Manchester: If it's raining, there's always a library

Days out: Manchester's libraries

If your image of Manchester is of one big Coronation Street, or, post-1996 bomb blast, all loft apartments, blond wood and café-bars, prepare to witness two sensational cultural and architectural gems, both of them libraries.

Located in Deansgate, the John Rylands Library, part of the John Rylands University Library of Manchester, first opened its doors to the public in 1900. It was commissioned by Enriqueta Augustina Rylands, the Cuban-born third wife of the Manchester textile baron John Rylands, in memory of her husband.

It's a glorious neo-Gothic confection was designed in pink Cumbrian stone by Basil Champneys, who also designed Mansfield College, Oxford. Inside, the panelling and furniture are made from Polish oak, and the central heating and lighting fixtures are in the early Art Nouveau style, with extensive use of bronze. The library's internationally acclaimed manuscript collections include works in more than 50 different languages, the earliest dating from the third millennium BC.

Manchester is also home to the English-speaking world's oldest surviving public library. Built in 1421 as a college for priests, Chetham's Library snuggles between the 15th-century cathedral, the 19th-century Victoria station and the 21st-century glass Urbis Building.

Beyond the ancient pink stone façade and the studded black oak door, the medieval buildings are ranged around a courtyard. The library is housed mainly in two wings, its 17th-century bitter-chocolate-coloured bookshelves crammed with antique texts covering history, science, mathematics and philosophy.

The library was established, along with a school for the deserving poor, by the Manchester textile merchant Humphrey Chetham in the 1650s. The school, too, remains, although it transformed into a prestigious music academy in 1969.

The reading room, in particular, is a pleasure to visit. You can still use the original chairs and tables and sit in the spot where Karl Marx and Friedrich Engels once collaborated. "The stained glass window ensures the weather is always fine here," wrote Engels. Sadly, this over-optimistic comment was contradicted when a storm knocked out the coloured glass in 1875.

Also in the reading room, note the portrait of a girl who was later to become the wife of a Chetham's librarian. Most appropriately, her name was Silence.

The John Rylands Library, Deansgate (0161-834 5343). Open Mon-Fri, 10am-5.15pm, and Sat, 10am-1pm. Chetham's Library, Long Millgate (0161-834 7961; www.chethams.org.uk). Open Mon-Fri, 9am-12.30pm and 1.30pm-4.30pm. Admission free. Guided tours by appointment.