What's on near The Custard Factory
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
Santiago Yahuarcani’s otherworldly visions come to the Whitworth, in the artist’s first international solo show as part of MIF25.
Free entry
Yuki Kihara reframes Pacific imagery through Fa’afafine voices, creating lush, critical artworks that unsettle long-standing colonial assumptions.
Free entry
Join Manchester Sacred Harp for an afternoon of uplifting four-part harmony social singing at Whitworth Art Gallery.
Free entry
One of London’s most hyped bands of the last few years, Bar Italia are playing Band on the Wall in support of their latest album, Some Like It Hot.
From £19.45Where to go near The Custard Factory
Birmingham Repertory Theatre, commonly called Birmingham Rep or just The Rep, is a producing theatre based on Centenary Square in Birmingham, England. It is the longest-established of Britain’s building-based theatre companies and one of its most consistently innovative.
Former Art Fund Prize Museum of the Year Award winner, World of Wedgwood in Stoke-of-Trent houses one of the most important industrial collections in existence and offers a unique record of over 250 years of ground-breaking British ceramic design and production.
Comprising of 725 acres of land set within a glorious stretch of North Staffordshire countryside on the southern fringe of Stoke-on-Trent, the award-winning visitor attraction Trentham Estate is the last remnant of one of England’s greatest garden estates.
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.
King’s Hall is an events venue in Stoke-on-Trent.
A vast space in the former Spode Works factory in Stoke-on-Trent.
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.
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.
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.
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.
Culture Guides
Winter brings a huge haul of seasonal shows, as well as productions that resolutely veer away from the fairy lights.
Manchester’s closing out the year – and looking to the new one – with a run of gigs from some of the country’s best underground exports.
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.
Step away from the usual. Tours and activities that spark curiosity, inspire creativity and offer something refreshingly different.
Whether you’re after storybook theatre, museum wanderings or illusion-bending play spaces, there’s plenty to keep curiosity ticking through winter and beyond.
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.