http://www.ivebeenthere.co.uk/ Welcome to Been there. Your tips on the places you know - that you love, live in or have just visited - are what make this guide. http://www.ivebeenthere.co.uk/tips/12346 Or - if you are a Red's fan, you can of course be right in the action by booking tickets to a match!
For a fun day out- VISIT OLD TRAFFORD!!!]]> http://www.ivebeenthere.co.uk/tips/12346 http://www.ivebeenthere.co.uk/tips/9200
Manchester Art Gallery on Mosley Street has a couple of his panoramic paintings in its permanent collection, and the Lowry in Salford also has some of his work. Spencer's work has been reproduced in some limited print formats and is available from Wendy Levy Contemporary Art in Didsbury. While there, it would be worth a meal at the The Lime Tree restaurant in nearby West Didsbury, which also has a panorama painting of Salford Quays but the most unlikely place you would see a Spencer work is the reception to the Accident and Emergency section of North Manchester General Hospital in Crumpsall, which has a huge panorama of the hospital itself, at a worryingly low height given the agitated states I've seen some of the clientele in. Let's hope your visit to Didsbury's bars and restaurants doesn't cause you to visit the final stop on my Liam Spencer tour!]]> http://www.ivebeenthere.co.uk/tips/9200 http://www.ivebeenthere.co.uk/tips/8995
Inside, exhibitions centre around a timeline and feature traditional artifacts alongside interactive material, with giant screens and surround sound films bringing the harsh realities of war to life. There's a good section on the role of women at war, but perhaps, most harrowing is the collection of letters sent home from soldiers on the front line.

Climb or take the lift to the top of the air shard which shoots up from the main building for an impressive view of Manchester's cityscape and beyond.]]> http://www.ivebeenthere.co.uk/tips/8995 http://www.ivebeenthere.co.uk/tips/8969 http://www.ivebeenthere.co.uk/tips/8969 http://www.ivebeenthere.co.uk/tips/8927
The collection begins with Thomas Paine in the 1790s and goes right up to the present day, taking in chartists, socialists, suffragettes and suffragists, the Spanish civil war, the miners strike of 84/85 etc.

It was started by Ruth and Edmund Frow in their own home in the 1950s and now fills 40 rooms in a former Edwardian nurses home. Visitors are welcome by prior arrangement (phone or email first).

Sadly, Ruth Frow died on January 11 2008, aged 84.]]> http://www.ivebeenthere.co.uk/tips/8927