Popular Arts Venues in Manchester
Chapels, mills and exchanges, all turned into stages.
Manchester's arts scene runs along three axes: the Oxford Road corridor, the city centre core around St Peter's Square and Deansgate, and Salford Quays. Producing theatres, free civic galleries, converted chapels and mills, and two of the country's largest arenas all sit within a few tram stops of each other.
Where the scene clusters
Oxford Road strings the universities, an arts centre, a conservatoire and a young people's theatre along one straight line. The city centre core holds the concert hall, the round, and the Peter Street music rooms. Ancoats, Castlefield and Salford Quays take the rest.
What you can see for nothing
The civic and university galleries are free, and between them they cover Pre-Raphaelites, textiles and contemporary work by artists still making their names. Touring exhibitions inside them sometimes ticket separately, so check before you set off.
When the season peaks
Autumn to spring is the busy stretch: orchestral seasons, touring musicals, and gig weeks driven by the student terms. Summer moves outdoors and the halls quieten. Arena nights sell furthest ahead, so book those first.
Popular Arts Venues in Manchester
Albert Hall
Live music venue (converted Wesleyan chapel)
A former Wesleyan Methodist chapel reopened as a music venue in 2013; capacity around 2,290 across the main hall.
27 Peter Street, Manchester, M2 5QR
AO Arena
Indoor arena
Opened 1995 above Manchester Victoria station; one of the UK's busiest arenas, capacity in the region of 21,000, refurbished in recent years.
Victoria Station, Hunts Bank, Manchester, M3 1AR
Aviva Studios, home of Factory International
Multi-form arts venue
Opened 2023 on the former Granada Studios site; combines a large Warehouse space and a flexible Hall, and is the year-round home of Manchester International Festival.
Water Street, Manchester, M3 4JQ
Band on the Wall
Live music venue
Long-standing Manchester music venue between the Northern Quarter and Ancoats; reopened in 2022 after a major expansion, with a global live and club programme.
25 Swan Street, Northern Quarter, Manchester, M4 5JZ
Castlefield Gallery
Contemporary art gallery (artist-led)
Founded 1984, one of the north west's longest running artist-led contemporary spaces; free entry and a strong emerging-artist development programme.
2 Hewitt Street, Manchester, M15 4GB
Co-op Live
Indoor arena
Opened 2024 on the Etihad Campus; capacity about 23,500 with standing, making it the UK's largest indoor arena.
1 Sportcity Way, Manchester, M11 3DL
Contact Theatre
Producing theatre for young people
Established 1972 on the Oxford Road corridor; works with young people aged 13 to 30 who sit on its decision-making panels.
Oxford Road, Manchester, M15 6JA
Gorilla
Live music venue and bar
Built into railway arches under Oxford Road station; capacity around 600, a key mid-size step on UK touring circuits.
54-56 Whitworth Street West, Manchester, M1 5WW
Hallé St Peter's
Rehearsal and performance hall
A deconsecrated Ancoats church converted into the Hallé's rehearsal and recording home, with the adjoining Oglesby Centre; hosts public concerts and open rehearsals.
Blossom Street, Ancoats, Manchester, M4 6BF
HOME
Arts centre (theatre, cinema and gallery)
Opened 2015 from the merger of Cornerhouse and the Library Theatre Company; two theatres (about 500 and 150 seats), five cinema screens and roughly 500 sq m of gallery space.
2 Tony Wilson Place, First Street, Manchester, M15 4FN
Hope Mill Theatre
Independent producing theatre (studio)
Opened November 2015 inside the Grade II* listed Hope Mill, a converted textile mill; known nationally for off-West-End-scale musical revivals.
113 Pollard Street, Ancoats, Manchester, M4 7JA
Manchester Academy
Live music venues (students' union complex)
Run by the University of Manchester Students' Union; a cluster of rooms (Academy 1, 2, 3 and Club Academy) covering roughly 250 to 2,600 capacity.
Oxford Road, Manchester, M13 9PR
Manchester Art Gallery
Free civic art gallery
Established 1823 and publicly owned; free entry, with a nationally significant Pre-Raphaelite collection alongside Italian and Flemish old masters.
Mosley Street, Manchester, M2 3JL
O2 Apollo Manchester
Live music venue (former cinema)
Art deco former cinema opened 1938, Grade II listed; capacity around 3,500 and a fixture of the UK touring circuit.
Stockport Road, Ardwick Green, Manchester, M12 6AP
Opera House Manchester
Touring theatre (musicals, ballet, pantomime)
Opened 1912; about 1,920 seats. Sister venue to the Palace Theatre under ATG Entertainment.
3 Quay Street, Manchester, M3 3HP
Palace Theatre Manchester
Touring theatre (musicals and large-scale drama)
Opened 1891, designed by Alfred Darbyshire; current seated capacity about 1,955, reduced from an original 3,675. Operated by ATG Entertainment.
97 Oxford Street, Manchester, M1 6FT
Royal Exchange Theatre
Producing theatre (theatre-in-the-round)
Grade II listed former cotton exchange; the seven-sided module suspended in the Great Hall is the largest theatre-in-the-round in Britain, around 700 seats, plus a studio.
St Ann's Square, Manchester, M2 7DH
Royal Northern College of Music (RNCM)
Conservatoire and public concert venue
Conservatoire with a public programme across the RNCM Concert Hall and RNCM Theatre; hosts festivals and visiting ensembles as well as student performances.
124 Oxford Road, Manchester, M13 9RD
The Bridgewater Hall
Concert hall
Opened 1996; capacity about 2,355. Home to three resident orchestras, the Hallé, the BBC Philharmonic and Manchester Camerata. The building sits on around 280 springs for acoustic isolation.
Lower Mosley Street, Manchester, M2 3WS
The Dancehouse Theatre
Mid-scale receiving theatre and dance school
Art deco former cinema, around 430 seats; home to the Northern Ballet School and a receiving house for dance and touring drama.
10 Oxford Road, Manchester, M1 5QA
The Deaf Institute
Small live music venue and club
Grade II listed building that was once an institute for the deaf; the upstairs Music Hall holds about 260 for gigs and up to roughly 500 on club nights.
135 Grosvenor Street, Manchester, M1 7HE
The Lowry
Arts centre (three theatres and galleries)
Theatres are the Lyric (about 1,730), Quays (about 466) and Studio (about 150); holds the world's largest public collection of L. S. Lowry's work, with free gallery entry.
Pier 8, Salford Quays, Salford, M50 3AZ
The Stoller Hall
Concert hall (chamber, jazz, folk, contemporary)
Opened 2017 within Chetham's School of Music; capacity up to about 482, with the smaller Carole Nash Hall alongside. RIBA award winning.
Hunts Bank, Long Millgate, Manchester, M3 1DA
The Whitworth
Free university art gallery
Founded 1889 in memory of Sir Joseph Whitworth; part of the University of Manchester, free entry, with over 60,000 works including an outstanding textiles and wallpaper collection. Set in Whitworth Park.
Oxford Road, Manchester, M15 6ER
Z-arts
Children's and family arts centre
Manchester's dedicated venue for children and families, in the former Zion Institute building; theatre, play spaces and participation programmes.
335 Stretford Road, Hulme, Manchester, M15 5ZA
Manchester, asked.
Which Manchester galleries are free to enter?
Manchester Art Gallery on Mosley Street, the Whitworth on Oxford Road and Castlefield Gallery on Hewitt Street are all free. So are the galleries at The Lowry in Salford Quays, which hold the largest public collection of L. S. Lowry's work.
What is the difference between a producing and a touring theatre in Manchester?
Producing houses make their own work. The Royal Exchange in St Ann's Square, Contact on Oxford Road and Hope Mill Theatre in Ancoats all do. Touring houses receive it, chiefly the Palace Theatre and the Opera House. Aviva Studios commissions new large-scale work for Factory International.
How do people promote a show in Manchester?
Social media does some of it, but audiences here still plan from print. Printed what's on guides, leaflet racks in venue foyers and posters around the Oxford Road corridor and the Northern Quarter catch people who are already out and deciding.