Crewe, United Kingdom

The railways still play a part in local industry at Crewe Works, which carries out train maintenance and inspection. It has been owned by Alstom since 2021. At its height, the site employed over 20,000 people but, by 2005, fewer than 1,000 remained, with a further 270 redundancies announced in November of that year. Currently Alstom employs 6,000 people across the UK and Ireland. Much of the site once occupied by the works has been sold; it is now occupied by a supermarket, leisure park and a large health centre.

Crewe Electric TMD, an electric locomotive traction maintenance depot, lies to the north of the railway station; it is operated by DB Cargo UK. Crewe Diesel TMD, the former diesel locomotive depot closed in 2003; it was reopened in 2015 as a maintenance facility for Locomotive Services Limited, having undergone major structural repairs.

The Bentley Crewe car factory is on Pyms Lane, to the west of town. As of early 2010, there were about 3,500 employees working at the site. The factory used to produce Rolls-Royce cars, until the licence for the brand transferred from Bentley's owners Volkswagen to rival BMW in 2003.

There is a BAE Systems Land & Armaments factory in the village of Radway Green, near Alsager, producing small arms ammunition for the British armed forces.

Crewe Heritage Centre is located on the site of the old locomotive works. The museum has three signal boxes and an extensive miniature railway, with many steam, diesel and electric traction exhibits. The most prominent exhibits are the Class 370 Advanced Passenger Train and two HST power cars.

The Grade II-listed Edwardian Lyceum Theatre is in the centre of Crewe. It was built in 1911 and shows drama, ballet, opera, music, comedy and pantomime. The theatre was originally located on Heath Street from 1882. The Axis Arts Centre is on the Manchester Metropolitan University (MMU) campus in Crewe; it relocated from the university's Alsager Campus when it closed. The centre has a programme of touring new performance and visual art work. The Axis centre closed at the end of the spring 2019 season, with the withdrawal of MMU from the Crewe campus. The Box on Pedley Street is the town's main local music venue.

Both the Lyceum Theatre and the Axis Arts Centre feature galleries; the private Livingroom art gallery is on Prince Albert Street. The town's main library is on Prince Albert Square, opposite the Municipal Buildings.

There is a museum dedicated to Primitive Methodism in the nearby village of Englesea-Brook.

Cheshire has adopted the comprehensive school model of secondary education, so all of the schools under its control cater for pupils of all levels of ability. Until the late 1970s, Crewe had two grammar schools, Crewe Grammar School for Boys, now Ruskin High School, and Crewe Grammar School for Girls, now the Oaks Academy (formerly Kings Grove School). The town's two other secondary schools are Sir William Stanier School, a specialist technology and arts academy, and St. Thomas More Catholic High School, specialising in mathematics and computing and modern foreign languages.

Although there are eight schools for those aged 11–16 in Crewe and its surrounding area, Cheshire College South & West is one of only two local providers of education for pupils aged 16 and over, and the only one in Crewe. The college also provides educational programmes for adults, leading to qualifications such as Higher National Diplomas (HNDs) or foundation degrees. In the 2006–07 academic year, 2,532 students aged 16–18 were enrolled, along with 3,721 adults.