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Salford is celebrating 100 years as a city this year and has reinvented itself as a hub of culture, with a centre packed with museums, theatres, galleries and high-tech businesses Salford HOT spot
1 Celebrity spotting at Media City 2 Waterfront architecture at The Quays 3 Fascinating and free Ordsall Hall 4 Culinary adventures in Chapel Street 5 Proximity to the creative buzz of St John’s 5 REASONS WE LOVE… SALFORD
UNDER THE SPOTLIGHT
You will be amazed at how much there is to see and do in and around Salford – especially if you enjoy culture. The Salford Quays area is buzzing day and night, with one of the highlights being Lowry performing arts theatre and gallery – featuring works by Salford’s greatest artist, LS Lowry, plus other exhibitions, theatre, music, dance and more. Cross the bridge to visit IWM North, with a vast collection of objects relating to war set in a Daniel Libeskind-designed contemporary building. Meanwhile, a few steps over the border into Manchester, the city’s newest creative district, St John’s is where you’ll find Aviva Studios, home of creative company and charity Factory International, organiser of the Manchester International Festival (MIF). Its modern building hosts music, theatre, art and cultural events, from young and up-coming amateurs through to international names such as world-leading artist and activist Ai Weiwei, whose work is on show there until September. Just down the road is the free Science and Industry Museum in Castlefield, which tells the area’s rich story of engineering, textiles and mills, and the ruins of the Roman Fort. For a window
3,500 staff based at MediaCityUK, HMRC and Bupa UK Insurance. With so many people working in Salford, public transport is superb. Salford Crescent station offers trains to Manchester Piccadilly in 12 minutes and the airport in 21 minutes, as well as further a eld to Blackpool, Leeds and Rochdale. Metrolink tram services stop at MediaCity, Salford Quays and Castle eld and there are umpteen buses. The Bee Network offers through-ticketing on buses, trams and bike hire with trains shortly to be included. Housing options are wide and varied – penthouses around MediaCity have celebrity prices, but there are one and two bedroom ats here too, while in nearby Castle eld there are plenty of well-priced new developments. Other popular areas are around Eccles where you can snap up apartments for under £140,000, and near Chapel Street and Salford Central station. For modestly priced terraced houses, look to Langworthy, with prices under £200,000 for Victorian homes, including the modernised Chimney Pot Park area.
While today, Salford may be overshadowed by big brother Manchester, it was actually a thriving commercial centre long before its neighbour. A major Roman fort, called Mamucium was built there around AD79, and with two Roman roads passing through the area it soon became a bustling settlement. In the Domesday Book of 1086 it is recorded as being home to 35,000 people and the town continued to grow, with a market charter being granted by Henry III in 1228. By the 1700s, the main trade was textile processing, with water powered mills giving way to steam in the Industrial Revolution. Canals were built to service the mills, with the completion of the Manchester Ship Canal in 1894 transforming Salford into a major inland port. Two decades later, the Port of Manchester was one of the largest in the world, employing 5,000 dock workers. When container ships became too big to navigate the canal, the port closed in 1982 with the loss of 3,000 jobs. But this wasn’t the end of Salford – the derelict docks were bought by Salford Council and redeveloped into Salford Quays and MediaCityUK, now alive with creativity. Today’s Salford is home to nearly 300,000 people and has a youthful vibe, with a median age of 33 and a large student population. Major employers include the BBC, with around
into the past, don’t miss the fascinating and free to visit Ordsall Hall, the
92 First Time Buyer August/September 2026
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