Andy Burnham has not disclosed his favourite artists and paintings but has been seen in galleries and at openings, for example at LOWRY 360 in Salford. So we end the Manchester week with Piccadilly Gardens (1954, Manchester Art Gallery) by Manchester's most famous - and often wilfully misunderstood artist - LS Lowry (1887-1976). This ever-changing hub in the very centre of the city is surrounded by fine examples of Victorian, Edwardian and post-war architecture. Perhaps the new Prime Minister will choose a Lowry from the Government Art Collection to hang in 10 Downing Street.

Manchester is famous for its music. This ranges from the Royal Northern College of Music, Chetham's School of Music, and the Hallé Orchestra (founded in 1858),to bands such as The Hollies, The Smiths, Elbow and Oasis. Until 1996, the Hallé played in the Free Trade Hall (1853-56) which was built on the site of the Peterloo Massacre. It was bombed in the Manchester Blitz after which its interior was rebuilt and it became Manchester's premier concert venue until the construction of the Bridgewater Hall in 1996. It is now a hotel but the Italianate façade - above - has been kept.

The strategy of regeneration and reinvention of local industrial heritage and infrastructure has in turn attracted new investment to formerly run-down parts of Greater Manchester, and it can be applied elsewhere. What has been achieved in Ancoats, "the world's first industrial suburb" just to the north of the city centre, is exemplary. The old cotton mills, factories, warehouses are now residential and office buildings, and the Rochdale and Ancoats Canal has been cleaned up and transformed. One of our authors, Elizabeth Myers, grew up in the then-grimy, smoky Ancoats; she is the author of A Well Full of Leaves.. 

Manchester prides itself on its history of industry and industriousness. On the same street as the Portico Library is the Manchester Art Gallery where Work (1862-65) by Ford Madox Brown is an outstanding piece in an outstanding collection. Ford Madox Brown also painted the twelve murals in the Town Hall (1877, closed for refurbishment) which houses the famous bee mosaics.The worker bee is one of the symbols of Manchester and Andy Burnham has championed and extended the Bee Network of public transport with great success.

Today, Andy Burnham becomes the first British Prime Minister to hold an English degree. He moves from being Mayor of Manchester to PM, and brings with him his Northern literary and cultural references. So this week on the Post we we look at Manchester because we are going to be hearing a lot more about it. This is The Portico Library, Mosley Street (1893-94, Manchester Art Gallery) by Henry Tidmarsh (1854-1939). The library (est, 1806) is "Manchester's original C19 home of literature and learning" with links to Elizabeth Gaskell and her husband William. (Not too far away is Elizabeth Gaskell's House which is worth a visit.)

Wenche Selmer also designed detached house in Oslo, but she is remembered primarily for her wooden cabins which combined local building traditions, ecological concerns, and modern conveniences, and were carefully and unobtrusively sited in the surrounding landscape. The cabin is still a huge part of Scandinavian summer culture; Tove Jansson (pictured here) built her own on a tiny island off the coast of Finland, and is similar to the setting of The Summer Book.