Things to See in Manchester

This engrossing museum, housed in an old Edwardian pumping station, aims to deliver a fresh, comprehensive look at the social history of the working class over the past two centuries. The well laid-out exhibits include the desk at which Thomas Paine (1737-1809) wrote Rights of Man (1791) and themes such as the Peterloo Massacre and the sufragette movement.

The Roman fort that gave birth to Manchester was built in Castlefield in AD 79. Later, this became heart of industrial Manchester, a landscape of enormous, weather-stained brick buildings and rusting cast-iron relics of canals, viaducts, bridges, warehouses and market buildings. Castlefield has now been redeveloped into an Urban Heritage Park.

The stunning glass triangle that is Urbis is a museum about how a city works and - often - doesn't work. The walls of the three floors are covered in compelling photographs, interesting statistics and informative timelines, but the best parts are the interactive videos, each of which tell stories about real people from radically different backgrounds and how they fare in Manchester.