This is the beautiful National Gallery of Ireland (built 1864, revamped 2017) which has a fascinating new exhibition devoted to 'pioneering Irish modernists' Evie Hone and Mainie Jellett. Amongst Dublin's many literary connections are two Persephone writers: Norah Hoult and Christine Longford. 

In Lady Rose and Mrs Memmary, Lady Galowrie - born Lady Rose Targenet in the 1850s - who is married to Sir Hector and lives in a palatial Scottish mansion, goes into Edinburgh to see her lawyer and meets the love of her life on a park bench in Princes Street Gardens. The National Gallery of Scotland (built 1859) is set on the edge of the gardens where there are still plenty of benches on which to sit, admire the views, and read the book. This photo (1860) with the gallery on the left is by William Donaldson Clark.

Manchester Art Gallery is made up of three buildings, two from the 1830s (this is the spectacular original entrance) and a 2002 extension. It has a marvellous permanent collection which illustrates the wealth and dynamism of the city that forms a backdrop to scenes in High Wages and Out of the Window, as well as much of Elizabeth Gaskell's writing.

This is the stunning Tiled Hall Cafe in the grand Leeds Art Gallery (1888), which has one of the best collections of C20 art outside London. In National Provincial, Lettice Cooper based the fictional city of 'Aire' on Leeds of the 1930s. It is where journalist Mary comes to work on the Yorkshire Guardian, a newspaper inspired perhaps by the Yorkshire Post and the Manchester Guardian (as it then was). The cafe is an ideal place to read the novel and/or the Yorkshire Post whilst enjoying a cup of tea. 

On the Post this week we have art galleries in places with strong literary connections. This is part of the long frieze above the entrance to the Potteries Museum and Art Gallery in Stoke-on-Trent. It is made from, and illustrates, local materials and crafts: clay, bricks, and pottery. All of these feature in Arnold Bennett's best-known novel, Anna of the Five Towns (1902). In one chapter he describes every step of the pottery process, as Mynors gives Anna a guided tour of his works, including the painting-shop where the paintresses, 'the noblesse of the banks' work (one is seen here on the far left).

Wallpaper goes in and out of fashion, but has largely been superseded by paint which is much cheaper and easier. Nevertheless, there is now a small but thriving market in wallpapers - new and reissued - by well-known artists and designers. This is 'Billets-Doux' by Jonny Hannah.

Wallpaper collections are quite rare, but the Whitworth in Manchester has more than 10,000 examples. It is a diverse and eclectic collection of wallpapers and wall coverings from the C17 to the present and encompasses everything from the hand-printed to the mass market. Its range of C20 wallpapers illustrates "the inventiveness of early post-war design and the exuberance of the 1960s and 1970s". This is 'Provence' by Lucienne Day, one of the three wallpapers designed by Lucienne Day for the 1951 Festival of Britain. It has now been reissued.