The Best Things to Do in England’s Manchester

“What’s the story morning glory?”

If you had wandered through Manchester 30 years ago, you would've passed youths in baggy jeans and bucket hats heading to a Britpop gig or a game at one of the city’s football stadiums. Or both. In 1996, local lads Oasis played a legendary show at Maine Road stadium, then home of Manchester City Football Club, which laid the soundtrack to a formative time in Mancunian culture. Today, Oasis is back, those big jeans are back and so is the city, its streets of industrial warehouses now punctuated with glass skyscrapers and plenty of bars and restaurants bringing new energy.

Manchester is in the midst of a moment. In February, the northern metropolis, a 4.5-hour drive from London, became the first English city outside the capital to host the Michelin Guide’s awards ceremony. French fashion house Chanel presented its Métiers d’art collection here last December. And from next year, the old Granada TV studio, birthplace of Coronation Street, is set to become an outpost of private members’ club/hotel Soho House, an international arbiter of cool from Bangkok to Istanbul.

To soak up the atmosphere, base yourself at Malmaison Manchester Deansgate (above), a 70-room hotel on Princess Street with views over the historic Neo-Gothic Manchester Town Hall. Here, the retro interiors reference British design of the ’60s and ’70s and the rooftop pan-Asian tapas bar, Sora, offers small plates of sushi and robatayaki, best enjoyed with a Cherry Blossom Negroni.

Fifteen minutes away, you’ll find new fine-diner Skof (above), where chef Tom Barnes creates contemporary dégustation menus brimming with British ingredients, from Orkney scallops to Manchester honey ice-cream. For a nightcap, it's a short stroll from the hotel to Schofield’s Bar (below), voted number one on the UK’s Top 50 Cocktail Bars list, where the Clover Club is made with Bombay Sapphire gin, lemon, eggwhite and raspberry, along with the prized ingredient: the bar’s eponymous dry vermouth. The vibe? Old-school English elegance.