Manchester/Scotland 2025 - University of Manchester

 

The beautiful museum building to the right, and lovely blue skies ahead. Our initial target was to visit the Manchester Museum, but as we walked further to explore the beautiful building, we found that the University of Manchester was just next to it. And since the gate was opened and there wasn't any signs that says you can't enter, we decided to walk in and explore. This would be my 2nd entry to a British education center. I've previously visited Oxford before, like 14 years earlier.

Above the grand entrance to the university? Actually I have no idea how big is the place. I suspect we only saw parts of it. And perhaps the whole city of Manchester is the whole campus. It was those opened city university with faculties spread almost everywhere around the area. Perhaps this was just an original smaller part of the campus. 

Walking in, it was indeed like what you would imagine an old university would looked like. Instantly you are transported back in time. I think I really like the lack of colours in my surroundings. It's just so peaceful and blended nicely with the nature inside. 

So like in Harry Porter movies, and probably in every schools, there is the concept of houses? And each house has their own slogan and mascots and badges. I guess this may be one of them?

Here is a more close up look of what one of these badges looked like. The colours are really nice. And I guess those words are latin? 

Inside the compound, Wow! A very conducive environment for studying, or getting inspiration for greater things in the universe! I came from a rather modern university in Singapore, and we don't have such grand old buildings like these in our campus. I also stayed at a place called Sheares Hall in campus, which has since been torn down. We don't seems to treasure history that much in my university. It was big and grand, but it wasn't as beautiful and elegant as this here.

A different view. You could almost imagine carriages and horses riding up the path to deliver some students to the school. So beautiful! And what a lovely day! 

One of the houses was covered in crawling plants on its facade and that made it looked even more interesting. The super huge glass windows reflecting the sky and sun light also adds to it's charm. I really like this whole segment of the campus.

There was also a clock tower-like building inside the ground, and you stepped closer you could see....

Years and names of previous people who have probably worked or studied here? I wasn't paying much attention, but I thought it was a  nice touch. In Easter Confucius schools, there are always tablets and name scrolls of previous scholars. 

One of the building has a purple sign outside. Those signs usually indicate what faculty this building was. I again, wanted to go in and take a look, but I chicken out. This was my first day in the UK, and my courage needed some warming up. So we didn't enter. It was probably an office building or something. 

Here is another faculty building, which was just a random townhouse building along the road outside. The sign says "The Confucius Institute of the University of Manchester"!. Ha!  I thought that interesting. Recently I've also been following Inverness City Centre's Facebook page since I will be visiting it later this spring, and I was also surprised when I saw an announcement for Taiji lessons on the page! Chinese are everywhere! I hope that means I would be able to blend in there :P

A small corner view of the old building with it's church-like windows. I just love the colour scheme of this photo, just so natural. And the leaf-less tree branches above, framed with the bushy paddy like plants below really adds a nice touch, don't you think?

The next two photos were not taken at the ground area, but from the museum building next to it looking out. Isn't it lovely? It I have a room in my house that looked out to a view like this, I would be sitting in a chair next to that window daily. The sunlight shinning in also add such warmth to the whole place.

Here is another window view outside. When you visit a museum, don't forget to look out it's windows when you are inside. Usually the view outside is quite something! That is something I've learned while travelling around. Museums are usually situated in nice central location, and usually have multiple levels as well. So always try looking out from their windows, or if you are in Scotland, look out from their rooftops!

Wefie of us outside the glass-vine building :)

Manchester/Scotland 2025 - Manchester City Walk

 

Once I got my MUST-VIST task out of the way, the rest of the day was free for us to roam. And since we have almost half a day left, I decided that we could try and walk down the main road and see if we can reach the Manchester Museum for a visit. The museum was also free to enter, and they have two things I wanted to see there, the Egyptian collection, and their dinosaur collection. So off we went walking down the main road, looking at the sights along the way on a beautiful spring day. It was the start of spring when we visit, around early April 2025.

Above is an alley at the city, a very modern and slick look. I kinda like countries that has modern clean line buildings, yet coexist with old grand buildings as well. You could see the old clock tower behind in the photo. The smaller roads were pretty free of traffic, but the main road we had to use traffic lights to cross the road.

Just right outside the library was actually where all the administrative buildings of the city was. We saw the court building and the security guard or police working there were rather friendly. At first I thought he was gonna come and tell us we can't enter the building (we didn't, I was just standing there taking a photo), but he was just walking towards us and smile at us as he walks by, which was nice. 

When walking towards an attraction, we didn't quite paid attention to all the buildings around us, so it was nice when we back track and have the time to enjoy the sights. Upon arriving in Manchester, I was kinda on my guard as my friend has warned me of crimes in the UK. The news didn't helped either. So I was kinda cautious about taking photos of my surroundings, especially since I just got a new Google Pixel phone that costed me a bomb! But after a while, I stopped caring and started taking more and more photos.  Above, a gigantic warehouse building or a railway. We don't get to see giant buildings like these much where we came from. 

We walked past St George's House. I think it was a hotel that looked rather fancy. I wanted to go in, but was also kinda intimidated by the richness of the entrance and a doorman in front. So we just walked pass after snapping some photos. It looked so grand. If I was in an Asian country, I would be more thick-skin and just walk in. But in western countries, I was more cautious. 

Above is what would be our center of the city since we stayed nearby the hotel here, at Portland Street. Interestingly there is a 24hr Genting Casino just next to our hotel.... Perhaps a lot of Malaysians are in Manchester? But I like the above circular building. It reminds me of buildings in the States, even though I've never been to the States ....

There were trams running along the city streets too, and it was fun to watch them since we also don't have these where we came from. But it does make crossing the road a bit challenging as I wasn't used to their traffic flow. We didn't take any trams while we were there. In fact, the only public transport we took was the airport bus to town, and of course the trains to visit our friend and for leaving Manchester as we made our way to Edinburgh. 

Before coming, I've seen advertisement on how Manchester is a vibrant city with it's own art scene and theatre. Well, above is the theatre showing Mary Poppins. It looked like an old cinema from my hometown. Perhaps it is grander inside? I've never seen a play inside a foreign theatre before. Hmmm, maybe I should consider doing that one day when I am back in Europe? Hahahaha. If yes, I would target France!

An old clock tower building that is red in colour. Why do people like red coloured buildings in the past? 

Above was a emerald looking building which I took on our walk back after visiting the museum. I absolutely love the colour of the building and though it looked magical! I love minty mint and white combination. I have no idea what building it was, maybe a cafe or a shop?

Lastly, a park we walked past with lots of sakura looking trees in full bloom. There were many students around this area. I later found that there were like 3 universities around the area, and that Manchester was like a university town. Everyone was very young and friendly and light hearted. The museum was just further along the park.

Manchester/Scotland 2025 - Manchester John Ryland's Library Books

 

What is a library without it's book. In the age digital text and social media, it's amazing that books somehow survive into the new era. I myself am a fan of digital books and digital libraries due to their easy access and lighter weight and unlimited supplies of books available at your finger tips. Hmmm I wonder if I can link my kindle to my library..... Maybe I should try that......

On certain timing, the librarian here would bring out an ancient rare book for display at the front counter. I was lucky enough to experience that when I was there. You can get up close to it, but you can't really touch the book. I love that they have such showcase here. On the day we visited, it was an old copy of a bible. I think I spend a good 30minutes there with another guy asking questions and looking at the lovely book.

You can ask any questions to the librarian and she would help to explain more about the book. How old it was, what book was it, why it was written this way and that, how it was bind etc etc. You could also ask her to flip to any pages or any specific thing you would like to look at. They only showcase the book for like 30mins to an hour, so yeah, try to catch a session if you can. For the above photo, she showed us a page that was stained with red ink, making this book even rarer than other copies!

She also showed us about the unique text in the book, and the art of alphabets at the start of paragraphs or chapters. 

She also showed as unique markings on the books.

Look at the writings. I can't remember whether she mentioned these were hand written or printed. They looked lovely to me! I love ancient books! 

Apart from the rare books, there were also walls of shelves with old books. 

I didn't dare open any of the glass shelves, but I took some photos of the book I saw from the outside. I though their title was really interesting, how old their look. I have a few old English book on my bookshelves too, a few pass on to me by my mother. I still keep them cause I admire how old they look. It was like holding a piece of the past with you. In order to make the photos memorable, I decide to take photos of travel books, and specifically to look for Asian books!

I found a selection  of beautiful eastern travel books, or maybe just books about the eastern countries. I couldn't find any of Malaysian or Singapore. I could have spend more time there just looking at books, but my husband was getting bored and was already waiting for me outside the library, so I spend maybe just ten minutes at the book shelves. 

I did manage a photo of this beautiful white peacock book of Burma (now Myanmar). I wonder why this was a more prominent book instead of other countries in South East Asia. I love how beautiful books used to look in ancient time. They almost looked like jewels or treasure. 

Here is a selfie of me in one of the book corner. Frankly, my bucket list of Manchester was ticked off then and there. Everything else after that place was just a bonus for me. And strangely enough, there were a lot of bonus on that day!

Manchester/Scotland 2025 - Manchester John Ryland's Library

 

Walking into the John Ryland's Library, I could have shed tears. It was just so beautiful. It was easily the most beautiful library I've ever visited, and I have visited quite a few libraries around the world. Ok, maybe not many, but quite a few! And this one was totally a religious experience for me! I was so happy that someone love reading and books so much they dedicated such a wonderful place to be a library. I mean, library don't actually make money. It was a place dedicated to knowledge, and I simply love that. And yes, it was free to visit.

So let me start from the beginning as we enter. The humble door was to the right of this photo. And there was a white figure statue in front, and another at the end of the library hall. They are John Ryland and his wife Enriqueta. How lovely. I actually just found that out after googling it. I didn't know about it when I was visiting cause I've really lazy to reading plates and information. At the front of the library is also where the librarian room and counters are. 

The front wall has quite a lot going on, with clocks, and doors that looked almost like a prison cells. There was also a huge door that says Librarian on it. There were some stained glass at the top, but it was hard to see the illustration on it.

Ah, here is the librarian door, lol. Isn't it cool to be a librarian at this grand old building? I don't mind being a librarian. Apparently you need a masters in Librarian Science to be a librarian these days. Ha!

The hall way inside the library. Love the bright red carpets, and the lightings that looked like candlelights along the hall way. At both sides of the main halls are reading shelves and reading corners. There is also an upper floor, but it was closed for renovation when we were there. 

Here's a more central photo of the library from the front to the back. How lovely.

Here is a more triangle view of the place, showing more of the upper floor.

At the end of the library is a statue of John Ryland, and behind him a lovely oval shaped corner filled with books. 

Here are some of the quieter corners where people could sit and read. There are glass shelves showing some booked and documents. I didn't really paid attention as I was too in awed by the library itself as a whole I didn't have the capacity to appreciate the smaller details of the place.

There were quite a number of people either working and reading inside the library. Even still, there were still empty chairs available. If I lived in Manchester, I would be here everyday! Soaking in all the beauty of this place. The most beautiful library in Singapore, is actually the super small library inside the National Gallery. I would love to go inside, but you needed an appointment to be able to enter, and I doubt me just wanting to visit would grant me access to the place......

More bookshelves. To be frank, it was not a huge library, but it was for sure the most beautiful I've seen. 

Even the old wooden catalog area, which I am sure nobody uses it any more, is kept in a corner.

There were some girls taking selfies at the end oval corner of the library. They were there like, forever! So I had to take a photo with them inside.