…read morethat an old building like this is boarded up and slowly crumbling apart. It's a shame that this can't be turned into an awesome local market along the lines of Spitalfields in East London or something like that. Surely with all the great independent shops, creativity and ideas floating around the Northern Quarter, something cool can be done with Smithfield Market Hall?

The fact that the Mancunian powers-that-be woke up one day and decided to commemorate Vimto…read more(arguably the king of all 'mixed fruit' cordials) with its very own monument fills me with boundless joy. So much so, I've even got a photograph of myself doing a thumbs up by this statue. Seriously, the only way this monument could be any better is if it actually dispensed Vimto (Hot Vimto for the Winter months, Fizzy Vimto for the Summer months). If the person with the ability to make this happen is reading this, come on then, hop to it!

As an alternative to beer, the 'temperance drink' under the odd name of Vimto was first mixed by…read moreJohn Nichols in Granby Row in 1908. The sculpture by Kerry Morrison (1992) is now popular with students, children, and photographers.

St Ann's is a good multi purpose area for Manchester, even if it is often overshadowed by the more…read moreopen and upmarket Albert Square down the road. Surrounded by all the usual high street shops like Holland and Barrett, coffee from Starbucks - plus there's some good high street banks here still like HSBC and Barclays (I know... a bank you can actually walk into and do banking stuff still exists in town...) The best thing on offer though are the travelling markets which come and go pretty much every month - there's always something going on here so definitely worth checking out any time of the year - especially the Xmas ones from mid Nov to Dec.

St Ann's is currently holding its annual (I think?) Feast Market. A collection of food stalls all…read morein one convenient place - especially when you work close by, like me! Although St Ann's isn't the biggest public space in Manchester, there are plenty of traders to choose from. It can be hard to take everything in, especially when your stomach's growling and you know you're short on time, but it's worth it trust me. Don't dive in to the first thing you see! You can choose from a Turkish grill serving up different flavours of chicken in wraps, Indian, Chinese, Thai Pies, regular pies, hog roast (the same stall from my previous review and well worth a visit!), fudge, nuts, cakes and breads. There's even a bar serving up beer, wine and prosecco if you feel the need. What more could you want? On this visit - and I'm sure there will plenty more, as I always love walking back into the office with something exciting and everyone then mentally planning their next lunch break - I just went for a cheese and bacon pastry from Martin's, along with a slice of flapjack. The pastry was gone in minutes and the flapjack served very well as a naughty hangover breakfast.

Ahh, I really do like Albert Square. It's no open and pleasant and spacious. It's a great place to…read morecome and grab some lunch and just hang out for a few minutes in the middle of the day. If you get the right bench, you can get close to the Jubilee Fountain, which is a small, ornate fountain that always works because it's from the olden days when building a water feature wasn't so difficult. If it's windy, watch out, I've walked past this fountain and got a mini-soaking a couple of times from a gust catching the water and giving your face a good splattering.

Exchange Square in Manchester is one of the cities coolest, more modern areas, located at the back…read moreof the Manchester Arndale, here there is the entrance to the Printworks, and even The Corn Exchange, which has also been revitalised recently, with so many more eateries being added there such as Pho and a new restaurant from Gino, the chef from This Morning. Exchange Square was one of the areas hit by the 1996 bombing of Manchester from the IRA, and since then they seem to have done a great job bringing it back to life again. There is a new metrolink station from Exchange Square, providing travel across Greater Manchester, and it is a short walk to Victoria Station, Manchester's 2nd largest station. In Exchange Square, there also is a Selfridges and Harvey Nichols, which adds a higher-end feel to the area, but still it is a nice place to shop and look around, and defiantly worth paying a visit when in Manchester, as it is really central, just being outside one of the exits to the Arndale. There also is a lot of coffee shops here with Café Nero and Starbucks all having stores, Second Cup also opened their first ever store in the UK here since expanding into the nation and now have 3 stores, including stores in London and Birmingham. The Wheel of Manchester was also located here before it was taken down as the owners were not paying their rent. There isn't much else to say about Exchange Square but it is quite a nice, cool area of Manchester which has been greatly improved and they have worked hard since the IRA bombing of Manchester in 1996 strongly affecting it.

Exchange Square is a lovely part of Manchester, and clever too. Cleverly reconstructed after the…read moreinfamous IRA bombing of 1996, this area is a perfect sun trap in Manchester. Well fitted with rows of seating and a large screen autotuned to the BBC, this area is very rarely empty. It's sad that the wheel has left this area as many people knew where they were due to the landmark and now many people (including me!) can be found wondering why we've taken it down and replaced it with a pop up bar which has missed the nicest weather Manchester has seen in a while? Something to do with the new metrolink city crossing I'm sure. I often walk through this area on my way to guide at the Cathedral but have also been known to watch the ballet here when it was beamed and screened from London. Lovely area but the 3 stars reflects some of the eateries and general lack of atmosphere in the area. Great when the beeb is screening something engaging or when the sun is out but otherwise a bit neglected by the masses.