Venue
The conference will take place on the main Oxford Road campus of the University of Manchester, which is on the southern edge of Manchester city centre. The exact building is to be confirmed.
Getting to Manchester
From the UK. The University is 20 minutes walk (or 10 minutes by taxi or bus number 147) from Manchester Piccadilly railway station, which is the main terminus for trains from the south. Manchester Oxford Road station is even more convenient for the University, but has trains to fewer places. Some trains from the north arrive at Manchester Victoria, which is on the other side of the city centre and can be accessed by a longer walk, a taxi or bus number 41. Driving into Manchester is not recommended, but if you do need to bring a car then your hotel may offer parking or (expensive) parking is available on campus in the Aquatics Centre Car Park.
From Overseas (by Land/Sea). From continental Europe you can use the Eurostar (channel tunnel train) from Brussels, Paris, Lille, Rotterdam or Amsterdam to London; you then have to change stations in London but it is a well-signposted 15-minute walk or a short metro ride, and then a 2-hour train ride to Manchester Piccadilly. Interrail is often the cheapest ticket option, although there is a supplement for the Eurostar trains. We also recommend the overnight North Sea ferries from Rotterdam to Hull; they are very comfortable and there are regular direct trains from Hull to Manchester. Channel ferries (e.g. Dover-Calais) are cheaper and faster, but it is quite a complicated journey from the south coast to Manchester.
From Overseas (by Air). It is usually best to arrive at Manchester Airport (MAN), which has direct flights across Europe and to major hubs worldwide. From the airport you can take a train to the city centre, bus number 43 directly to the University, or a taxi anywhere. Liverpool (LPL) and Birmingham (BHX) airports also have reasonable train or bus links to Manchester. Ground transportation from London airports is possible but can be expensive and time-consuming.
Please feel free to contact the organisers with any travel queries.
Accommodation
Manchester has many hotels, but rooms can be in short supply and subject to surge pricing during major events, so early booking is advised. Any hotel in the southern half of the city centre should be within walking distance from the University; from the northern part of the city centre or the suburbs you may need to take a bus. Here are some that past visitors have used:
- The Hyatt Regency Manchester is on campus and excellent quality but quite expensive.
- The Ibis Hotel Princess Street.
- The Holiday Inn Express Oxford Road.
- The Premier Inn Princess Street.
- The Premier Inn Portland Street.
- The Travelodge Upper Brook Street is also handy for the university but further from the city centre.
- The Travelodge East Didsbury is a 30-minute bus ride out into the suburbs, but is sometimes very cheap, and maybe a good bet if you are bringing a car but happy to leave it at the hotel.
- Luther King House offers more basic student-style accommodation a 10-minute bus ride from campus.
Unless otherwise stated these are all between campus and the city centre, and fairly convenient for everything. Note that many of the above are chains which have other hotels in Manchester, so be careful to check the location of the exact hotel you are booking.
Weather
The climate is (famously) moist temperate. Typical September temperatures range from around +5℃ at night to +20℃ in the day, with possible extremes about 10 degrees hotter or colder than this. The weather can change rapidly, so a lightweight raincoat is handy even on an ostensibly sunny day; umbrellas are less useful because rain is often accompanied by wind.
Tourism
Manchester was the world's first major industrial city, and has arguable claims to be the birthplace of technology such as passenger rail transport, nuclear physics and the computer, as well as social movements including socialism, communism, trades unionism and the cooperative movement. Today it is the largest city in Northern England, internationally renowned for sport, live music and nightlife and also a major centre of media, commerce, education and research. Attractions are too numerous to list, but highlights include:
- The Manchester Museum (on the University campus, permanent collection free, charges for some special exhibitions), which was European Museum of the Year 2025.
- The Science and Industry Museum (free to visit)
- The National Football Museum, as well as tours of Manchester City and Manchester United stadiums.
- Three major art galleries (the Manchester, Whitworth and Lowry galleries), with especially strong pre-Raphaelite and industrial landscape collections (permanent collections free to visit, charges for some special exhibitions).
- The Peak District National Park, just outside the city and easily accessible by train, which has some of England's best-loved hiking, cycling and climbing terrain.
Page last updated on