Universities, Manchester: neighborhood guide

The Universities corridor runs south from the inner ring road along Oxford Road and Wilmslow Road, through three linked patches: the campuses around Chorlton-on-Medlock, Rusholme with its mile of curry houses, and Fallowfield, the student heartland where everything is cheap.

This is a working, studying part of the city rather than a sightseeing quarter. The University of Manchester and Manchester Metropolitan University fill the northern end with lecture halls, libraries and two free museums. South of them, Wilmslow Road turns into the Curry Mile: neon signs, curry houses, kebab shops, sari shops and jewellers, with South Asian restaurants packed shoulder to shoulder. Fallowfield beyond is pubs, takeaways and student flats.

It is busier in term time and quieter in the summer vacation. Platt Fields Park gives the area its green space, and the whole corridor is flat and easy to walk.

Choose this area if price matters more than location. Student accommodation, hostels and budget hotels in Fallowfield and Rusholme undercut the city centre, and the bus into town is short and frequent. It also suits anyone visiting the universities, the Manchester Royal Infirmary or a student.

Skip it if this is your first trip to Manchester and you want to walk out of your door into the centre. The main shopping streets, the Northern Quarter and the big music venues are 2–3 km north, and you will use a bus or taxi for almost everything. The area is also quiet outside term time, and some streets around Fallowfield are noisy late at night.

The Curry Mile is the reason most visitors come south. It claims one of the densest runs of curry restaurants in the country, and competition keeps prices low. Many places run early-bird discounts of roughly 10–20% before 18:00 and student discounts of about 10%. Staff often stand outside to draw you in, which is a fair moment to ask about a deal.

Fallowfield is student territory: cheap takeaways, cafés and pubs, with the usual late-night kebabs and pizza. Around the campuses there are cafés and canteens that serve anyone, and HOME, the arts centre off Whitworth Street West, has a café-bar and restaurant alongside its cinemas and theatres.

Avoid the Curry Mile during Eid celebrations if you dislike crowds; the whole stretch gridlocks.

Buses are the default. Routes 42, 41, 43, 142 and 143 run from Piccadilly Gardens down Oxford Road past the universities, Rusholme and Fallowfield; the 50 runs along Anson Road, and the 147 links Piccadilly station's south exit with both universities and the Manchester Royal Infirmary on weekdays in daytime only. Single fares in Greater Manchester are capped at £2 for adults and £1 for children.

By train, Manchester Oxford Road station at 53.4739, -2.2422 is the closest stop, a short walk from the campus end. Walking south from it, you reach the top of Rusholme in about 30 minutes and Fallowfield in about 45.

By car, use Upper Brook Street rather than Oxford Road: the Oxford Road stretch between Booth Street East and Hathersage Road has bus-priority measures enforced by cameras at most times. Black cabs from Piccadilly station cost around £6 and from Oxford Road station around £5.

Manchester Museum on Oxford Road is the university's own museum, free to enter apart from temporary exhibitions, with dinosaur skeletons, Egyptian mummies and a live amphibian collection. The Whitworth Art Gallery, opposite St Mary's Hospital, is also free and shows modern art alongside textiles, prints and wallpapers; it closes on Good Friday and between Christmas and New Year.

Platt Fields Park at the junction of Platt Lane and Wilmslow Road is the local green space, good for a walk or a picnic between meals. The Curry Mile itself is the other set piece: a mile of restaurants and shops that is worth a stroll even if you eat elsewhere.

For evening entertainment, HOME on First Street shows independent and foreign-language films with English subtitles and runs two theatres; tickets are cheaper before 17:00 on weekdays and before 15:00 at weekends.