What's on near Central Forest Park
From wild buildings to wilder characters, explore hidden histories and architectural oddities in the Cheshire town of Knutsford.
From £20.00
Within Chorlton’s Southern Cemetery lie fascinating stories, beautiful architectural details, and the inspiration behind one of The Smith’s best songs.
From £20.00
From a hamlet on a road to nowhere to one of Manchester’s most desirable suburbs. What’s the story behind Chorlton-cum-Hardy?
From £20.00
Take a walking tour of both Alexandra Park and wider Whalley Range, uncovering the tales that lie within its mighty buildings, its churches and its people.
From £20.00
Join Manchester Sacred Harp for an afternoon of uplifting four-part harmony social singing at Whitworth Art Gallery.
Free entry
The Whitworth showcases one of contemporary art’s most unruly imaginations as 2024 Turner Prize nominee Delaine Le Bas arrives with a major solo exhibition.
Free entry
Yuki Kihara reframes Pacific imagery through Fa’afafine voices, creating lush, critical artworks that unsettle long-standing colonial assumptions.
Free entry
Santiago Yahuarcani’s otherworldly visions come to the Whitworth, in the artist’s first international solo show as part of MIF25.
Free entryWhere to go near Central Forest Park
Bethesda Methodist Chapel in Hanley is considered to be one of England’s grandest surviving town chapels – and it’s easy to see why.
AirSpace Gallery is a collaborative, artist led project in Stoke-on-Trent, providing studio and exhibiting space as well as professional support and development opportunities for artists.
Home to the most significant collection of Staffordshire ceramics in the world and the largest collection of Anglo-Saxon treasure ever found, a visit to Stoke-upon-Trent is not complete without an afternoon whiled away in The Potteries Museum & Art Gallery.
Described as “the finest and most distinctive example of Modernist architecture in Stoke-on-Trent”, City Central Library is Stoke-on-Trent’s largest library, home to the city archives.
The pottery lover’s mecca, over 1.3 million Emma Bridgwater pieces are produced at the designer’s Stoke-on-Trent based factory every year – each one touched by over 30 deftly-skilled hands. Take an award-winning tour, visit the heavily discounted shop and have a go at producing your own earthenware masterpiece.
The Etruria Industrial Museum is only remaining operational example of a nineteenth century steam-powered potter’s mill.
‘Mother town’ of The Potteries, Burslem dates back to at least 1085 when it appears listed in the Domesday Book. Today, the wealth and fortune generated by the boom in global demand for Staffordshire pottery can still be seen reflected in the town’s many fine red brick buildings and grand displays of civic pride.
Built in 1888, the beautifully-conserved grade II* listed Middleport Pottery has been producing its world-famous Burleigh pieces for over 120 years. Today it is the only working Victorian pottery left in Stoke-on-Trent and a multi award-winning visitor attraction.
Just a short walk from Stoke-on-Trent train station is Stoke Minster, believed to have once been an important Celtic religious site and where Christian worship has taken place since Saxon times.
King’s Hall is an events venue in Stoke-on-Trent.
A vast space in the former Spode Works factory in Stoke-on-Trent.
The last complete Victorian pottery factory in Britain, Gladstone Pottery Museum in Longton provides a unique insight into the history of Stoke-on-Trent; an area renowned for its world-class pottery and ceramics.
District Guides
Culture Guides
This season, exhibitions across the North West feel attuned to the world beneath the world – the forces and stories shaping how we see, feel and imagine.
Manchester’s starting the new year with a run of gigs from some of the country’s best underground exports.
Whether you’re after storybook theatre, museum wanderings or illusion-bending play spaces, there’s plenty to keep curiosity ticking through winter and beyond.
Step away from the usual. Tours and activities that spark curiosity, inspire creativity and offer something refreshingly different.
Theatre across the North West splits between festive escape and sharp, urgent work exploring politics, power and resistance.
There's no shortage of great films out at the moment, whether you're looking for the latest blockbuster, that hot arthouse flick fresh from Cannes or a cosy classic.
Hear ye, hear ye. Take some eating-out tips from our wintertime guide to food and drink in Manchester and the North.