Chetham's Library

Founded in 1653, Chetham's Library is the oldest public library in the English-speaking world. It's widely known as the place where Karl Marx and Friedrich Engels began drafting “The Communist Manifesto”. The library houses the very desk used by Marx and Engels in 1845, a rare first edition of John Milton's “Paradise Lost”, an archive on Belle Vue Zoological Gardens, and a Northern Soul collection. Chetham's was once considered as a filming location for Hogwarts, and it's not hard to see why. It's also connected to Chetham's School of Music, where students give free lunchtime concerts in the Carole Nash Hall on weekdays during term time.