Forget Warsaw and Krakow – this Polish city has street art, film history and £2 pints

Factory Palaces in Lodz, where an industrial past has turned into a hip, culture-filled present - (Visit Lodz)

Moments after arriving in Lodz, central Poland, my taxi driver asks what other Polish destinations I’ve visited. I mention Gdansk, Poznan, Warsaw and Krakow, and he smiles. “Well,” he says. “Lodz is different.”

He mentions the lack of an old town or clearly designated city centre, and I momentarily picture Berlin’s slightly maddening urban sprawl, or cities where post-war concrete monstrosities left me feeling somewhat bleak – neither of which apply to Lodz, it turns out.