'Look up' is a good general rule when exploring Manchester on foot. The vast wealth the city accrued during the industrial revolution led to a intense period of growth and expansion marked by sometimes dramatic and imposing architecture - a lot of which you miss if you're occupied with what's happening at eye-level. The magnificent neo-gothic wonder that is Manchester Town Hall sprang up between 1868 and 1877, the striking Venetian gothic City Assize Courts (now demolished), Owens College (later Manchester University), and of course the formidable structure of Strangeways prison all appeared in the latter half of the 19th century.
If the style of these buildings is immediately recognisable, it's probably because they were all imagined into brick by the same man: Alfred Waterhouse. The magnificent Kimpton Clocktower hotel is also a product of this vibrant period of Manchester's history. READ MORE : Inside the Trafford Centre's huge £3 summer fairground with splash park and beach Visitors from afar who have booked into the Clocktower shouldn't have much trouble finding it.
Take a stroll through the hustle and bustle of Oxford Street from St Peter's Square and as you drift past The Palace Theatre the building looms up ahead. This Grade Two listed red brick and terracotta hotel is the kind of structure the word landmark was created for. Built between 1891 and 1895, based on designs by Alfred Waterhouse and latterly his son Paul, it's a jewel in the crown of city centre architect.