Cool cities and cool things to do there
Cool cities and cool things to do there
Hi Travel baggers :)
I'd like to hear from you about the following four cities:
Manchester
Cardiff
Glasgow
Leeds
We are wondering who or what you would suggest for the following categories:
coolest people
coolest places to go out
cool art and exhibitions
cool films based in the city
and cool bands from the city
Any care to suggest some nominations for each category for those three cities?
Thank you! :great:
Answers:
My favourite area to go out in Glasgow is the west end. Especially Ashton Lane. It's a little lane in the west end, near the University of Glasgow.
It's a wee lane with cobbled streets and nice friendly bars galore, as well as a few great restaurants. Including two Indian, and the famous Glasgow restaurant The Ubiquitous Chip.
The west end also has a great comedy club called The Stand, with comedians from Glasgow, the UK, and all over the world.
The city centre is full of bars, clubs, and restaurants, catering to whatever you would like to eat, though of course being Glasgow, there are a lot of Indian restaurants to choose from.
There is also the Merchant City, so named after the tobacco trade that Glasgow used to thrive in. It is now quite a trendy area with a great selection of ecclectic bars, clubs, and restaurants. Some more reasonable in price, and some a touch more expensive.
In the centre there is also the huge UGC cinema complex boasting of I think 14 screens, if you fancy a quiet night.....
With regards cool art and exhibitions, my favourite would be House for an Art Lover. Designed in 1901 by Glasgow’s most celebrated architect, Charles Rennie Mackintosh, it was finally completed in 1996. It boasts designs by the world famous art nouveau inspired architect.
However, Glasgow is full of museums, and it would take too long to write about them all. However, this website gives a great overview of the best of them, including the gallery of modern art, and the world famous Burrell collection.
Glasgow is also often referred to as the best place in the UK, other than London, for it's shopping. It certainly doesn't disappoint IMHO, with most of the main shopping areas in the centre within easy walking distance.
The vibrant shopping district in the heart of the city is focused around the pedestrianised areas of Buchanan Street, Argyle Street, and Sauchiehall Street. Other highlights include the Designer Exchange off Royal Exchange Square, and Princes Square set in a renovated 1841 square has a cosmopolitan selection of designer names.
In addition there's the Italian Centre which combines Italian designer excellence with stylish cafes and restaurants, and for an offbeat shopping experience there's De Courcy's Antique Craft Arcade located in the West End and the Victorian Village is a great browsing ground for costume jewellery and memorabilia hunters.
Taken from http://www.glasgowguide.co.uk/shops.html
And finally, with regards to cool bands from the city, well it depends on which decade you are focusing on, and whether you consider Hue and Cry to be cool....;) Most recently though there have been Travis and Franz Ferdinand. Also the new "next big thing" KT Tunstall.
Answers:
Manchester
For old school academic art and decorative arts (ceramics, furniture, textiles) then there is the main Manchester City Art gallery (on Mosely street I think) which has a large collection of pre raphaelite paintings also paintings by Stubbs, Gainsborough, Turner and a huge Decorative Arts Collection. Quite a nice building aswell if you're interested in architecture. Website http://www.manchestergalleries.org/h...g/mag_home.jsp The Whitworth gallery (Manchester University gallery) also has a big collection of decorative arts (famous for it's textiles) aswell as paintings, sculptures and some modern art.
For more contemporary visual art and art house cinema then The CornerHouse (Oxford Street, opposite the Palace theatre and Palace Hotel, near Oxford Street station) has fairly avante garde (sometimes controversial) exhibitions in all mediums of paintings, sculpture, photography, media....also holds regular seminars and talks on the visual arts and has been the venue for a few foreign arts/film festivals. Also has a three screen Art house cinema showing new and classic foreign, independent and avant garde films. Pretty cool cafe and bar aswell, very arty crowd, alot of art students. Oh and a nice little bookshop that sells lots of contemporary visual arts and photography books and some unusual prints aswell.
Manchester Met University Art Department (opposite the All saints library and park) also have some pretty cool student exhibitions on during the year. A few years back the art department and performing arts students recreated the Dada's Cabaret Voltaire which was excellent but there is often a visual exhibition on the ground floor of the art department.
Tonnes of bands and music originating from Manchester...quite possibly the coolest band in the world The Smiths (Morrissey) :bow: die hard Smiths fans could even take a trip to the Salford Lads club and take a photo of themselves outside the entrance to recreate the famous photo of the band as seen on the inside cover of 'The Queen is Dead' album (whether that would be considered 'cool' or not I don't know :lol: ) Other well known bands I can think of are...The Charlatons, James, New Order, Badly Drawn Boy (Damon Gough), Oasis, The Happy Mondays, David Gray, Inspiral Carpets, Joy Division, Simply Red, Lisa Stansfield, M People...and of course Take That :D Manchester plays a big part in the history of British music and club culture especially during the 80's through to early 90's. The film "24 Hour Party People" is based on the Manchester music scene from the late 70's to early 90's, in particular the record label Factory Records and the world famous Hacienda club (now closed)
Lots of nice places to go and places to eat, socialise, etc but my coolest thing to do in Manchester would be to shop :yay: :yay: A brilliant city for shopping :great:
Answers:
My favourite place to eat in Manchester is still Simply Heathcotes - the Olive Press downstairs is nice too!
I really liked the film "There's only one Jimmy Grimble" which is based in Manchester too.
kateab
Answers:
Some brilliant contributions everyone, thank you very much! Before I compile all of this, anyone else want to recommend your favourite places to our readers?
Hi Travel baggers :)
I'd like to hear from you about the following four cities:
Manchester
Cardiff
Glasgow
Leeds
We are wondering who or what you would suggest for the following categories:
coolest people
coolest places to go out
cool art and exhibitions
cool films based in the city
and cool bands from the city
Any care to suggest some nominations for each category for those three cities?
Thank you! :great:
Answers:
My favourite area to go out in Glasgow is the west end. Especially Ashton Lane. It's a little lane in the west end, near the University of Glasgow.
It's a wee lane with cobbled streets and nice friendly bars galore, as well as a few great restaurants. Including two Indian, and the famous Glasgow restaurant The Ubiquitous Chip.
The west end also has a great comedy club called The Stand, with comedians from Glasgow, the UK, and all over the world.
The city centre is full of bars, clubs, and restaurants, catering to whatever you would like to eat, though of course being Glasgow, there are a lot of Indian restaurants to choose from.
There is also the Merchant City, so named after the tobacco trade that Glasgow used to thrive in. It is now quite a trendy area with a great selection of ecclectic bars, clubs, and restaurants. Some more reasonable in price, and some a touch more expensive.
In the centre there is also the huge UGC cinema complex boasting of I think 14 screens, if you fancy a quiet night.....
With regards cool art and exhibitions, my favourite would be House for an Art Lover. Designed in 1901 by Glasgow’s most celebrated architect, Charles Rennie Mackintosh, it was finally completed in 1996. It boasts designs by the world famous art nouveau inspired architect.
However, Glasgow is full of museums, and it would take too long to write about them all. However, this website gives a great overview of the best of them, including the gallery of modern art, and the world famous Burrell collection.
Glasgow is also often referred to as the best place in the UK, other than London, for it's shopping. It certainly doesn't disappoint IMHO, with most of the main shopping areas in the centre within easy walking distance.
The vibrant shopping district in the heart of the city is focused around the pedestrianised areas of Buchanan Street, Argyle Street, and Sauchiehall Street. Other highlights include the Designer Exchange off Royal Exchange Square, and Princes Square set in a renovated 1841 square has a cosmopolitan selection of designer names.
In addition there's the Italian Centre which combines Italian designer excellence with stylish cafes and restaurants, and for an offbeat shopping experience there's De Courcy's Antique Craft Arcade located in the West End and the Victorian Village is a great browsing ground for costume jewellery and memorabilia hunters.
Taken from http://www.glasgowguide.co.uk/shops.html
And finally, with regards to cool bands from the city, well it depends on which decade you are focusing on, and whether you consider Hue and Cry to be cool....;) Most recently though there have been Travis and Franz Ferdinand. Also the new "next big thing" KT Tunstall.
Answers:
Manchester
For old school academic art and decorative arts (ceramics, furniture, textiles) then there is the main Manchester City Art gallery (on Mosely street I think) which has a large collection of pre raphaelite paintings also paintings by Stubbs, Gainsborough, Turner and a huge Decorative Arts Collection. Quite a nice building aswell if you're interested in architecture. Website http://www.manchestergalleries.org/h...g/mag_home.jsp The Whitworth gallery (Manchester University gallery) also has a big collection of decorative arts (famous for it's textiles) aswell as paintings, sculptures and some modern art.
For more contemporary visual art and art house cinema then The CornerHouse (Oxford Street, opposite the Palace theatre and Palace Hotel, near Oxford Street station) has fairly avante garde (sometimes controversial) exhibitions in all mediums of paintings, sculpture, photography, media....also holds regular seminars and talks on the visual arts and has been the venue for a few foreign arts/film festivals. Also has a three screen Art house cinema showing new and classic foreign, independent and avant garde films. Pretty cool cafe and bar aswell, very arty crowd, alot of art students. Oh and a nice little bookshop that sells lots of contemporary visual arts and photography books and some unusual prints aswell.
Manchester Met University Art Department (opposite the All saints library and park) also have some pretty cool student exhibitions on during the year. A few years back the art department and performing arts students recreated the Dada's Cabaret Voltaire which was excellent but there is often a visual exhibition on the ground floor of the art department.
Tonnes of bands and music originating from Manchester...quite possibly the coolest band in the world The Smiths (Morrissey) :bow: die hard Smiths fans could even take a trip to the Salford Lads club and take a photo of themselves outside the entrance to recreate the famous photo of the band as seen on the inside cover of 'The Queen is Dead' album (whether that would be considered 'cool' or not I don't know :lol: ) Other well known bands I can think of are...The Charlatons, James, New Order, Badly Drawn Boy (Damon Gough), Oasis, The Happy Mondays, David Gray, Inspiral Carpets, Joy Division, Simply Red, Lisa Stansfield, M People...and of course Take That :D Manchester plays a big part in the history of British music and club culture especially during the 80's through to early 90's. The film "24 Hour Party People" is based on the Manchester music scene from the late 70's to early 90's, in particular the record label Factory Records and the world famous Hacienda club (now closed)
Lots of nice places to go and places to eat, socialise, etc but my coolest thing to do in Manchester would be to shop :yay: :yay: A brilliant city for shopping :great:
Answers:
My favourite place to eat in Manchester is still Simply Heathcotes - the Olive Press downstairs is nice too!
I really liked the film "There's only one Jimmy Grimble" which is based in Manchester too.
kateab
Answers:
Some brilliant contributions everyone, thank you very much! Before I compile all of this, anyone else want to recommend your favourite places to our readers?