Imperial War Museum North

Description:

• Usually identified as one of the most striking museums in the north of England, it contains thousands of objects associated with 20th-century European wars, including tanks and armored motorized vehicles like your parents or grandparents drove if they were involved in with the conflicts of World War II. These, set as they are into a multimedia hodgepodge of sound, light, and clips from old movies and documentaries, evoke the wrenching emotions of a world at war. Easily as interesting as the exhibits inside is the steel, concrete, and glass shell designed by architect Daniel Libeskind, whose shape evokes a globe wrenched to pieces by global conflict. Inside, floors slope, and walls careen at dizzying angles to evoke a world gone psychotic. Special exhibitions commemorate, among others, the Falklands War and other global conflicts in which Britain played a role. You'll find the place about 2 miles southwest of Manchester's city center, within a grimy industrial landscape crisscrossed with canals, waterways, and weirdly evocative relics of the Industrial Revolution.

• © Frommer's 2013

Awards:

Frommer's

•  Highly Recommended 2010