The Museum of Science and Industry occupies one of Manchester's most consequential patches of ground. The building at its heart was Liverpool Road Station, the world's first inter-city passenger railway terminus, which opened in 1830. Manchester, the tour script notes wryly, essentially invented commuting.

Inside, the museum traces the city's role in the Industrial Revolution with a permanent collection covering everything from the cotton trade to steam power. Live demonstrations of spinning machines and stationary steam engines reveal not just the mechanics but the reality of factory life: loud, relentless and, at times, quite horrifying.

VoiceMap's Manchester tours use the museum as a pivot point, connecting the railways that began here to the canals that preceded them and the mills that made both necessary. From Liverpool Road, guides trace how Manchester's industrial ambition remade the city's landscape and, in the process, the world.