Less than a century ago merely suggesting that the grimy belt of north England could become a tourist attraction would have been a cruel joke.

So, if skeptics in London laughed when Newcastle, Bradford, Leeds, Manchester and Liverpool audaciously declared themselves candidates for Europe's City of Culture 2008, perhaps they just hadn't been paying attention.

Take Newcastle, heretofore famous for its coal. In 2002, its first new bridge across the Tyne in a century received the Sterling Prize of the Royal Institute of British Architects (RIBA). Furthermore, the graceful Gatehead Millenium Bridge, solely for pedestrians and bicycles, leads to The Baltic Center for Contemporary Art, six floors and three mezzanines of exhibit space, studios, library and archives all in the shell of a derelict flour mill. Next quay over and completed in 2003 is the spectacular Sage Gateshead bubble with a 1650-seat performance hall, an intimate 400-seat theater and a music education center.

In Leeds, trendy has replaced manufacture as a city signature. The Victorian arcades have been restored for boutiques as befits what has been called the best shopping city north of London. Along the canal, restaurants and pubs have sprung like weeds from the cracks in vacant warehouses. The 1891 Leeds & County Liberal Club has become the Eton Town House Quebecs, a 45 room luxury hotel.

On a city tour of Manchester today you see the enormous glass triangle of Urbis, opened in 2001 to tell what the guides call the "people story" of urbanization in human history. Across the Cathedral Gardens is the 1421 college for priests that became, in 1653, a hospital school for poor boys and is now the Chetham School of Music. The Chetham Library (two thirds of its collection were published before 1851) has preserved the alcove where Frederick Engels, son of a cotton manufacturer, holed up with Karl Marx to theorize about the abominable conditions of the working class.

In Liverpool, where once it was said "anyone in a clean coat was a visiting sailor," the monumental buildings on the pier have gone from gray to the original cream. The blocks of anonymous brick warehouses of the Mersey waterfront are the new culture and commerce center of Albert Dock. Here is the Maritime Museum with its relics of the Titanic and the Lusitania (both launched in Liverpool); the "Transatlantic Slavery Gallery" (Liverpool a point of the triangle slave trade); "Story of the Emigrants" who passed through by the millions; and the World War II Battle of the Atlantic.

Albert Dock also has the Tate Liverpool, upscale cafes, pubs and shops. The Beatles Story Museum is specific to the Fab Four who brought Liverpool to the attention of the modern music world in the 1960s. Liverpool has been named UNESCO City of Culture 2008.

It is simplistic to say that one piece of legislation turned northern England around, but the Clean Air Act passed by Parliament in 1956 comes close. It was engendered not by the environmental catastrophes of the Rust Belt but by the "killer fogs" of London. When more than 5000 Londoners died from respiratory causes between 1952 and 1956, the government could no longer ignore the problem.

The results of the Act (which mandated cleaner fuels, better furnaces and electric heat) were immediate. A 30% reduction in pollution happened virtually overnight throughout England, and in the North Country, it was the start of environmental survival. Furthermore, though no one thought of it at the time, it was the dawning of a new age of cultural awareness and a new industry: tourism.

London's attitude was slow to change. Scandinavians were pouring into Newcastle and the ferries from Belfast were full while the southern Brits were still asking why anyone would go to the industrial north on holiday (except maybe for the hot music scene in Liverpool).

Yet, in the heart of Leeds, the Grand Theatre & Opera House is home to Opera North as well as hit shows from London's West End and New York's Broadway. The Henry Moore Institute is an award-winning sculpture gallery, while the City Gallery claims it has the best collection of 20th century British art outside London. The largest regional International Film Festival in Britain is here and 11 days long. The International Concert Season goes year round.

On the Leeds-Liverpool Canal, four miles outside Bradford, the dream village of textile magnate Titus Salt (1803-1876) has been restored as both a living community and museum. Saltaire is a UNESCO World Heritage Site that has gone beyond merely showing the way it was in the 19th century. The renovated Salts Mill has become the home of the Hockney Galleries, the largest collection anywhere of David Hockney pop art. Salt, who benevolently dedicated his village to "the moral and social elevation of the working class," would probably not have approved.

In 2002, Manchester opened its high tech Imperial War Museum North (not a monument to war but to peace) on one side of the river and on the other a cultural center named for favorite son, painter L. S. Lowry (1887-1976). The Lowry on the old Salford Quays contains theaters, art galleries and interactive creative activities along with restaurants, upscale shops and bars. Its namesake is known ironically for his gloomy depictions of the North England working class.

The working class makes out like royalty in Liverpool too. Beatles tours run several times a day to sites such as Strawberry Fields and Penny Lane, but also stop at the modest council houses where the boys grew up. Paul McCartney's home is a house museum of the lower middle class, while John Lennon's home wears the blue badge the Brits use to mark the onetime residences of historic persons. Sir Paul and Ringo visit their home city regularly, and the Liverpool airport has been renamed for Lennon (1940-1980), the only airport in Britain named for a person.

The original Cavern Club where the Beatles and many others played was torn down for an urban renewal project that never materialized. It has been rebuilt and is again a venue for new music groups. Mathew Street has also been returned to a time warp of the Sixties. Every August an International Beatles Festival brings rock bands from all over the world and more than a million tourists. In 2002 it was dedicated to George Harrison (1943-2001).

Today the name of the Clean Air Act is a point on the timeline, history to those who grew up without the lung disease and airborne soot of the Industrial Revolution. The English cities described by late 19th century writers as "nasty," "dingy" and "ugly" have acquired cultural accolades. Next step is overcoming the proviso of "second only to London."

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