Manchester
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Manchester is a city in North West England. The metropolitan borough of Manchester, which has city status, has a population of 441,200, making it the most populous district of the Greater Manchester metropolitan county.[1] The Greater Manchester Urban Area has a population of 2,240,230,[2] making Manchester and its surrounding area England's third largest conurbation.
Manchester is historically notable for being one of the world's first industrialised cities[3][4][5][6] and for the subsequent central role it played during the Industrial Revolution. It was the dominant international centre of textile manufacture and cotton spinning.[7] During the 19th century it was nicknamed Cottonopolis,[8] denoting that the area was a metropolis of cotton mills. Manchester City Centre is now on a "tentative list" of UNESCO World Heritage Sites, mainly due to its network of canals and mills, which facilitated its development during the 19th century.[9]
Sometimes described as the "Capital of the North",[10][11] and forming part of the English Core Cities Group, Manchester today is a centre of the arts, the media, higher education and commerce and is considered by many of its citizens to be England's second city.[12][13][14] It is the third most visited city in the United Kingdom by foreign visitors, after London and Edinburgh.[15] Manchester is well known for its sporting connections, being associated with two major Premier League football teams, Manchester City and Manchester United[16] and internationally renowned as a centre of sporting excellence having hosted the XVII Commonwealth Games in 2002. In January 2007, Manchester was awarded the licence to build the only supercasino allowed in the UK.[17]
 Shown within England |
|
| Geography | |
| Status | Metropolitan borough, City (1853) |
|---|---|
| Ceremonial county | Greater Manchester |
| Historic county | Lancashire (some parts from Cheshire) |
| Region | North West England |
| Constituent country | England |
| Sovereign state | United Kingdom |
| Area - Total |
Ranked 228th 115.65 km² |
| Admin HQ | Manchester (Manchester Town Hall) |
| ISO 3166-2 | GB-MAN |
| ONS code | 00BN |
| OS grid reference | SJ838980 |
| Coordinates | 53°28'43.23"N 2°14'36.14"W |
| NUTS 3 | UKD31 |
| Demographics | |
| Population: Total (2005 est.) Density |
Ranked 6th 441,200 3,815 / km² |
| Ethnicity (2001 census) |
81.0% White 9.1% S. Asian 4.5% Afro-Carib. 1.3% Chinese |
| Politics | |
 Manchester City Council http://www.manchester.gov.uk/ |
|
| Leadership | Leader & Cabinet |
| Control | Labour |
[edit] Geography and administration
[edit] Physical geography
Manchester lies in a bowl-shaped land area bordered to the north and east by the Pennine hills and to the south by the Cheshire Plain. The city centre is on the east bank of the River Irwell, near the confluence of the River Medlock and the River Irk and is relatively low-lying, being between 35 and 42 metres (115 to 138 ft) above sea level. The River Mersey flows through the south of Manchester. Much of the inner city, especially in the south, is flat, offering extensive views of the moors from the top floors of many high buildings. Manchester's geographic features were highly influential in its early development as the world's first industrial city. These features are its climate, its proximity to a seaport at Liverpool, the availability of water power from its rivers, and its nearby coal reserves.
[edit] Climate
Manchester has a relatively damp climate and a reputation as a rainy city. The average annual rainfall is 809 mm, (902 mm from some sources)[18] meaning that its reputation is relatively undeserved.[19] For example, this total is less than that of Plymouth or Cardiff. In international terms, Manchester receives substantially less rain than New York City, which receives 1200 mm of rain in an average year, and its average annual rainfall total is comparable with that of Rome. The precipitation is, however, regularly light and prolonged so a small volume of rain may take an hour to fall in Manchester, compared to several minutes of heavy rain experienced in Rome. Manchester also has a relatively high humidity level, which lent itself to the optimised and breakage-free textile manufacturing which took place in the city. Snowfall is rare in the city itself, being low-lying, towards the west coast and an urban landscape.
| Month | Jan | Feb | Mar | Apr | May | Jun | Jul | Aug | Sep | Oct | Nov | Dec | Year |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Average max. temperature °C (°F) |
6 (44) |
6 (44) |
8 (48) |
11 (52) |
15 (59) |
17 (64) |
19 (67) |
19 (67) |
16 (62) |
13 (55) |
8 (48) |
7 (45) |
12 (55) |
| Average min. temperature °C (°F) |
1 (35) |
1 (35) |
2 (37) |
4 (40) |
7 (45) |
10 (50) |
12 (54) |
12 (54) |
10 (50) |
7 (45) |
4 (40) |
2 (37) |
6 (44) |
| Rainfall mm (inches) |
71 (2.8) |
58 (2.3) |
58 (2.3) |
51 (2.0) |
64 (2.5) |
71 (2.8) |
86 (3.4) |
94 (3.7) |
81 (3.2) |
94 (3.7) |
84 (3.3) |
86 (3.4) |
902 (35.5) |
| Source: Weatherbase | |||||||||||||
[edit] Etymology
The name "Manchester" (pronounced /ˈmæntʃɛstə/) came from the Roman name Mamucium, thought to be a Latinisation of an original Celtic name (possibly meaning "breast-like hill" from mamm- = "breast"), plus Anglo-Saxon ceaster = "town", which is derived from Latin castra = "camp".[20]
[edit] History
Early history
The Manchester area was settled in daighys arse or before Roman times.[21] The original fort was constructed by General Gnaeus Julius Agricola as a staging post between Chester (Deva) and York (Eboracum). This Roman settlement was named Mamucium (Celtic for "breast-shaped hill") after the hill that it was sited on to be better defensible. The original location of the fort is now in the City of Salford.
The fort was abandoned in the Dark Ages, and at some point in time the focus of settlement shifted from this spot to the confluence of the rivers Irwell and Irk.
In medieval times, this area included a fortified manor house. Thomas De La Warre, a manorial lord who also happened to be a priest, gave the site to the church for use as a College of Priests around 1422, and commenced the construction of the Collegiate Church. The former is now Chetham's School of Music, and the latter Manchester Cathedral.
Around the 13th century, Manchester grew heavily due to an influx of Flemish settlers who founded Manchester's new cotton industry[citation needed] and sparked the growth of the city to become Lancashire's major industrial centre.
Industrial Revolution
In the late 18th century, Manchester perhaps became the site of England's first entirely artificial canal when James Brindley built the Bridgewater Canal to bring coal from the eponymous Duke of Bridgewater's mines at Worsley. During the 19th century Manchester grew to become the centre of Lancashire's cotton industry and was dubbed "Cottonopolis". During this period the canal system grew, and Manchester became one end of the world's first passenger railway - the Liverpool and Manchester Railway.
Manchester quickly grew into the most important industrial centre in the world, and, significantly, the first industrial society. The pace of change was fast and frightening. At that time, it seemed a place in which anything could happen — new industrial processes, new ways of thinking (the so called 'Manchester School', promoting free trade and laissez-faire), new classes or groups in society, new religious sects, and new forms of labour organisation. It attracted educated visitors from all parts of Britain and Europe. "What Manchester does today," it was said, "the rest of the world does tomorrow." Also during this period Manchester saw a rise in its population as Lancastarians, the Irish, Jews and many other people immigrated to the city.
As well as being a centre of capitalism the city saw its fair share of rebellion by the working and non-titled classes, with the most famous being the events on St Peter’s Field on 16 August 1819 which have become known as 'Peterloo'. The first Trades Union Congress was held in Manchester (at the Mechanics' Institute, David Street), from 2 to 6 June 1868. Manchester was the subject of Friedrich Engels' The Condition of the Working Class in England in 1844, Engels himself spending much of his life in and around Manchester. Manchester was also an important cradle of the Labour Party and the Suffragette Movement.
Manchester's golden age was perhaps the last quarter of the nineteenth century. Many of the great public buildings (including the Town Hall) date from then. The city's cosmopolitan atmosphere contributed to a vibrant culture, which included the Hallé Orchestra. In 1889, when county councils were created in England, the municipal borough became a county borough with even greater autonomy. During this period, the Manchester Ship Canal was created by the canalisation of the Rivers Irwell and Mersey for 36 miles from Salford to the Mersey estuary at the port of Liverpool. This enabled ocean going ships to sail right into the Salford docks. The docks functioned up until the 1970s, with their closure leading to a large increase in unemployment in the area.
Manchester suffered greatly from the inter-war depression and the underlying structural changes that began to supplant the old industries, including textile manufacture.
Recent history During World War II, Manchester was involved in heavy industrial construction — it was home to Avro (now BAE Systems) which built countless aircraft for the RAF, the most famous being the Avro Lancaster bomber. The city was attacked a number of times by the Luftwaffe, particularly in the "Christmas Blitz" of 1941, which destroyed a large part of the historic city centre and seriously damaged the Cathedral.
In 2002, the city successfully hosted the XVII Commonwealth Games, earning praise from many sources. Manchester has twice failed in its bid to host the Olympic Games, losing to Atlanta in 1996 and Sydney in 2000.
Rapidly developing institutions attract crime and disorder; see main article crime and policing in Manchester.
Bombing
At 11.20 am on Saturday 15 June 1996, the IRA detonated a large bomb in the city centre, the largest to be detonated on British soil. Whilst this bomb caused over 200 injuries, it caused no deaths, and the principal damage was to the physical infrastructure of nearby buildings. The consequent reconstruction spurred a massive regeneration of the city centre, with complexes such as The Printworks and the Triangle creating new city focal points for both shopping and entertainment. The regeneration took over a decade to complete. The latest and final part of the renovated Manchester Arndale opened in September 2006, allowing the centre to hold the title of Europe's largest city centre shopping mall.
Redevelopment
Since the regeneration after the 1996 IRA bomb, and aided by the XVII Commonwealth Games, Manchester's city centre has changed significantly. Large sections of the city dating from the 1960s have been either demolished and re-developed or modernised with the use of glass and steel; a good example of this transformation is the Manchester Arndale. Many old mills have been converted into apartments, helping to give the city a much more modern, upmarket look and feel. Some areas, like Hulme, have undergone extensive regeneration programmes and many million-pound lofthouse apartments have since been developed to cater for its growing business community. The 169 metre tall, 47-storey Beetham Tower, completed in 2006, provides the highest residential accommodation in the United Kingdom - the lower 23 floors form the Hilton Hotel, while the upper 24 floors are apartments. The 23rd floor includes a 'sky bar' where you can enjoy a cocktail 23 floors above the ground. The Beetham Tower is the tallest building in the UK outside London.[22]
[edit] Politics
[edit] Economics
Manchester has many office buildings, and its Central Business District is currently in the centre of the city, adjacent to Piccadilly, focused on Mosley Street, Deansgate, King Street and Piccadilly. However, new office space is appearing rapidly throughout the city, as its reputation as a high quality Business Centre increases. Spinningfields is a large new development west of Deansgate; it will be a large, modern business centre, and home to several headquarters, squares, and cafes. The first building on the site was the Royal Bank of Scotland's new headquarters[citation needed] on Deansgate. The project is being spear-headed by Sir Norman Foster. Other buildings include a 110 metre tall office building, a new justice centre and new Crown Court, to be built over the next few years.
Just outside the city boundaries, a new business district is appearing in Salford Quays, regenerated ex-shipping docks similar to London's Docklands, and is home to headquarters and call centres for many major companies. The announcement came in June 2006 that the BBC hopes to relocate several departments to the Quays from London.
[edit] Shopping
Manchester is a major retail centre only Glasgow and London have larger retail space within the U.K.[citation needed] There is one large shopping centre in the city: the Manchester Arndale, which is in the city centre. The city centre also has a number of smaller shopping centres, including The Triangle, which caters for a more youthful and upmarket clientèle, and the Royal Exchange Centre.
In the central shopping area of the city centre, road access is all but impossible, making journeys around the city on foot quicker, safer and more convenient. The pedestrianised Market Street forms the core of the city centre's retail area. It is dominated on the north side by the Manchester Arndale and a branch of Debenhams.
The Shambles has a branch of Harvey Nichols, a Marks and Spencer store, and a branch of Selfridges, as well as a variety of upmarket designer boutiques.
Deansgate also has many shops, including the department store House of Fraser (formerly Kendals), along with pubs and bars. King Street is an affluent shopping area where many exclusive fashion brands have stores. King Street also has many notable buildings preserved in a conservation area. Other hubs in the centre include St Ann's Square, and Exchange Square.
Former stores, since gone, include Lewis's, Henry's, and Affleck and Brown. The building that housed Affleck and Brown is now known as Affleck's Palace. It consists of low-cost stalls for independent traders and creatives. Affleck's is on Oldham Street, in the Northern Quarter, along with a range of independent music, clothing, and other shops.
[edit] Food and drink
Manchester has a range of restaurants, bars, and clubs, spanning the famous "Curry Mile" in Rusholme to traditional ‘grub’, Chinatown, modern bars and bistros at Deansgate Locks in the city centre. In addition to these there are many independent fast food retailers throughout Manchester. There are now many top class restaurants.[citation needed]
There is a Hard Rock Cafe, chain restaurants such as Wagamama and bars that include Waxy O’Connors and The Living Room. The coffee chain Starbucks has 12 outlets in a 2 mile radius. Other, independent restaurants, bars and clubs can be found in the Northern Quarter area of the city centre. Chains such as The Living Room, Revolution Vodka Bar, La Tasca, Est Est Est, and Restaurant, Bar and Grill all started in the city before being introduced to other cities across the UK.
Manchester is also famous for its beer, despite the closure of the Boddingtons brewery in 2005. Keg 'Boddies' is brewed by Interbrew in Luton but cask Boddington's continues to be brewed in the city by Hydes brewery in Moss Side. Hydes is a long established independent brewery. Another Manchester brewer is Joseph Holt, whose Derby Brewery in Cheetham is just round the corner from the defunct Boddingtons Strangeways brewery. The Royal Brewery in Moss Side — not far from Hyde's — brews McEwan's lager. J W Lees brewery is in Middleton Junction, a few miles north of the city. There are also a notable number of microbreweries producing smaller quantities of high quality beer, cider and perry.
Breweries in the cities of Manchester and Salford which closed within the last twenty years include Wilson's, whose Newton Heath brewery closed in the late 1980s, and Whitbread/Chester's in Salford.
[edit] Demographics
The United Kingdom Census 2001 showed a total population for Manchester of 392,819, a 9.2% decline on the figure from the previous census, ten years before.[23] 82,788 were aged under 16, 284,994 16 to 74, and 25,037 aged 75 and over.[24]
75.9% of Manchester's population claim they have been born in the UK, according to the 2001 UK Census.
Inhabitants of Manchester are known as Mancunians.
[edit] Ethnicity
81% of people identified themselves as "White", 5.9% as "Indian" or "Pakistani", 2.3% as "Black Caribbean" and 1.4% as "Black African".[25] Manchester has an ethnically diverse population, this is shown most in south Manchester, In areas such as Moss Side, Longsight, Rusholme, and Whalley Range just to name a few. A high percentage of Mancunian's (estimated at over 30 %) are of Irish ancestry.[citation needed] The city's St Patrick's Day parade is one of the world's largest.
[edit] Religion
Stated religions in order of prevalence:
[edit] Economic activity
Manchester reported the second-lowest proportion of the population in employment of any area in the United Kingdom. Although unemployment in Manchester is higher than average, the primary reason for Manchester's low level of employed people is the very high proportion of the population who are students.[27]
[edit] Education
[edit] Universities
Manchester is home to two major universities - the University of Manchester and Manchester Metropolitan University - which are both located to the south of the city centre. The University of Manchester is the largest full-time non-collegiate university in the United Kingdom, and was created in autumn 2004 by the merger of Victoria University of Manchester and UMIST. Manchester Metropolitan University was formed out of the old polytechnic college in the city.
The University of Manchester, Manchester Metropolitan University and the Royal Northern College of Music are all grouped together on the southern side of the city centre, and effectively form one large campus along and near to Oxford Road (with the exception of the North Campus of the University of Manchester, which was the UMIST campus before the merger). Manchester Business School, which offered the first MBA course in the UK in 1965, forms a part of the University of Manchester.
[edit] Schools
Manchester's most notable secondary school is the Manchester Grammar School, an independent (what would be termed "private" in other English-speaking countries) boys' school, for pupils aged 11–18, in Fallowfield, South Manchester. In the post-war period, it was a direct-grant grammar school, which charged no fees, but it became an independent school in 1976 after the Labour government removed funding from direct-grant grammar schools. Originally situated in the centre of the city, in a prominent position close to the Cathedral, it has since relocated to Old Hall Lane in Fallowfield, to accommodate the growing student body. Its previous premises are now used by Chetham's School of Music.
[edit] Religion
The Anglican Diocese of Manchester was established in 1847. Manchester has also has an Anglican cathedral, St Mary, St George's and St Denys' Cathedral. It was built over a period of 600 years and is built in the Gothic Style.
Manchester lies within the Roman Catholic Diocese of Salford. The oldest surviving Catholic church is St Mary's The Hidden Gem, on Mulberry Street in the city centre. Manchester is in the Central North Division of the Salvation Army.
Manchester has a large Muslim population, and the UK's largest Jewish community outside London.[citation needed]
- See also: The Salvation Army in Manchester
[edit] Places of interest
[edit] Architecture
Manchester has a wide variety of buildings mainly from Victorian architecture through to modern. Much of the architecture in the city harks back to its former days as a global centre for the cotton trade. Many warehouses have now been converted for other uses but the external appearance remains mostly unchanged so the city keeps much of its original character. An interesting facet of the architecture of Manchester and several other cities which underwent a construction boom during the industrial revolution is that inspiration was taken from Venice. Examples of this architecture can be easily found to the south and east of Albert Square and near the 92nd lock of the Bridgewater Canal, near Beetham Tower.
Manchester also has a number of skyscrapers. Most were built during the sixties and seventies. However, in the last few years there has been a renewed interest in building skyscrapers in Manchester. Numerous residential and office blocks are being built or have recently been built in the city centre. Beetham Tower was completed in the Autumn of 2006 and houses a Hilton hotel along with a restaurant and residential properties. It is currently the tallest building in the UK outside of London. However, this status may be short lived, an even taller building, the Inacity Tower, is scheduled to commence construction in 2007 behind Manchester Piccadilly station.
Other structures of interest in Manchester include:
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[edit] Public monuments
Within Manchester there are monuments to numerous people and events that have helped to shape the city and influence the wider community. There are two large squares that hold many of Manchester's public monuments. There is Albert Square in front of the Town Hall which has monuments to Prince Albert, Bishop James Fraser, Oliver Heywood, William Ewart Gladstone and John Bright , and Piccadilly Gardens which has monuments dedicated to Queen Victoria, Robert Peel, James Watt and the Duke of Wellington.
Notable monuments elsewhere in the city include the Alan Turing Memorial situated in Sackville Park, adjacent to Sackville Street, which remembers the father of modern computing. A monument to American President Abraham Lincoln stands in the eponymous Lincoln Square. The statue marks the part that Lancashire had to play in the cotton famine of 1861–1865 and the American Civil War. Finally, the success of the 2002 Commonwealth Games is commemorated by B of the Bang, Britain’s tallest sculpture, located near the City of Manchester Stadium in the Eastlands area of the City.
[edit] Streets and plazas
Manchester has a number of busy squares, plazas and shopping streets. Many of Manchester city centre's streets are now pedestrianised with numerous other streets having Metrolink or Bus priority, this makes driving around Manchester City Centre complicated.
One of the oldest thoroughfares is Market Street. This was originally called Market Stede Lane. Much of the medieval street pattern, around the original Market Place was cleared as part of 1970s developments. Ancient streets such as Smithy Door were lost forever. One ancient street to survive is Long Millgate, which led north from the old Market Place. This winding lane, crossing Fennel Street and leading on to Todd Street (formerly Toad Lane - thought to be a corruption of T'owd Lane - The Old Lane) is now an attractive and peaceful thoroughfare, bounded by gardens.
Whitworth Street is a broad 19th century route, stretching from Deansgate to London Road, running parallel to the Rochdale Canal for much of its route, and intersecting with Princess Street, Chepstow Street and Albion Street along the way. The street is bounded by impressive brick buildings, formerly warehouses, but now mostly residential developments.
Mosley Street runs roughly parallel to Portland Street, Whitworth Street and Deansgate, leading from Piccadilly Gardens to St Peter's Square. The street is closed to general traffic, with the Metrolink running trams along its route.
Another Victorian addition to the city's street pattern was Corporation Street, which cut through slums to the north of Market Street and provided a direct link from Cross Street (and the newly constructed Albert Square) to the routes north of the city.
To the south of the city centre, Wilmslow Road is the hub of much student life and is home to Manchester’s curry mile.
Other notable places in Manchester include; Great Northern Square, Spring Gardens, Cathedral Gardens, New Cathedral Street, the Gay Village and Chinatown
[edit] Transport and infrastructure
Manchester and the surrounding communities in the North West of England are served by numerous transport facilities. The area is served by an international airport and a major motorway and rail network. statistically Greater Manchester has a higher percentage of the motorway network than any other county in the country.[citation needed] According to The Guinness Book of World Records[citation needed], it has the most traffic lanes side by side (17), spread across several parallel carriageways. (M61 at Linnyshaw Moss, Greater Manchester, close to the M60 interchange). On the local scale the area is served by a network of bus routes and a modern tram system radiates from the city centrer.
Historically the Liverpool and Manchester Railway was the first passenger railway in the world. Today, Greater Manchester still has an extensive citywide railway network, and two mainline stations. A network of canals also remains from the industrial revolution.
[edit] Culture
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Nightlife There has long been a thriving nightclub culture in Manchester. Broadcaster Jimmy Savile is credited as becoming the first modern DJ by using twin turntables for continuous play after he obtained two domestic record decks welded together. He first used this device to play to the public in 1946, at a nightclub called The Ritz on Whitworth Street (which had opened in 1927). Tony Prince is credited as becoming the world's first full-time club DJ in 1964 when Savile, who was then a Mecca manager in Manchester, told him that Top Rank considered him to be the first person to be on their payroll as a pure DJ.
Many teenagers of the 1960s developed a love for Northern Soul, which had as two of its epicentres the Wigan Casino and Manchester's Twisted Wheel Club, and is credited as being instrumental in the development of the Motown Sound.
Rob Gretton, members of New Order (the band formed from the remaining members of Joy Division after singer Ian Curtis' suicide) and Factory Records boss Tony Wilson opened Fac 51 The Hacienda on Whitworth Street in 1982. It quickly became the focus of electronic music and the start of house music, the Madchester sound, and the Ibiza scene, which all came together in the Summer of Love in 1988. The Hacienda was also at the setting of the 2002 movie 24 Hour Party People.
One of the oldest and most diverse venues is the Band on the Wall, a live music venue in the Northern Quarter area of the city. This venue was built around 1862 as the flagship pub of a local brewery; it was originally called The George & Dragon. It got its nickname in the late 1920s or early 1930s from the stage high on the back wall. In 1975 it was taken on by jazz musician Steve Morris and his business partner Frank Cusick, and renamed The Band on the Wall.
Art
There are several art galleries in Manchester, notably:
Museums Museums in Manchester include:
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Classical music Manchester is home to two symphony orchestras, the Hallé Orchestra and the BBC Philharmonic Orchestra. There is also a chamber orchestra, the Manchester Camerata.
For many years the city’s main classical venue was the Free Trade Hall on Peter Street. Since 1996, however, Manchester has had a modern 2,500 seat concert venue called the Bridgewater Hall, which is also home to the Hallé Orchestra. The hall is one of the country’s most technically advanced classical music and lecture venues, with an acoustically designed interior and suspended foundations for an optimum sound. Other venues for classical concerts include the RNCM, the Royal Exchange Theatre and Manchester Cathedral.
Manchester is a centre for musical education, being home to the Royal Northern College of Music and Chetham’s School of Music.
In the 1950s the city was home to the so-called ‘Manchester School’ of classical composers, which comprised Harrison Birtwistle, Peter Maxwell Davies and Alexander Goehr.
Pop music
For Mancunians, the pop musical heritage of the city has been a source of great pride.[citation needed] The city’s eclectic mix of music has helped to create the sense among its inhabitants that Manchester is the most important city in world music.[citation needed]
For local groups and bands from Manchester, see List of bands from Manchester.
Bands who contributed to the "Madchester" music scene include:
The Chemical Brothers (from southern England) formed in Manchester. Also, ex-Stone Roses frontman Ian Brown has forged a successful solo career, as has ex-Smiths leadman Morrissey. Among the others born in the Greater Manchester area are Richard Ashcroft and Jay Kay-the singer and mastermind of the acid jazz band Jamiroquai.
In 1965, on the U.S. Hot 100, a unique hat-trick of consecutive number 1s took place in the spring, all from Mancunian pop groups. Freddie and the Dreamers spent two weeks at the top with "I'm Telling You Now" (between April 10–24), Wayne Fontana and the Mindbenders one week with "Game of Love" (April 24-May 1), and finally Herman's Hermits with "Mrs Brown, You've Got a Lovely Daughter", a further three weeks (May 1–22), a total of six weeks, an achievement never matched even in the UK Top 50.
Manchester’s main pop music venue is the Manchester Evening News Arena, situated next to Manchester Victoria railway station, which seats over 21,000 and is the largest arena of its type in Europe, voted International Arena of the Year, beating New York’s Madison Square Garden.[citation needed] Other major venues include the Manchester Apollo and the Manchester Academy. The many smaller venues throughout the city, such as the Bierkeller, the Roadhouse and Night and Day Cafe, ensure that Manchester’s music scene is always vibrant and interesting.
The famous American anti-war hippie musical from the late sixties, Hair, includes a song entitled "Manchester, England" though the mention of the city in the song's title is somewhat irrelevant and merely used as punctuation in the song's lyrics.
Literature In the 19th century, Manchester figured in novels that discussed the changes that industrialisation had brought to Britain. These included works such as:-
- Mary Barton: A Tale of Manchester Life (1848) by Elizabeth Gaskell, [1]
- The Condition of the English Working Class in 1844 written by Friedrich Engels while living and working in Manchester.
Charles Dickens is reputed to have set his novel Hard Times in the city, and while it is partly modelled on Preston, it shows the influence of his friend Elizabeth Gaskell [2].
Anthony Burgess, author of A Clockwork Orange, was born and educated in Manchester. Little Wilson and Big God, the first volume of his autobiography, includes a detailed account of his early life in the city between 1917 and 1940.
Howard Jacobson, born in Prestwich, a once predominantly Jewish neighbourhood of the city, has written about post-war Manchester in The Mighty Walzer (1999) and Kalooki Nights (2006).
The Manchester novelist Maurice Procter was an early author of police procedural novels. Procter's Hell is a City (1954) is set in a fictionalised Manchester, later filmed in the city with lead roles for Donald Pleasence and Stanley Baker [3].
The German writer W. G. Sebald lived in Manchester when he first settled in England, and the city features prominently in his novel The Emigrants.
The Mancunian Jeff Noon set his early novels, including Vurt, in a future dystopian Manchester.
Nicholas Blincoe set his first three novels in Manchester, including Acid Casuals (1995), based around the nightclub The Hacienda and Manchester Slingback (1998), focussing on the Gay Village of Canal Street.
The crime novelist Val McDermid lived in the city for many years and set her Lindsay Gordon series in Manchester.
Carcanet Press, founded as a poetry magazine, began publishing poetry collections and novels in the early 1970s under the editorship of Michael Schmidt [4]. Schmidt was one of the first directors of the Manchester Metropolitan University Writers School, whose staff currently includes Simon Armitage and Carol Ann Duffy.
In Manchester is the Manchester Metropolitan University Writers School, one of the top creative writing schools in the country.
The Writer's Bureau — a private company set up to help new freelance writers through its home-study courses — runs its offices from Manchester.
In Manchester from October 2006 is the Manchester Literature Festival.
Theatre Manchester is noted for its excellent theatres. Larger venues include the Manchester Opera House, a commercial theatre promoting large scale touring shows which regularly plays host to touring West End shows, the Palace Theatre and the Royal Exchange Theatre, a large producing theatre in Manchester’s former cotton exchange. The Library Theatre is a small producing theatre situated in the basement of the city’s central library, and the Lowry Centre is a large touring venue in Salford.
Smaller sites include the Green Room, which focuses on fringe productions, the Contact Theatre, a theatre for young people with a bold contemporary design, and Studio Salford, the theatre and music venue at Bloom Street, Salford. The Dancehouse is a theatre dedicated to dance productions. The city is also home to two highly-regarded drama schools; The Manchester Metropolitan University School of Theatre and the Arden School of Theatre. In addition the Royal Northern College of Music (RNCM) has 4 theatre spaces especially noted for its opera and classical music productions. Manchester Theatres provides a guide to the theatres in the city and its environs.
Venues
As well as many sporting venues Manchester has many venues for performances and conventions:
- Manchester Central - Comprising two separate venues formerly known as the GMEX Centre and Manchester International Conference Centre (MICC) respectively.
- Bridgewater Hall
- MEN Arena - Europe's most capacious indoor arena.
- Manchester Academy
- Manchester Apollo
[edit] Sport
Sport and especially football are an important part of Manchester culture.
Many first class sporting facilities were built for the 2002 Commonwealth Games, including the Manchester Velodrome, the City of Manchester Stadium, the National Squash Centre and the Manchester Aquatics Centre.
Manchester is a successful sporting city with many famous sporting people heralding from the city as well as from the surrounding area of Greater Manchester. Manchester has competed twice to host the Olympic Games, being beaten by Atlanta in 1996 and Sydney in 2000.
It was announced in 2005 that various sporting arenas around the city will be used as training facilities prior to the 2012 Olympics in London.
[edit] Football
Two Premiership football clubs, Manchester United and Manchester City, bear the city’s name. Manchester City's ground is at the City of Manchester Stadium; Manchester United’s Old Trafford ground, the largest club football ground in England, is just outside the city in the borough of Trafford.
It is commonly perceived that Manchester City have more local support than Manchester United. However, research by Manchester University a few years ago showed that United had 9,000 season ticket holders within the M postal area and City had 7,000. The Manchester postal district includes the (strongly United supporting) city of Salford but also Prestwich and Whitefield (with one of the largest City supporters clubs) and areas such as Denton, where United also have strong support. This research was done before City moved to the (larger, 48,000 capacity) City of Manchester Stadium, and well before the expansion of United's Old Trafford stadium which now accommodates 76,000. The truth is that nobody knows for sure which team has the most local support and that the figures are probably too similar to call. What is beyond doubt is that United's nationwide and international support far exceeds that of City, so City have a larger local proportion of their overall fan base.
Manchester is also important to the history of football. In 1868 a meeting was held in the city for representatives from the UK's football associations, and the International Football Association Board, which makes the rules for the game, was formed following this meeting.
[edit] Rugby football
Although many of the big rugby teams in the north west of England play Rugby League, Manchester's rugby teams have a long tradition by playing Rugby Union.
Manchester Rugby Club, was founded as the "Manchester Football Club" in 1860, eleven years before the formation of the Rugby Football Union, the club is one of the oldest rugby union clubs in the world along with Blackheath Rugby Club and Liverpool St Helens F.C.. The club's ground is located at Grove Park in Cheadle Hulme, and is divided into different sections - 1st XV, 2nd XV, Warriors, Ladies, and Mini, Juniors, Colts.[31] See main article: Manchester Rugby Club
Broughton Park Rugby Union F.C., is one of the oldest Rugby Union Clubs in England and was established in 1882, just one year after the Lancashire County Rugby Union was founded and eleven years after the formation of the national Rugby Football Union. The club has had a number of different grounds in its time, mainly in the Salford/Prestwich area, but also in the south of Manchester. Since 2004 its present new facility is at Hough End in Chorlton, in South Manchester. Originally the club had only one senior side, but now fields four senior sides and supported by one Colts (U19), four youth (U13-U17) and four mini (U8-U12) teams; a total involvement of some 220 players each week. Broughton Park R.F.C. is the City of Manchester's highest placed representative in the Rugby Union Leagues.[32]
Didsbury Toc-H Rugby (Union) Club was originally founded in 1924 as "Toc H Manchester" and was situated in Victoria Park. After moving to various sites the club arrived in Didsbury and in 1986 the name was changed to "Didsbury Toc-H" to identify with the location of the clubhouse. The club, which celebrated its 80th anniversary in 2003/2004, is located at Ford Lane in the heart of Didsbury Village, in the south of Manchester, close to neighbouring areas Withington, Fallowfield, Burnage, and Stockport. The club fields four teams each week, the 1st team plays in the North Lancashire & Cumbria league, the 2nds, 3rds, and 4ths play in competitive "intermediate leagues". The club also has an established junior section. The "Toc-H" part comes from a soldiers club at Poperinghe in Flanders in the First World War. Soldiers and officers could get a respite from the battlefields. This place was named Talbot House in honour of a young lieutenant who was killed in action the year before. Signallers pronounced the letters 'T' as 'Toc' and 'H' as 'House'. Today they'd be 'Tango' and 'Hotel'. When the rugby club was founded, Manchester soldiers called the new club as "Toc-H Manchester".[33]
The City of Manchester has also has other rugby teams: the University of Manchester Rugby Club,[34] and Manchester Village Spartans RUFC.[35]
[edit] Cricket
Old Trafford cricket ground, located in the Metropolitan Borough of Trafford, is the historic home of Lancashire County Cricket Club, which hosts many first-class cricket and important international matches including Test Matches.
[edit] Other sports
Belle Vue Stadium in Gorton is home to the Belle Vue Aces speedway team and also hosts regular greyhound races.
Manchester also has an ice hockey team called the Manchester Phoenix who are in the process of building an arena called the Altrincham Ice Dome. The city was previously home to the Manchester Storm ice hockey club who in 1997 played in front of the largest audience ever to watch an ice hockey game in the United Kingdom when 17,245 people saw the Storm defeat the Sheffield Steelers 6-2 at the MEN Arena.
Manchester also has an Australian Rules Football Club, The Manchester Mosquitoes, who played their first season in the BARFL in 2006.
[edit] Gay and lesbian
Manchester has the UK's largest gay population outside of London,[citation needed] and has a self-styled Gay Village. Centred around the Canal Street area the Gay Village is home to numerous shops, restaurants, bars and clubs. On the last weekend in August it hosts the Manchester Pride Festival (previously known as Mardi Gras and Gayfest).
Manchester’s gay culture was brought to mainstream attention in 1999 by the acclaimed and controversial Channel 4 drama series Queer as Folk, which was set in the Village. It is also the birthplace of several gay rights organisations including the Campaign for Homosexual Equality and the Queer Youth Alliance.[citation needed] Manchester has its own gay sports teams, Village Manchester FC (soccer), Northern Wave (swimming) and Village Spartans (Rugby) which take part in Manchester's annual Pride Games.
The year round gay and lesbian heritage trail exhibits Manchester’s gay history. Manchester’s claim to status of "gay capital of the UK" was strengthened in 2003 when it played host city to the annual Europride festival.[citation needed] The Lesbian and Gay Foundation, Britain's biggest gay charity, is based on Princess Street in the city centre.
The Gay Village is often featured on Soaps such as Coronation Street which is based in nearby Salford
[edit] Media
[edit] Television and radio
ITV franchisee Granada Television has its original headquarters on Quay Street in the Castlefield area of the city. The city is where programmes including Coronation Street and many Children’s ITV presentations are produced.
The BBC has its headquarters for the North West in New Broadcasting House on Oxford Road in the south of the city. Programmes including A Question of Sport, Mastermind and Real Story are made here. Manchester is also the regional base for the BBC One North West Region so programmes like North West Tonight are produced here. The BBC intends to relocate large numbers of staff and facilities to Media City at Salford Quays from London. The Children's(CBBC), Comedy, Sport (BBC Sport) and New Media departments are all scheduled for a move from London to MediaCity at Salford Quays before 2010.
Manchester has its own television channel, Channel M, owned by the Guardian Media Group and operated since 2000. It also has several local radio stations including BBC Radio Manchester, Key 103, Galaxy, Piccadilly Magic 1152, 105.4 Century FM , 100.4 Smooth FM, Capital Gold 1458, 96.2 The Revolution and Xfm. There is a community radio network coordinated by Radio Regen, and with stations covering the South Manchester communities of Ardwick, Longsight and Levenshulme (ALL FM 96.9) and Wythenshawe (Wythenshawe FM 97.2)
Several now defunct radio stations are much lamented including Sunset (which became) Kiss 102 (now Galaxy), and KFM which became Signal Cheshire (now Signal 1). The latter three played a significant role in the city's emerging House music culture, also known as the Madchester scene, which was partly based around clubs like the the Hacienda which had its own show on Kiss 102. There were also scores of pirate radio, student radio (currently consisting of Fuse FM at the University of Manchester and Shock FM at the University of Salford) and community radio stations and initiatives in Manchester.
BBC Radio Manchester, which became BBC GMR in 1988, returned to its former title in 2006.
The character of Daphne Moon in Frasier (the role which eventually made Jane Leeves the highest-paid British actress on television) came from Manchester.
The hit television series Life on Mars is based in a 1973 Manchester.
[edit] Film
- See also: Films set in Manchester
Manchester is home to the Manchester film festival and has held the commonwealth film festival.
Even Hollywood has featured Manchester occasionally in its films. My Son, My Son!, made in 1940, directed by Charles Vidor and starring Brian Aherne and Louis Hayward, is set in Manchester, and in MGM's all-star opus of 1932, Grand Hotel, most of Wallace Beery's dialogue seems to consist of him furiously shouting "Manchester!" throughout his entire part. Manchester over the years has shot many films from the Ewan McGregor blockbuster Velvet Goldmine to Sir Alec Guinness's The Man in the White Suit.
[edit] Magazines and newspapers
The Guardian newspaper was founded in Manchester in 1821 as The Manchester Guardian. Its head office is still in Manchester, though many of its management functions were moved to London in 1964. It still shares a Manchester office on Hardman Street with its sister publication, the Manchester Evening News, Manchester’s biggest-selling daily paper now free within the city centre, and Greater Manchester's biggest-circulation newspaper, the free weekly Manchester Metro News. The other free commuting paper is Metro North West, available from Metrolink stops, rail stations and other busy locations across the city at rush-hour.
For many years most of the national newspapers had important offices in Manchester: The Daily Telegraph, Daily Express, Daily Mail, The Daily Mirror, The Sun. Only The Daily Sport remain based in Manchester. At its height 1,500 journalists were employed. But in the 1980s office closures began and today the "second Fleet Street" is no more. A late attempt to launch a Northern daily newspaper, North West Times, floundered in the late 80s lasting just three months. Another attempt was made with the North West Enquirer, which was Manchester based and hoped to provide a true "regional" newspaper for the North West, much in the same vein as the Yorkshire Post does for Yorkshire or The Northern Echo does for the North East. It folded in October 2006.
There are several local lifestyle magazines, including 'Moving Manchester' amongst others.
[edit] South Manchester villages
These town centres in south Manchester were formerly villages:
[edit] Foreign consulates and commissions
Manchester and its conurbation are home to a number of foreign consulates and commissions:
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In addition, the British Council maintains a headquarters building in the city centre.
[edit] Twin Cities
[edit] See also
- Manchester Gallery - for images of the city
[edit] References
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[edit] Footnotes
- ^ Key facts and figures about Manchester, Manchester City Council. URL accessed February 21, 2007.
- ^ Key Statistics for urban areas in England and Wales, Census 2001. URL accessed February 21, 2007.
- ^ Manchester's Buildings, Manchester UK. URL accessed December 18, 2006.
- ^ Kidd, A., (2006), Manchester: A History, Carnegie Publishing Ltd.
- ^ Frangopulo, N.J., (1977), Tradition in Action: The Historical Evolution of the Greater Manchester County, EP Publishing, Wakefield.
- ^ Manchester United in Celebration of City, European Funding NW. URL accessed December 18, 2006.
- ^ Cottonopolis, www.Spinningtheweb.org.uk, Manchester City Council. URL accessed October 24, 2006.
- ^ Manchester Cottonopolis, Spinning the Web, Manchester City Council. URL accessed December 7, 2006.
- ^ Manchester and Salford (Ancoats, Castlefield and Worsley), http://whc.unesco.org (UNESCO). URL accessed October 24, 2006.
- ^ Manchester, www.manchester.ac.uk, Manchester University. URL accessed October 24, 2006.
- ^ Northern Soul, www.educationuk.org, March 2003. URL accessed October 24, 2006.
- ^ "Manchester 'England's second city'", BBC News, 12 September 2002, retrieved 2 May 2006.
- ^ "Manchester 'close to second city'", BBC News, 29 September 2005, retrieved 2 May 2006.
- ^ "Manchester tops second city poll", BBC News, 10 February 2007, retrieved 11 February 2007.
- ^ Overseas Visitors to the UK - Top Towns Visited 2005 .pdf.
- ^ Note that Manchester United is in Greater Manchester but not inside Manchester city limits: it is in the borough of Trafford.
- ^ Casino Advisory Panel Recommendation
- ^ Manchester, England, www.weatherbase.com. URL accessed October 25, 2006.
- ^ Manchester tourist guide — Geography & weather. Manchester Online. Retrieved on November 2, 2005.
- ^ Mills, A. D. (2003). A Dictionary of British Place-names. Oxford University Press. ISBN ISBN 0-19-852758-6.
- ^ Rogers, Nicholas - Halloween: from Pagan Ritual to Party Night, 2003, Oxford University Press, ISBN 0-1951-6896-8? P.18
- ^ "City building reaches full height", BBC, 26 April 2006, retrieved 2 May 2006.
- ^ Manchester, www.statistics.gov.uk, National Statistics. http://www.statistics.gov.uk/census2001/profiles/00BN-A.asp Manchester], www.statistics.gov.uk, National Statistics. URL accessed October 25, 2006.
- ^ Manchester, www.statistics.gov.uk, National Statistics. URL accessed October 25, 2006.
- ^ Manchester, www.statistics.gov.uk, National Statistics. URL accessed October 25, 2006.
- ^ Manchester, www.statistics.gov.uk, National Statistics. URL accessed October 25, 2006.
- ^ Manchester, www.statistics.gov.uk, National Statistics. URL accessed October 25, 2006.
- ^ Note: The Lowry Hotel is not in Manchester but across the River Irwell in the City of Salford
- ^ Note: Old Trafford (cricket ground) is not in Manchester but across the River Irwell in the borough of Trafford
- ^ Note: Old Trafford (football ground) and Manchester United Football Club are not in Manchester but across the River Irwell in the borough of Trafford
- ^ Manchester Rugby Club
- ^ Broughton Park Rugby Union F.C.
- ^ Didsbury Rugby (Union) Club
- ^ The University of Manchester Rugby Club
- ^ Manchester Village Spartans RUFC
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