Enjoyed your weekend? You have a resident of this UK city to thank for it

Overshadowed by Manchester, its rival just across the River Irwell, Salford marks its 100th birthday as a city in 2026 (it was officially granted city status by King George V in 1926). But its story stretches back much further – think neolithic tribes, ancient Roman troops – and it’s bursting with surprising firsts, claims and feats.

A big one is that a Salfordian invented the weekend. In 1843, activist Robert Lowes (actor Sir Ian McKellen’s great-great-grandfather) successfully campaigned for workers at a Salford mill to have Saturday afternoons off.

This trailblazing trend spread around the UK, sowing the seeds for a two-day weekend and ultimately sparking more freedom for the joys of life, from sports and travelling to lie-ins to read the papers.

Many visitors attending soccer matches, arena concerts and arts festivals in Manchester stay in Salford without realising it. Manchester and Salford essentially share the same city centre – or “town” as it’s known locally – and several hotels rise on Salford’s side of the river, including CitySuites, an aparthotel in whose lobby I once bumped into soccer legend Pep Guardiola. He lived here during his decade-long stint as Manchester City boss and was often seen riding his bike on Chapel Street, Salford’s historic thoroughfare.

Touted, in 1806, as the UK’s first street to be lit by gas, it’s backdropped by towering modern offices and apartments with traditional pubs, tapas bars and cafes alongside attractive older buildings.

Diagonally facing Salford’s neo-Gothic cathedral, Vero Moderno serves Italian dishes and Sunday roasts with a Mediterranean twist. Celebrity customers include Guardiola, City stars like Erling Haaland, and Andy Burnham, the UK’s new prime minister and former mayor of Greater Manchester, a region that comprises Manchester, Salford and eight neighbouring boroughs.

Behind Chapel Street, Islington Mill is a rare surviving Georgian cotton-spinning mill now home to more than 100 artists and collectives. It stages wellbeing workshops, yoga classes, live DJs and festivals such as May’s Sounds of The Other City.

There’s a recreation of a typical Victorian cobbled street, lined with authentic reclaimed shopfronts, at Salford Museum & Art Gallery. It’s by the university campus overlooking the riverside Peel Park, one of the most idyllic spots in a city usually associated with grit and industry.

Rugby pioneer William Webb Ellis and brewer-cum-scientist James Prescott Joule were also born in Salford, which local folk musician Ewan MacColl immortalised in Dirty Old Town, a 1949 tune later covered by the Dubliners, The Pogues and Rod Stewart. MacColl also wrote The First Time Ever I Saw Your Face, which was a massive hit for Roberta Flack in 1972.

Regeneration, however, is a Salford forte. A 62-hectare botanical retreat, RHS Garden Bridgewater, has revived an overgrown country estate at Worsley, a canal-hugging Salfordian village with pretty timber-beamed houses and woodland walks.

Close to Ordsall Hall, a beautifully preserved Tudor manor house, Salford Quays is another alluring waterside draw. This district is the setting for the annual We Invented the Weekend festival and is located near the end of the Manchester Ship Canal, which once brought ocean-going cargo vessels 60 kilometres inland from the Irish Sea.

Derelict by the 1980s, Salford’s rejuvenated docks are anchored around MediaCity, a glossy TV and tech hub where the BBC’s studios soar opposite Lowry, a theatre and gallery complex honouring L.S. Lowry (1887-1976), a revered artist who also worked as a debt collector in Salford.

It stages everything from original local plays to Broadway and West End productions and displays Lowry’s idiosyncratic paintings, peopled with “matchstick men”. There’s a giant audiovisual exhibit of his 1953 piece Going to the Match.

Incidentally, you’ll see Old Trafford, Manchester United’s stadium, from the terrace of Central Bay, a cosmopolitan food hall by Lowry (which often is, but shouldn’t be, confused with the similarly named hotel in “town”).

Another MediaCity favourite is the Coronation Street Experience, showcasing the sets of the world’s longest-running TV soap opera, which creator Tony Warren modelled on working-class life in Salford. There’s actually a real Coronation Street.

Located between the Quays and Chapel Street, it’s a magnet for lovers of “Corrie” and The Smiths, as the street’s community space, Salford Lads’ Club, graced the sleeve of the Manchester band’s 1986 album The Queen is Dead. Inside, there’s a room jammed with The Smiths memorabilia.

One repeat visitor to the club is British Prime Minister Andy Burnham. You’ll find his flagship mayoral project, the Bee Network, and its yellow-branded trams, bikes and double-decker buses, a handy way to buzz between Manchester and Salford.

THE DETAILS

Steve McKenna is based in the UK, but is usually drawn to sunnier climes. He has a special affection for Mediterranean Europe, south-east Asia and Latin America.