GET OUT OF THE OFFICE AT LUNCHTIME AND VISIT A MANCHESTER MUSEUM
19/02/2007
February 23 is 'Work Your Proper Hours Day' organised by the TUC. It's all about getting Britain's army of office workers away from computer screens and out into fresh air. To give you somewhere cultural to eat your sandwiches, 24 Hour Museum is pleased to present a lunchtime trail of museums in the city.
Before you get out into the fresh air, just to remind your colleagues where you are off to, and why you are going, why not use this desk reminder, specially designed by the Work Your Proper Hours Team at the TUC?
Download the sign, print it out, fold the blank side then fold it in half and plonk it on your desk one way round whilst you're away at lunch. Simply switch it round at the end of the day to show you're off on time.
As anyone who works in the many offices of central Manchester knows, the city is teeming with museums and heritage. You're probably aware of most of them, but when was the last time you thought of visiting one of them during your lunch break? Here’s a few ideas for somewhere cultural to go for half and hour or so on your lunchbreak…
Just a short walk from many city centre shops and offices the People’s History Museum on Princess Street is a free museum that charts the story of ordinary people, looking at people's lives at work, at home and leisure over the last 200 years. What better place to take time out and contemplate the work-a-day routine?
If you work in the redeveloped area of Salford Quays the impressive Imperial War Museum North offers perhaps the most dramatic break from whatever might be going on in your place of work. The Museum boasts a large central exhibition hall with a series of short but dramatic multimedia projections that will envelope you for fifteen minutes. These 'Big Picture Shows' happen hourly.
Slap bang in the centre of things; Manchester Art Gallery on Mosley Street holds a superb collection of fine and decorative art displayed in a innovative and imaginative way, with each gallery space having a special theme within a broadly historical framework.
A pleasant lunchtime walk across the city’s Cathedral Gardens will see you stumble on a large glass edifice. This is Urbis, Manchester’s newest state-of-the-art museum exploring urban culture and the cities of today and tomorrow. It boasts four floors of exhibitions about city life and it’s free. So get yourself inside for half an hour or so and explore!
As well as being a beautiful building and a place for contemplative quiet at lunchtime, Manchester Central Library also hosts a lively and ever changing exhibition programme. The current show is a fascinating documentation of the community that was built up by Manchester Corporation in the Lake District at Bampton Fells and Haweswater.
If your place of work is further down Deansgate towards Castlefield, why not take a lunchtime wander around the Museum of Science and Industry in Manchester. This national Museum is situated in the buildings of the oldest passenger railway station in the world and tells the story of the worlds first industrial city - Manchester. As you know, this is a big story so an exploration of this museum should keep you busy for several lunchtimes.
