Manchester Urban Culture

Introduction   

This page is about Manchester Urban culture.  Urban i.e. situated in a town or city and culture, the customs of a particular people or group of people.  It encompasses what passes for some of the life and entertainment in the city of Manchester today.  (Including Salford and Trafford).

Some of the links refer to art, music and theatre and others reflect the ways in which the people of Manchester can use their leisure time.  'It's what packs them in'.

I have chosen 5 areas of interest to reflect the diversity of Manchester Urban Culture. The Lowry for Arts and Theatre.  The Bridgewater Hall for Music.   Manchester United for Sport.  The Print Works for city centre leisure. The Trafford Centre an out-of-town Shopping and Entertainment Mall.

These 5 places of interest all have comprehensive web sites, they all reflect current web site design trends and conform in most part to good web design principles.  The pace of web development and the constant change of form, fashion, ideas and software, particularly the use of frames, Java and Flash components, has meant that ideas of good design are constantly changing, but the basic principles are mostly adhered to. Follow the links to basic do's and don'ts of web design.   

              All the chosen sites use menu links and in several cases sub-menu links to navigate the site with only a frame within the basic page which changes if an internal link is selected.

The web sites are suitable and of general interest to everyone, in most cases you are able to feedback through e-mail and you can buy, book or get booking information online. In some cases there are specific links e.g. 'kid's' or student links, or links for people with disabilities.

This page includes links within the page and external links.  The site does not have images which take time to download, but the background is a compilation of images taken from the sites. 

The Lowery                 Click on the icon to enter the site         

The Lowry is a new development in Salford Quays, which is an area of development  in Salford. It's architecture is very modern and I think it's great but you can judge for yourself if you follow the architecture link on the site.  There are 2 theatres putting on a great variety of performances from ballet to pantomime.  There is a gallery devoted to Lowry and a good selection of exhibitions.  There are bars and restaurants, but check the price of bottled water before you order it.

The site itself has everything you wanted to know about the Lowry development and more, a fully working comprehensive site, quick and easy to navigate.

The opening page has 11 links  and a mouse over feature which gives you an image and page title. If you are familiar with the site this is the best way to enter it, but the first time you use the site it would be better to use the 'Enter Site ' link at the top right of the page, this takes you to the 'Home' page.

The 'Home' page is a frames page with an attractive design and is easy to follow and read.

Unfortunately the Theatre and Galleries links are completely out of date, although you do get a Box Office number and an apology. 

The location button leads to a page has a good selection of maps and information and from here you can enter the architecture page which also has information about Salford quays past and present.

The Trafford Centre           Click on the icon to enter the site 

The Trafford Centre experience is much than shopping, although if you enjoy shopping it's has a very pleasant environment  with plenty of space.  Along with the shopping is the Orient with it's bars, restaurants, cinema complex,  bowling alley and live shows on each floor. The security is excellent, and in the evening it's similar to being on the continent with its outside bars, of course it never rains and it's always warm. I think it's rather a beautiful and ambitious building and well worth a visit.

The home page of the site is rather cluttered, but there is a menu at the side from which you can access the whole site.  the centre frame of the home page gives direct links to the Cinema complex from which you can see the times of films. There is useful information for disabled visitors, prominently displayed on the page with a direct link for more information. 

The links in the menu all work well and the site is very up to date if you want to know what's going on. There are extensive guides to help you explore the Centre and search for goods.  if you are traveling to the Centre from a distance there is extensive information on how to get there by a variety of modes of transport.

This site is well worth a visit before you visit the Trafford Centre.               

Bridgewater hall          Click on the icon to enter the site   

The Bridgewater hall is a quite recently built building which is designed for the purpose of listening to musical performances.  The Halle Orchestra is based there at present although it has found the cost of performing and practicing there very high.  Its central feature is a specially designed auditorium with a magnificent organ as its centre piece.

This is a very clear and easy to use site. You can enter any part of the site from a drop down menu or there is a link directly to the Home page It's booking online feature gives you sub-menus including seating plans and price bands, a FAQ section to help you out with any queries like ticket exchange and refunds.  It also gives information on other ways to pay e.g. fax of phone.  Its Agenda link using sub menus was very up to date giving excellent program information with ticket prices and times etc. There are also links to Food and Drink and Mailing lists

The Access information and car parking was comprehensive and there is an excellent section for *people with disabilities.

There is an Architecture section but the best link of all is one which gives you control of a panoramic camera shot with zoom capabilities. Click here to try it out.                                  

M.U.F.C         Click on the icon to enter the site 

For anyone who doesn't know MUFC stands for Manchester United Football Club.  At first this may seem a strange choice for a site on culture, but it forms an integral part of the way life for many of it's supporters. The club has a world wide following and it could be argued that they have done as much to make Manchester well known as the Beetles did for Liverpool.  It is no longer a just a place to play football, its big business and has many forms of entertainment such as Tours and a Museum restaurants and cafes. People arrive in their coach loads to enjoy the facilities.

The MUFC official site (there are numerous unofficial ones some very good) is rather slow to load and at first looks very cluttered, try to avoid accidentally clicking to one of the advert links. The site however has very good menu links with a mouse over feature which brings up lots of sub links.  This makes the site very easy to navigate and acts as a site map for a very comprehensive site.

You are able to book tickets on line although none were available as they tend to get a full house every time. There is a link to Museum which is quite interesting and of course there is a link to the megastore to shop online.

Once you have started using the menu you tend not to look elsewhere and there are some interesting links hidden away at the bottom of the home page, which deserve a bit more prominence.

Print Works                 Click on the icon to enter the site      

The Print Works describes itself as 'The UK's first urban entertainment centre'.  It has a multi-screen cinema,  'The Filmworks', a health club, shops and boasts 36 bars and 14 restaurants each with a specialist or international theme.

The Print Works website is a classy well designed site with excellent web links to many of the venues, but it definitely requires a computer with Flash, this can be downloaded free and is often to be found on free discs with computer magazines (it's well worth having if you want to enjoy some of the very modern sites).  The site is may be slow to load the first time you view it.

The site is designed around a centre frame which changes as you select different links.  The Centre map works well and a mouse over highlights where each venue is. The Events page is very up to date, the Rainy day link gives you a weather forecast for up to 3 days, and the Kids link has a fun popup working keyboard and gives details of 'The Living Ceiling' which sounds like it is well worth a visit. There are also After hours and Students links.

The home page also includes a drop down menu of all the venues and each link brings up information about them.  This information is quite comprehensive and gives links to each venues web site if they have them.  Try out some of the venues such as the 'Hard Rock Cafe'  and Riki Tki Tivi  and have a look at the menus on the Old Orleans Site. The web site links open a new browser window so if you close it down you are returned to the Print Works site.  

Sites of Interest            Click on the icon to enter the site

Manchester City Club 'The only football club to come from Manchester' (MUFC is in Trafford).

  Manchester online a detailed site encompassing many aspects of what Manchester has to offer.

The Museum of Science and Industry, well worth a visit.

The Whitworth Art Gallery good for information about forthcoming exhibitions.  

The Manchester Museum not a fully working site at the moment but worth a visit.

Museum of Transport, not as sophisticated a design as other sites but full of information. 

Links to Galleries in and around Manchester Including the Gallery of Costume