Manchester

Manchester has always known what it is. England's first industrial city. Cottonopolis. The place that gave the world the industrial revolution, the suffragette movement, and the Hallé Orchestra, then turned around and gave it Joy Division, Oasis, and the first professional football league.

That confidence can feel a little overwhelming. The city wears its history loudly: the Victorian civic grandeur of St Peter's Square, the Northern Quarter's warehouse cool, Ancoats – once Europe's first industrial suburb – reborn as one of England's most compelling neighbourhoods.

But Manchester doesn't stand still long enough to be pinned down, which makes it so rewarding to explore on foot. VoiceMap's self-guided audio tours take you through four centuries of reinvention, from the cotton mills that changed the world to the Canal Street bars that reclaimed it. Follow the Bridgewater Canal to Old Trafford's Theatre of Dreams, or wander Chinatown's Paifang arch to hear how Hong Kong migrants shaped the city's textile trade.