JONATHAN SCHOFIELD TOURS
DON'T MISS THE NEW AND EXCLUSIVE TOUR: ST LUKE'S, CHEETHAM HILL, A MAGNIFICENT AND SPOOKY RUIN WITH A FABULOUS STORY
MAY public tours
All the tours are available as private or corporate tours. Tours can be customised to fit exactly the client's needs.
Every Saturday
The Saturday Walkabout Series
The Manchester Music Walkabout 1pm every Saturday
THESE ARE SOME GUEST COMMENTS
All the tours are available as private or corporate tours. Tours can be customised to fit exactly the client's needs.
Friday 1 May
5pm The Pan-African Congress, Slavery, and Thomas Clarkson Tour: A Manchester Anniversary Tour
The city was at the heart of the anti-slavery movements in the UK and Empire yet its mainstay product, cotton, was largely slave-picked. Epic history and a contradiction explored.
Saturday 2 May
10.30am Friedrich Engels and Karl Marx in Manchester
Friedrich Engels and Karl Marx were the fathers of communism. Engels lived, on and off, for 22 years in Manchester and during this time Marx would stay with Engels for long periods. The remarkable tale of two men who changed the political world is told on this tour - three days before Karl Marx's birthday.
Sunday 3 May
11am Strangeways & Cheetham Hill
A lost river, a prison, a brewery, immigrant Manchester and a superb museum
Saturday 9 May
NEW 11.15am Manchester Cathedral and area
A tour examining the art, pathos and beauty of this stunning building.
Sunday 10 May
2pm Secrets of Stockport
We go up and down and all around exploring the great stories of this sandstone town. Fine buildings to see, music to listen to, tragedies to weep over and how to count your life by moons.
Saturday 16 May
9am The Didsbury Tour
A trip around this lively area of the city revealing fascinating facts, curious buildings and fine buildings and lots of local personalities.
Saturday 23 May
10.30am Kimpton Clock Tower Hotel Tour (Refuge Assurance)
The most spectacular terracotta building in the North of England. The Kimpton Clock Tower Hotel is a beauty and on this tour you learn its secrets.
Sunday 24 May
11am Trees, Flowers and Manchester City Centre Green Spaces
Parks, pocket parks, old parks, new parks and gardens that were graveyards. Canals, wharfsides, rivers and rivers that become canals. There’s a lot to enjoy with the ‘green’ and ‘blue’ assets (to use the jargon) of central Manchester and Salford.
Sunday's tour will include Parsonage Gardens, Lincoln Square, St John's Gardens, Aviva Studios and Viaducts, Deansgate Square.
Wednesday 27 May
6pm EXCLUSIVE: Jewels in the Crown - the Oxford Road tour
Interior visits to superb buildings old and so brand new the polish still shows through. Some of these places will make your jaw drop. There are wonderful stories of truly world-changing importance.
NEW Saturday 30 May
NEW 10am The secrets of Rochdale with a visit to the magnificent Town Hall
With its esplanade and its superb Town Hall, plus a splendid parish church and the Pioneers' Museum Rochdale has an incredible story to tell.
Sunday 31 May
10.30am EXCLUSIVE: Jewels in the Crown - the Oxford Road tour
Interior visits to superb buildings old and so brand new the polish still shows through. Some of these places will make your jaw drop. There are wonderful stories of truly world-changing importance.
1.30pm & 3pm Exclusive: Ruined St Luke’s Church, Cheetham Hill, a very special tour for 2026
Imagine this as a tour. A ruined church, an overgrown graveyard, a gloomy crypt. There will be music and projections. This will be special, this will be spectacular.
In association with the North West Heritage Trust
DON'T MISS THE NEW AND EXCLUSIVE TOUR: ST LUKE'S, CHEETHAM HILL, A MAGNIFICENT AND SPOOKY RUIN WITH A FABULOUS STORY
MAY public tours
All the tours are available as private or corporate tours. Tours can be customised to fit exactly the client's needs.
Every Saturday
The Saturday Walkabout Series
The Manchester Music Walkabout 1pm every Saturday
THESE ARE SOME GUEST COMMENTS
All the tours are available as private or corporate tours. Tours can be customised to fit exactly the client's needs.
Friday 1 May
5pm The Pan-African Congress, Slavery, and Thomas Clarkson Tour: A Manchester Anniversary Tour
The city was at the heart of the anti-slavery movements in the UK and Empire yet its mainstay product, cotton, was largely slave-picked. Epic history and a contradiction explored.
Saturday 2 May
10.30am Friedrich Engels and Karl Marx in Manchester
Friedrich Engels and Karl Marx were the fathers of communism. Engels lived, on and off, for 22 years in Manchester and during this time Marx would stay with Engels for long periods. The remarkable tale of two men who changed the political world is told on this tour - three days before Karl Marx's birthday.
Sunday 3 May
11am Strangeways & Cheetham Hill
A lost river, a prison, a brewery, immigrant Manchester and a superb museum
Saturday 9 May
NEW 11.15am Manchester Cathedral and area
A tour examining the art, pathos and beauty of this stunning building.
Sunday 10 May
2pm Secrets of Stockport
We go up and down and all around exploring the great stories of this sandstone town. Fine buildings to see, music to listen to, tragedies to weep over and how to count your life by moons.
Saturday 16 May
9am The Didsbury Tour
A trip around this lively area of the city revealing fascinating facts, curious buildings and fine buildings and lots of local personalities.
Saturday 23 May
10.30am Kimpton Clock Tower Hotel Tour (Refuge Assurance)
The most spectacular terracotta building in the North of England. The Kimpton Clock Tower Hotel is a beauty and on this tour you learn its secrets.
Sunday 24 May
11am Trees, Flowers and Manchester City Centre Green Spaces
Parks, pocket parks, old parks, new parks and gardens that were graveyards. Canals, wharfsides, rivers and rivers that become canals. There’s a lot to enjoy with the ‘green’ and ‘blue’ assets (to use the jargon) of central Manchester and Salford.
Sunday's tour will include Parsonage Gardens, Lincoln Square, St John's Gardens, Aviva Studios and Viaducts, Deansgate Square.
Wednesday 27 May
6pm EXCLUSIVE: Jewels in the Crown - the Oxford Road tour
Interior visits to superb buildings old and so brand new the polish still shows through. Some of these places will make your jaw drop. There are wonderful stories of truly world-changing importance.
NEW Saturday 30 May
NEW 10am The secrets of Rochdale with a visit to the magnificent Town Hall
With its esplanade and its superb Town Hall, plus a splendid parish church and the Pioneers' Museum Rochdale has an incredible story to tell.
Sunday 31 May
10.30am EXCLUSIVE: Jewels in the Crown - the Oxford Road tour
Interior visits to superb buildings old and so brand new the polish still shows through. Some of these places will make your jaw drop. There are wonderful stories of truly world-changing importance.
1.30pm & 3pm Exclusive: Ruined St Luke’s Church, Cheetham Hill, a very special tour for 2026
Imagine this as a tour. A ruined church, an overgrown graveyard, a gloomy crypt. There will be music and projections. This will be special, this will be spectacular.
In association with the North West Heritage Trust
Click here for the full calendar which has more than ninety Greater Manchester tours covering more than forty themes for 2026. More than any other operator.
Public tours coming up.
All the tours are available as private or corporate tours.
This is what people are saying about the tours.
This is a 2024 podcast called We Built This City with Lisa Morton of Roland Dransfield
Buy three beautiful Mcr books by Jonathan Schofleld here.
Join The Manchester Talks Series to learn about Manchester's history and architectural styles across the region
Discussing the Manchester Bee on Radio 5 Live here.
You can read a profile of Jonathan Schofield here in The Guardian.
Most tours are dog-friendly
Do you want your building or area researched? Not just the architecture but the human stories associated with it? Mulligans pub did on Southgate Street.
The results proved fruitful.
Tom Dellow of Scoop who hired me certainly thought so.
Public tours coming up.
All the tours are available as private or corporate tours.
This is what people are saying about the tours.
This is a 2024 podcast called We Built This City with Lisa Morton of Roland Dransfield
Buy three beautiful Mcr books by Jonathan Schofleld here.
Join The Manchester Talks Series to learn about Manchester's history and architectural styles across the region
Discussing the Manchester Bee on Radio 5 Live here.
You can read a profile of Jonathan Schofield here in The Guardian.
Most tours are dog-friendly
Do you want your building or area researched? Not just the architecture but the human stories associated with it? Mulligans pub did on Southgate Street.
The results proved fruitful.
Tom Dellow of Scoop who hired me certainly thought so.
We approached Jonathan to do a deep dive into the history of Mulligans and the pub that came before it, The Waggon and Horses, and the results were fascinating. He uncovered loads of stories about the pub and the colourful characters connected to it, some more outrageous than others, plus maps and images that really bring it to life. His research has given us a brilliant insight into this Mancunian institution, from its opening in the 1820s to its transformation into Mulligans in 1990. I’d wholeheartedly recommend Jonathan for any research into buildings or places across Manchester.
Tom
Tom
Here's my favourite quote about Manchester in its nascent industrial days from Manchester Literary and Philosophical Society in 1785. Its meaning is self-evident and although it refers to science the sentiment applies to every other field of endeavour.
‘Men, however great their learning often become indolent and unambitious to improve in knowledge for want of associating with others of similar talents and improvements. But science, like fire, is put in motion by collision. Where a number of such men have frequent opportunities of meeting and conversing together, thought begets thought, and every hint is turned to advantage. A spirit of enquiry glows in every breast.’
‘Men, however great their learning often become indolent and unambitious to improve in knowledge for want of associating with others of similar talents and improvements. But science, like fire, is put in motion by collision. Where a number of such men have frequent opportunities of meeting and conversing together, thought begets thought, and every hint is turned to advantage. A spirit of enquiry glows in every breast.’