Started by artisan baker Russell Goodwin, Companio Bakery sells freshly-baked bread from a small unit in Manchester’s Ancoats.

Oak Street Café at Manchester Craft & Design Centre does fresh, healthy salads, soups, sandwiches, quiches and, best of all, cakes.

Sitting in a Grade II-listed former Mill on Pollard Street, Hope Mill brings exciting fringe theatre productions to Manchester’s thriving live theatre scene.

Re-opened in 2010 after a £1.3m renovation, the Gallery of Costume in Manchester’s Rusholme houses one of the most important costume collections in Britain

This café in Ancoats is locally famed for its lunchtime deals and sandwiches

Manchester Central Convention Centre is the city’s main conferences and events centre, housed in the former Manchester Central railway station.

TwentyTwentyTwo (formerly 2022NQ) is a bar, art gallery and performance space in Manchester’s Northern Quarter that’s underground – literally & metaphorically.

A true Liverpudlian treasure, great for a pie and pint.

The Quarter is a triple threat restaurant, cafe and deli.

The Manchester School of Art, of which the Holden Gallery is a part, is a beautiful neo-Gothic building that’s part of MMU’s All Saints campus.

The Cunard is one of Liverpool’s “Three Graces”

Junk emporium 69A in Liverpool is the shop that time forgot. It has been peddling vintage wares since 1976.