Where to visit in Manchester – audio interview

I asked my Mancunian friend Chris Joyce to recommend some places in Manchester for my English language students to visit. He came up with some famous places but he also mentioned some less well known attractions. Chris speaks with a true Mancunian accent so click play to listen to the recording and listen carefully!

Aidan Where would you take the visitors to our city, Manchester?

Chris: A multitude of places to start with, ah, let me see… First we’ll go to Smithfield market on a Sunday morning, (the) biggest open-air market and second hand selling place in Manchester.

Aidan: Car boot sale.

Chris: Car boot sale. (It) starts at six in the morning and finishes about twelve. I’d also take a couple of them to the Trafford Centre, and to Old Trafford itself, the football ground, the home of the champions, Manchester United.

Where else would I go? I’d take them to Sale Marina, and show them that in such a busy place like this, there are huge stretches of green and water for the sailing, the water skiing and what have you.

And I’d take them to Heaton Park. Again, all this green urban space.

Where else would I take the people to? Let me see. I’d take them to a comedy club to hear the language spoken in the different ways and how the words can be played with to create the humour that people are going to laugh at.

Aidan: What’s the name of the comedy club?

Chris: The Frog and Bucket on Oldham Street. The corner of Oldham Street and Great Ancoats Street. ‘Cause it’s a beautiful city we live in. There, you’ve got the museums. They’re free to go in. Wilmslow Road. Have a walk down the Curry Mile. You’ve got the Northern Quarter with all its different shops, its bars, its different music. You’ve got Central Library, one of the best architectural buildings in Manchester. You’ve got Chinatown itself, which is worth just to go down and see again how different people live.

We have Chorlton village. Go down to the village green there. And it still is actually like a village. And welcome to our city! There y’are, how’s that?

Aidan: That’s brilliant. You mentioned a couple of streets there. What was the one near Levenshulme?

Chris: Oh, The Street With No Name. And that is the actual name of it. There’s a plaque on it. It has no name. It’s never had a name. So it’s officially called The Street With No Name. Also Moon Grove which is about 150 metres long, or 200 metres long. It’s a conservation area, and it’s strictly stayed the way it was built in early Victorian times.

Aidan: With a cobbled street?

Chris: Cobbled street, like oil lanterns outside the house, fantastic place.

Aidan: And just to finish off with, just tell them your name?

Chris: My name’s Chris Joyce, and I live in Manchester and I have done all my life.

Aidan: What part of Manchester did you grow up in?

Chris: I live in Longsight, I live in Victoria Park. I attended St Roberts, St Pius, and the world.