How Manchester was made by women: the tour
Saturday 13 March

If you're a woman Manchester is important. But it's fun too.

On this tour we'll be tripping the light fantastic around a whole boudoir of charming tales, sexy stories and – that's life – some of the crap that gets thrown a woman's way as well.

It's the story of a city defined by remarkable, sassy femmes who knew their own minds and didn't care who complained. There's glamour, passion, illicit love, drama, fashion and prostitution. There's triumph and disaster, in an essentially upbeat stroll across the city.

From women who fought to vote, to those who misbehaved, it's all here. You'll hear of a millionaire widow, the city's first socialite, a domestic goddess and, with Mother's Day approaching, a rather different kind of Manchester mummy.

Shaping the city and beyond for 300 years, these feisty belles acted out of love, fear, a desire for fun or a wish to improve the city.

They're our kind of women.

The tours are fun, informative, dramatic and last an hour and a half. We finish somewhere smart for cocktails or coffee (not included in the price).

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Tours at 2pm, 3pm and 4pm. Each tour lasts at least an hour and a half and finishes with drinks in rare location (drinks not included in the price). Price £10.

3pm

More tunnels of the city
Thursday 25 March

We delve deep into the tunnels once again to uncover, unravel and decipher the dark underground places of Manchester. This will take in different underground locations in the city from those tackled last time around. You'll be surprised about what lies beneath the city, but we're not going to tell you where we are going? It's a magical murky mystery tour into the bowels of the city.

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Tour times 5pm, 5.30pm, 6pm, 6.30pm, 7pm, 7.30pm, 8pm, 8.30pm. Each tour lasts around an hour and finishes with a Confidential gathering in a drinking den. Price £10.

5pm - Last few remaining

5.30pm

6pm

6.30pm

7pm

7.30pm

8pm

8.30pm

The April Fools Day Absurd tour of Manchester
Thursday 1 April

Manchester's stupid side revealed in a series of daft diversionary tours where the crazy stories, madcap behaviour and general lunacy of Manchester is revealed. This tour will make your eyes roll and your belly chuckle with the foolishness of your city. Each tour will include some very odd interactivity in which astonishing prizes will be given out. It'll be a ball. It'll be just, every-so sightly disturbing. There will be pubs too. And alleyways.

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Tour times 5pm, 6pm, 7pm 8pm. Each tour lasts around two hours, and finishes God only knows where (but in the centre). We're very proud of this one. We think it's ground breaking. We think it's unique. Price £10.

5pm

6pm

7pm

8pm

The Towers of Manchester
Thursday 29 April

We're taking in three towers from three ages and we're conquering them. This will reveal the city from odd angles, tell stories of how it grew, and should chime well with those with a good head for heights and a sense of adventure. For access reasons these tours take place earlier than others. By the way you'll probably end up ascending (with some assistance from lifts) around 700ft all told.

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Tour times 1pm, 2pm, 3pm, 4pm. Each tour lasts around ninety minutes and takes you places that we're 99.99% certain you've never been up. Price £10.

1pm

2pm

3pm

4pm.

West side city centre modern architecture
Saturday 8 May

Last year we ran a two hour tour around the eastern half of the city centre looking at Modern Architecture particularly post World War 2 Manchester architecture. Our clever readers wanted more, they wanted it longer with more explanation. So this time we're going to take a whole afternoon, starting in a public house function for a presentation and a bite to eat, then perambulate the western side of the city finishing off in a special guest star of a building. So not only will you learn to distinguish your International Modern from your Brutalist and your (yuck) Post-Modern but you'll get fed and have a laugh too.

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Tour starts at 12.30pm and finishes at 4pm and costs £35 including food, refreshments and pub presentation.

12.30

City ghosts, chapter two
Saturday 22 May

After the successful ghost tours in the Cathedral and Central Salford areas, it's time to do the spooks in the back alleys of the Northern Quarter and inside its pubs. On this tour you'll get loads of tales plus guaranteed encounters with 'the other side', as well as all the fun and knowledge the guides bring to the stories of the dead revived in Manchester.

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Tour times 5pm, 5.30pm, 6pm, 6.30pm, 7pm, 7.30pm, 8pm, 8.30pm. Each tour lasts around an hour and finishes with a Confidential gathering in a bar or pub. Price £10.

5pm

5.30pm

6pm

6.30pm

7pm

7.30pm

8pm

8.30pm

Dark underbelly: the crimes of Manchester
Saturday 5 June

Hey did you know that Manchester had its very own Sherlock Holmes, Jerome Caminada, only this man was fact not fiction? Have you ever been on the Jack the Ripper walk of London? Well this is Manchester's version replete with foul deeds, murder, dark tales, public hangings and poignant lovers skipping through fields of daisies. Actually forget the latter part of that sentence, we just thought it was all sounding a bit dark. Because it is. But it's thrilling too.

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Tour times 5pm, 5.30pm, 6pm, 6.30pm, 7pm, 7.30pm, 8pm, 8.30pm. Each tour lasts around an hour and a half and finishes in a lowdown speakeasy. Price £10.

5pm

5.30pm

6pm

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7pm

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8pm

8.30pm

Radical Manchester
Saturday 10 July

Manchester is the centre of radical British political thinking from Peterloo, through the Free Trade Movement to the Suffragettes via vegetarianism, Trades Unionism, Chartism and the work of Engels and Marx in Manchester. This tour underlines that role, has fun with it and shows where British and sometimes world history changed in Manchester.

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Tours at 2pm, 3pm and 4pm. Each tour lasts at least an hour and a half and finishes with drinks in rare location (drinks not included in the price). Price £10.

2pm

3pm

4pm

Out in the Past, Gay and Lesbian Heritage Trail
Monday 30 August

To coincide with Manchester Pride, Confidential is offering a fascinating, tragic and fun overview of the city's 'queer' past. This is a tale of isolation, struggle for identity and hope. Which all sounds a bit Hollywood, a bit like something with Tom Hanks in – it isn't. This is tour that deals in a hard reality which had some outrageously light moments.

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Tour times 1pm, 2pm, 3pm, 4pm, 6pm. Each tour lasts around ninety minutes and finishes with a Confidential gathering in a bar or pub. Price £10.

1pm

2pm

3pm

4pm

6pm

Halloween Tours
Sunday 31 October

Ah yes the big ghost tour, the main spooky event, the chance to dress up as your favourite skeleton, laughing cavalier or dead witch and lurch around the city streets. Last time we took you into tunnels, this time we're taking you for a walk along the canals to find dirty deadly secrets, and strange lurching figures of drunkards...er, we mean spooks...come to worry our twenty-first century city. It'll be the best event this Halloween you can do with your clothes on.

» Show/Hide tour times and book...

Tour times 1pm, 2.30pm, 6pm, 6.30pm, 7pm, 7.30pm, 8pm, 8.30pm. Each tour lasts around ninety minutes and finishes with a Confidential gathering in a bar or pub. Price £10.

1pm

2.30pm

6pm

6.30pm

7pm

7.30pm

8pm

8.30pm

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