I’ve lived in Old Trafford (just a couple of miles from the centre of Manchester) for the past 13 years. Public transport is decent, though more expensive than London. I’ve not owned a car since living here but I’m probably in the minority.
It looks like you’ll just miss this years Manchester International Festival by a few weeks but its new home Factory International will be well worth a visit.
If you’re after a place to practice music (loud), you could try getting a space at Islington Mill, Salford:
https://www.islingtonmill.com/
Lovely place, there are also sort of resident artist nights sometimes, and I had a lot of fun there.
Don’t know if it’s still nice nowadays, though.
(This recommendation is also 12 year old)
Sidewalks might be narrow in certain places compared to American sidewalks I see, but usually terminate with a slope when you reach a crossing.
Generally things will be more accessible in the city centre and the areas around the university. You’ll find much broader, better maintained paved spaces compared to some areas. With work colleagues etc I’ve had in the past, some of the poorly maintained sidewalks etc presented problems. But not something I have much knowledge of.
Dependant on which campus your partner is at, you’ll be very central if living nearby. The main campus is on Oxford road with some buildings being even closer into the town centre. The area around the campus, especially along Oxford road has broad flat sidewalks, and most of the buildings I can think of off the top of my head have accessible ramps/entrances, although some might still need updating.
One thing I think places can often lack are automatic doors. So some shops etc which would otherwise be fine become difficult to access if alone. I’m talking more so about the metal framed, glass panel, really heavy doors on some newer stores etc.
Thank you so much! That was actually incredibly helpful
You’re ideally placed if you’re near the Uni. As @kuroichi says the area around the campus is very good for pedestrian access. The whole area (the Pecinct Area as it was called) was redeveloped in the 70’s and laid out with pedestrian access/segregation from traffic in mind. As far as the tram system goes (Metrolink) there’s no tram that goes along Oxford Road but that corridor is well served with busses literally every 5 minutes. Accessibility may be an issue tho. It’s deffo possible to walk into the City Centre or ‘town’ (as us Manc’s would say) with St Peter’s Square being at the top of Oxford Street/Road and it’s only a short distance further along Peter Street before your on Deansgate.
The tram network is very good for getting around the city and beyond to some of the satellite towns and there’s not much overlap with bus routes so what might have been two or three different busses in the past can often be done with one tram journey. For instance you can go directly from Rochdale to Parrs Wood which is basically one of the most southern points within city boundaries taking in Oldham, the City Centre, Pomona, Chorlton and West Didsbury en route. I’m not a wheel chair user but accessibility looks good from my tram travels. There are lifts from pavement level down or up to platform level where needed and lots of ramp access elsewhere. The whole network isn’t that old so lots of planning for that sort of stuff was done before the stations were built.
Here’s the network map. It’s laid out like the London Underground map so might appear a little confusing at first as Bury for instance isn’t in the east but north of the city.
Oxford Road train station is in your direction and you can get various trains there too
A couple of resources that might be useful: