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. The Greater Manchester Urban Area has a population of 2,240,230, making Manchester and its surrounding area the United Kingdom's third largest conurbation.
Manchester is historically notable for being credited as the world's first industrialised city and for the subsequent central role it played during the Industrial Revolution. It was the dominant international centre of textile manufacture and cotton spinning. During the 19th century it was nicknamed Cottonopolis, 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.
Being the largest city in the north of England, Manchester is often described as the "Capital of the North", 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 some to be England's second city. Arguably, when comparing the significance of Manchester with other UK cities, the population of the conurbation is more relevant than that of the administrative city (which is limited by municipal boundaries unrelated to population distribution). It is the third most visited city in the United Kingdom by foreign visitors, after London and Edinburgh. Manchester is also well known for its sporting connections, being associated with two major Premier League football teams, Manchester United and Manchester City, and internationally renowned as a centre of sporting excellence having hosted the XVII Commonwealth Games in 2002.
In January 2007, Manchester was briefly awarded the licence to build the only supercasino allowed in the UK, but in March 2007 the House of Lords rejected the decision by three votes rendering the House of Commons acceptance meaningless.
History
The Manchester area was settled in or before Roman times. 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.
In the late 18th century, Manchester may have become 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 second 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.
Albert SquareManchester suffered greatly from the inter-war depression and the underlying structural changes that began to supplant the old industries, including textile manufacture.
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.
Manchester architecture, museums, culture
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:
- The Bridgewater Hall, home of the Hallé Orchestra.
- The Beetham Tower, Manchester, the tallest building in Manchester.
- The CIS Tower, The tallest vertical array of solar cells and the former tallest building in Manchester.
- The City of Manchester Stadium.
- The Corn Exchange (now the Triangle shopping centre).
- Manchester Central.
- John Rylands Library, Deansgate.
- London Road Fire Station.
- The Lowry Hotel, Manchester's first 5 star hotel.
- Manchester Art Gallery .
- Manchester Central Library, St Peter’s Square, by E. Vincent Harris.
- Manchester Town Hall by Alfred Waterhouse, extended by E. Vincent Harris.
- Midland Bank building (now HSBC Bank plc), King Street by Sir Edwin Lutyens.
- The Midland Hotel.
- Old Trafford, the home of Manchester United Football Club.
- Piccadilly Gardens by Tadao Ando.
- Palace Hotel.
- The Portico Library.
- The Royal Exchange.
- South Manchester Synagogue.
- Strangeways Prison
- Sunlight House
- Trinity Bridge over River Irwell by Santiago Calatrava.
- Victoria station.
- The Victoria Baths.
- Urbis Museum
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. It is the work of George Gray Barnard and was presented to the city by Mr & Mrs Charles Phelps Taft of Cincinnati, Ohio. 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.
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-east of the city centre, Wilmslow Road which runs from Oxford 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, Lincoln Square, Spring Gardens, Cathedral Gardens, Sackville Gardens, New Cathedral Street, the Gay Village and Chinatown.
Museums in Manchester include:
- Greater Manchester Police Museum
- Manchester Jewish Museum
- Manchester Museum
- Museum of Science and Industry, an Achor Point of ERIH - The European Route of Industrial Heritage
Copyright manuele Ferlito 2009-2010