Manchester Town Hall
General information
Type	Town hall
Architectural style	Victorian, Gothic Revival
Location	Manchester Greater Manchester England
Address	Town Hall Albert Square Manchester M60 2LA
Construction started	1868
Completed	1877
Inaugurated	13 September 1877[1]
Cost	£775,000[2] - £1,000,000[3] (£55,210,000 to 71,240,000 as of 2012[4])
Height	87m (clock tower)
Technical details
Floor count	6
Design and construction
Owner	Manchester City Council
Architect	Alfred Waterhouse
References
[5]

Manchester Town Hall is a Victorian-era, Neo-gothic municipal building in Manchester, England. The building functions as the ceremonial headquarters of Manchester City Council and houses a number of local government departments.

Designed by architect Alfred Waterhouse the town hall was completed in 1877. The building occupies a triangular site facing Albert Square and contains offices and grand ceremonial rooms such as the Great Hall which is decorated with the imposing Manchester Murals by Ford Madox Brown illustrating the history of the city. The entrance and Sculpture Hall contain busts and statues of influential figures including Dalton, Joule and Barbirolli. The exterior is dominated by the clock tower which rises to 87 metres (285 feet) and houses Great Abel, the clock bell.

In 1938, a detached Town Hall Extension was completed and is connected by two covered bridges over Lloyd Street. The town hall, which was granted Grade I listed building status on 25 February 1952^[6] is regarded as one of the finest interpretations of neogothic architecture in the United Kingdom.^[7]

History[link]

Old Town Hall[link]

The original Manchester Town Hall

Manchester's original civic administration was housed in the Police Office in King Street. It was replaced by the first Town Hall, to accommodate the growing local government and its civic assembly rooms. The Town Hall, also located in King Street at the corner of Cross Street, was designed by Francis Goodwin and constructed during 1822–25, much of it by David Bellhouse. The building was designed with a screen of Ionic columns across a recessed centre, in a classicising manner strongly influenced by John Soane. The building was 134 feet long and 76 feet deep, the ground floor housed committee rooms and offices for the Chief Constable, Surveyor, Treasurer, other officers and clerks. The first floor held the Assembly Rooms. The building and land cost £39,587.^[8]

As the size and wealth of the city grew, largely as a result of the textile industry, its administration outstripped the existing facilities, and a new building was proposed. The King Street building was subsequently occupied by a lending library and then Lloyds Bank. The facade was removed to Heaton Park in 1912, when the current Lloyds TSB building was erected on the site (No 53 King Street).

New Town Hall[link]

Detail of façades by Alfred Waterhouse

Cross section drawing by Waterhouse

Planning for a new town hall began in 1863. Manchester Corporation demanded it be, 'equal if not superior, to any similar building in the country at any cost which may be reasonably required'.^[9] The choice of location was influenced by a desire to provide a central, accessible, but relatively quiet site in a respectable district, close to Manchester's banks and municipal offices, next to a large open area, suitable for the display of a fine building.^[10] After an investigation of suitable sites, including Piccadilly, the site chosen for the new town hall was an oddly shaped triangle facing onto Albert Square.^[11] On this tight triangular site, the corporation required a grand hall, a suite of reception rooms, quarters for the Lord Mayor, offices and a council chamber.^[1]

A competition was held to design the town hall. Of the 137 entries in open competition, Waterhouse's design was chosen^[1] and he was appointed as architect on 1 April 1868.^[11] The foundation stone was laid on 26 October 1868 by the Lord Mayor, Robert Neill. Construction took nine years and used 14 million bricks.^[12] Estimates for the cost of construction vary from £775,000^[2] to around £1,000,000^[3] translating into a 2010 building cost of between £54m to £71m due to inflation. Manchester Town Hall was opened on 13 September 1877 by the Lord Mayor, Abel Heywood, who had championed the project after Queen Victoria refused to attend.^[13]

The building exemplifies the Victorian Gothic revival style of architecture, using themes and elements from 13th-century Early English Gothic architecture. Gothic features most prominent in the Manchester Town Hall are low rib vault ceilings and tall arched windows. The choice of the Gothic was influenced by the wish for a spiritual acknowledgement of Manchester's late medieval heritage in the textile trade of the Hanseatic league and an affirmation of modernity in the fashionable neo-Gothic style favoured over the Neoclassical architecture of Liverpool.^[14]

The exterior, faced with hard sandstone quarried near Bradford, Yorkshire, known as "Spinkwell stone",^[15] is decorated with sculptures of important figures in Manchester's history. The interior is faced with multi-coloured architectural terracotta by Gibbs and Canning Limited. The painted ceilings were provided by Best & Lea of Manchester, who had provided the ceilings in the Natural History Museum also designed by Alfred Waterhouse.

Architecture[link]

Manchester Town Hall in the early 20th Century - note the stonework blackened by soot from industrial pollution.

The rapid growth and accompanying pollution, in Victorian cities caused great problems for architects including denial of light, overcrowding, awkward sites, noise, accessibility and visibility of buildings, and air pollution.

Design stipulations for Manchester's town hall included provision for "the sufficiency of window light supplied throughout the building." This was addressed by the use of architectural devices: suspended first floor rooms, made possible by the use of iron-framed construction, skylights, extra windows and dormers, "borrowed lights" for interior spaces and glazed white bricks in conjunction with mosaic marble paving in areas where the light was "less strong".^[10][16] Clear glass was used in important rooms, with light-coloured tints for coloured glazing, as "the sky of Manchester does not favour the employment of deeply stained glass."^[17]

In mid-19th century Manchester, many important Georgian buildings were blackened by atmospheric pollution. By the 1870s the local soft red Collyhurst sandstone was deemed to be to be unsuitable for public buildings, and tough Pennine sandstones were preferred.^[17] The architectural competition entries for the town hall were judged in part on their suitability for the "climate of the district", and sample stone types were investigated.^[18] Waterhouse believed that it was a matter of great difficulty to find a stone "proof against the evil influences of the peculiar climate of Manchester" but decided that the Yorkshire-quarried "Spinkwell stone" would resist "the deleterious influences of Manchester atmosphere".^[10] The interior decoration was chosen with a view to providing permanent colour and cleanable surfaces. Public corridors were faced with terracotta rather than plaster, and extensive use was made of stone vaulted ceilings, tiled dados and washable mosaic floors.^[19]

Waterhouse's design used a Gothic style with limited carved decoration and a uniform colour. This, along with a limited amount of modelling detail, was a departure from high Victorian heaviness and use of colour in contemporary Ruskinian Gothic buildings, and the town hall was criticised by some Manchester inhabitants for not being Gothic enough.^[20] Many commented on the decision to spend large amounts of money on a building "when most of its architectural effect would be lost because ruined by soot and made nearly invisible by smoke."^[20] Waterhouse's design proved successful and although the exterior was blackened by the late 1890s, the stonework was not badly damaged and was in a suitable condition to be to be cleaned and restored to its original appearance in the late 1960s.

Modern technologies[link]

Despite its medieval styling, the building was designed to support the practical technologies of the 19th century. These included gas lighting, and a warm-air heating system, which provided fresh air drawn through ornamental stone air inlets placed below the windows and admitted behind the hot water pipes and 'coils' of rooms. Warmed, fresh air was fed into the stairwells and through hollow shafts within the spiral staircases in order to ventilate the corridors.^[10] The pipes that supplied gas for lighting were ingeniously concealed underneath the banister rails of the spiral staircases.^[1]

Clock tower[link]

The 280-foot (85 metre) tall bell tower, houses a carillon of 23 bells: 12 are hung for full circle change ringing and were manufactured by John Taylor Bellfounders.^[21] The clock bell, Great Abel, named after Abel Heywood weighs 8 tons 2.5 cwt. The clock was made by Gillett and Bland (predecessor of Gillett and Johnston) and was originally wound using hydraulic power supplied by Manchester Hydraulic Power.^[22] The clock bell first rang on New Year's Day 1879 but cracked,^[23][24] and was replaced in 1882 and recast with all the bells in 1937.^[25] The clock face bears the inscription Teach us to number our Days, from Psalm 90:12. The clock bell is inscribed with the initials AH and the Tennyson line Ring out the false, ring in the true.^[26]

Interior[link]

The landing outside the Great Hall.

The Great Hall, its walls are decorated with the Manchester Murals.

Waterhouse's plan for the town hall bridged the gap between office and ceremonial requirements and maximised space on its triangular site.^[27] His design was for a six-storey building which filled the asymmetrical triangular site. Set around the perimeter of the building is a cloister of corridors linking offices and everyday workings. The grandiose, ceremonial features of the town hall are located in the centre of the building. By the main entrance on Albert Square are two grand staircases which lead to the landing outside the Great Hall. These stairs were designed to have low risers to allow access for women in Victorian dress. The walls of the staircases have tall, arched windows generating daylight and lead to the focal point of the building, the Great Hall.^[28]

Great Hall and Manchester Murals[link]

The Great Hall on the first floor is reached by two staircases that link the main entrance to the landing outside. The landing has a glazed skylight on which the names of mayors, lord mayors and chairs of the council since Manchester received its Charter of Corporation in 1838 are inscribed on the glass panes.^[29] The landing has a mosaic floor with a pattern of bees. Influential critic of the Victorian era, John Ruskin, described the Great Hall as "The most truly magnificent Gothic apartment in Europe."^[30]

The hall is rectangular in shape and courtyards on either side allow light through its windows. It has a hammerbeam roof,^[5] and its ceiling is divided into panels bearing the arms of countries and towns with which Manchester traded at the zenith of her mercantile power. The Manchester Murals by Ford Madox Brown adorn its walls and comprise a sequence of twelve paintings depicting the history of Manchester. They are not true frescos but employ the Gambier Parry process. The hall's organ is by Aristide Cavaillé-Coll and stands 16 feet tall and has more than 5,000 pipes. It was designed so that the organist can face the audience.

Town Hall Extension[link]

In 1927, a competition to design the Town Hall Extension was won by Emanuel Vincent Harris, the architect who also won a competition to design the city's Central Library.^[31] Work began on the extension in 1934 and was completed by 1938. Charles Herbert Reilly, a contemporary architecture critic, thought the extension was 'dull' and 'drab'^[32] while Nikolaus Pevsner considered it was Harris's best work. It is linked to the town hall by glazed pedestrian bridges ar first-floor level.

Filming[link]

As the town hall resembles the Palace of Westminster, it has been used as a location for television and films. The BBC series, State of Play, was filmed here and at Granada Studios.^[33] In 2008, it was used in the filming of Sherlock Holmes^[34] and in 2011 was a location for The Iron Lady.^[35]

See also[link]

• Manchester Murals
• Manchester Town Hall Extension
• Grade I listed buildings in Greater Manchester
• Rochdale Town Hall

References[link]

Notes

Bibliography

External links[link]

Wikimedia Commons has media related to: Manchester Town Hall

• Ground-floor plan of the town hall
• Town hall bells
• Town hall organ
• Video from the Guardian

Coordinates: 53°28′45″N 2°14′39″W / 53.47917°N 2.24417°W / 53.47917; -2.24417

Coordinates: 53°28′N 2°14′W / 53.467°N 2.233°W / 53.467; -2.233

City of Manchester
—  City & Metropolitan borough  —
Montage of Manchester. From top-left: Manchester Town Hall, Beetham Tower, Central Library, National Football Museum, Canal Street, Spinningfields business district Montage of Manchester. From top-left: Manchester Town Hall, Beetham Tower, Central Library, National Football Museum, Canal Street, Spinningfields business district
Official logo of City of Manchester Coat of Arms of the City Council
Nickname(s): "Cottonopolis", "Warehouse City", "Rainy City",[1] Madchester, Mancunia
Motto: "Concilio Et Labore" "By wisdom and effort"
Manchester shown within Greater Manchester and England
Coordinates: 53°28′N 2°14′W / 53.467°N 2.233°W / 53.467; -2.233
Sovereign state	United Kingdom
Constituent country	England
Region	North West England
Ceremonial county	Greater Manchester
Admin HQ	Manchester Town Hall, Manchester city centre
Founded	1st century
Town charter	1301
City status	1853
Government
• Type	Metropolitan borough, City
• Governing body	Manchester City Council
• Lord Mayor	Mark Hackett[2]
• MPs:	Paul Goggins (Lab) Sir Gerald Kaufman (Lab) John Leech (Lib Dem) Tony Lloyd (Lab) Graham Stringer (Lab)
Area
• Total	44.65 sq mi (115.65 km2)
Elevation	125 ft (38 m)
Population (2011)
• Total	498,800
• Density	11,170/sq mi (4,313/km2)
Demonym	Mancunian
Time zone	Greenwich Mean Time (UTC+0)
Postcode	M
Area code(s)	0161
OS grid reference	SJ838980
Website	www.manchester.gov.uk

Manchester ⁱ/ˈmæntʃɛstər/ is a city and metropolitan borough in Greater Manchester, England with an estimated population of 498,800 in 2010. Manchester lies within one of the United Kingdom's largest urban areas; the Greater Manchester Urban Area which has a population of 2.2 million.^[3] The demonym of Manchester is Mancunian and the local authority is Manchester City Council.

Manchester is situated in the south-central part of North West England, fringed by the Cheshire Plain to the south and the Pennines to the north and east. The recorded history of Manchester began with the civilian settlement associated with the Roman fort of Mamucium, which was established in c. 79 AD on a sandstone bluff near the confluence of the rivers Medlock and Irwell. Historically, most of the city was a part of Lancashire, although areas south of the River Mersey were in Cheshire.^[4] Throughout the Middle Ages Manchester remained a manorial township, but it began to expand "at an astonishing rate" around the turn of the 19th century. Manchester's unplanned urbanisation was brought on by a boom in textile manufacture during the Industrial Revolution,^[5] and resulted in it becoming the world's first industrialised city.^[6] An early 19th-century factory building boom transformed Manchester from a township into a major mill town and borough that was granted city status in 1853. In 1894 the Manchester Ship Canal was built, creating the Port of Manchester.

The city is notable for its culture, music scene, scientific and engineering output, media links and sporting connections. Manchester's sports clubs include Premier League football teams, Manchester City and Manchester United.^[7] Manchester was the site of the world's first railway station, and the place where scientists first split the atom and developed the first stored-program computer. Manchester is served by two universities, including the largest single-site university in the UK, and has one of the country's largest urban economies. Manchester is also the third-most visited city in the UK by foreign visitors, after London and Edinburgh, and the most visited in England outside London.^[8]

History[link]

Etymology[link]

The name Manchester originates from the Ancient Roman name Mamucium, the name of the Roman fort and settlement, generally thought to be a Latinisation of an original Celtic name (possibly meaning "breast-like hill" from mamm- = "breast"), plus Old English ceaster = "town", which is derived from Latin castra = "camp".^[9] An alternative theory suggests that the origin is Brythonic mamma = "mother", where the "mother" was a river-goddess of the River Medlock which flows below the fort. Mam means "female breast" in Irish Gaelic and "mother" in Welsh.^[10]

Early history[link]

The Brigantes were the major Celtic tribe in what is now Northern England; they had a stronghold in the locality at a sandstone outcrop on which Manchester Cathedral now stands, opposite the banks of the River Irwell.^[11] Their territory extended across the fertile lowland of what is now Salford and Stretford. Following the Roman conquest of Britain in the 1st century, General Agricola ordered the construction of a Roman fort named Mamucium in the year 79 to ensure that Roman interests in Deva Victrix (Chester) and Eboracum (York) were protected from the Brigantes.^[11] Central Manchester has been permanently settled since this time.^[12] A stabilised fragment of foundations of the final version of the Roman fort is visible in Castlefield. The Roman habitation of Manchester probably ended around the 3rd century; the vicus, or civilian settlement, appears to have been abandoned by the mid 3rd century, although the fort may have supported a small garrison until the late 3rd or early 4th century.^[13] By the time of the Norman Conquest in 1066, the focus of settlement had shifted to the confluence of the rivers Irwell and Irk.^[14] Much of the wider area was laid waste in the subsequent Harrying of the North.^[15][16]

A map of Manchester circa 1650

Thomas de la Warre, lord of the manor, founded and constructed a collegiate church for the parish in 1421. The church is now Manchester Cathedral; the domestic premises of the college currently house Chetham's School of Music and Chetham's Library.^[14][17] The library, which opened in 1653 and is still open to the public today, is the oldest free public reference library in the United Kingdom.^[18]

Manchester is mentioned as having a market in 1282.^[19] Around the 14th century, Manchester received an influx of Flemish weavers, sometimes credited as the foundation of the region's textile industry.^[20] Manchester became an important centre for the manufacture and trade of woollens and linen, and by about 1540, had expanded to become, in John Leland's words, "The fairest, best builded, quickest, and most populous town of all Lancashire."^[14] The cathedral and Chetham's buildings are the only significant survivors of Leland's Manchester.^[15]

A map of Manchester and Salford from 1801.

During the English Civil War, Manchester strongly favoured the Parliamentary interest. Although not long lasting, Cromwell granted it the right to elect its own MP. Charles Worsley, who sat for the city for only a year, was later appointed Major General for Lancashire, Cheshire and Staffordshire during the Rule of the Major Generals. He was a diligent puritan, turning out ale houses and banning the celebration of Christmas; he died in 1656.^[21]

Significant quantities of cotton began to be used after about 1600, firstly in linen/cotton fustians, but by around 1750 pure cotton fabrics were being produced and cotton had overtaken wool in importance.^[14] The Irwell and Mersey were made navigable by 1736, opening a route from Manchester to the sea docks on the Mersey. The Bridgewater Canal, Britain's first wholly artificial waterway, was opened in 1761, bringing coal from mines at Worsley to central Manchester. The canal was extended to the Mersey at Runcorn by 1776. The combination of competition and improved efficiency halved the cost of coal and halved the transport cost of raw cotton.^[14][17] Manchester became the dominant marketplace for textiles produced in the surrounding towns.^[14] A commodities exchange, opened in 1729,^[15] and numerous large warehouses, aided commerce.

In 1780, Richard Arkwright began construction of Manchester's first cotton mill.^[15][17]

Industrial Revolution[link]

Cotton mills in Ancoats about 1820

Much of Manchester's history is concerned with textile manufacture during the Industrial Revolution. The great majority of cotton spinning took place in the towns of south Lancashire and north Cheshire, and Manchester was for a time the most productive centre of cotton processing,^[22] and later the world's largest marketplace for cotton goods.^[14][23] Manchester was dubbed "Cottonopolis" and "Warehouse City" during the Victorian era.^[22] In Australia, New Zealand and South Africa, the term "manchester" is still used for household linen: sheets, pillow cases, towels, etc.^[24]

Manchester from Kersal Moor, by William Wylde in 1857. Manchester acquired the nickname Cottonopolis during the early 19th century owing to its sprawl of textile factories.

Manchester began expanding "at an astonishing rate" around the turn of the 19th century as part of a process of unplanned urbanisation^[25] brought on by the Industrial Revolution.^[26] It developed a wide range of industries, so that by 1835 "Manchester was without challenge the first and greatest industrial city in the world."^[23] Engineering firms initially made machines for the cotton trade, but diversified into general manufacture. Similarly, the chemical industry started by producing bleaches and dyes, but expanded into other areas. Commerce was supported by financial service industries such as banking and insurance. Trade, and feeding the growing population, required a large transport and distribution infrastructure: the canal system was extended, and Manchester became one end of the world's first intercity passenger railway—the Liverpool and Manchester Railway. Competition between the various forms of transport kept costs down.^[14] In 1878 the GPO (the forerunner of British Telecom) provided its first telephones to a firm in Manchester.^[27]

The Manchester Ship Canal was built in 1894, in some sections by canalisation of the Rivers Irwell and Mersey, running 58 kilometres (36 mi)^[28] from Salford to Eastham Locks on the tidal Mersey. This enabled ocean going ships to sail right into the Port of Manchester. On the canal's banks, just outside the borough, the world's first industrial estate was created at Trafford Park.^[14] Large quantities of machinery, including cotton processing plant, were exported around the world.

The Peterloo Massacre of 1819 saw 15 deaths and several hundred injured.

A centre of capitalism, Manchester was once the scene of bread and labour riots, as well as calls for greater political recognition by the city's working and non-titled classes. One such gathering ended with the Peterloo Massacre of 16 August 1819. The economic school of Manchester capitalism developed there, and Manchester was the centre of the Anti-Corn Law League from 1838 onward.

Manchester has a notable place in the history of Marxism and left-wing politics; being the subject of Friedrich Engels' work The Condition of the Working Class in England in 1844; Engels spent much of his life in and around Manchester,^[29] and when Karl Marx visited Manchester, they met at Chetham's Library. The economics books Marx was reading at the time can be seen in the library, as can the window seat where Marx and Engels would meet.^[18] The first Trades Union Congress was held in Manchester (at the Mechanics' Institute, David Street), from 2 to 6 June 1868. Manchester was an important cradle of the Labour Party and the Suffragette Movement.^[30]

A oil painting of Oxford Road, Manchester in 1910 by Valette.

At that time, it seemed a place in which anything could happen—new industrial processes, new ways of thinking (the 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. A saying capturing this sense of innovation survives today: "What Manchester does today, the rest of the world does tomorrow."^[31] Manchester's golden age was perhaps the last quarter of the 19th century. Many of the great public buildings (including Manchester 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.

Although the Industrial Revolution brought wealth to the city, it also brought poverty and squalor to a large part of the population. Historian Simon Schama noted that "Manchester was the very best and the very worst taken to terrifying extremes, a new kind of city in the world; the chimneys of industrial suburbs greeting you with columns of smoke". An American visitor taken to Manchester’s blackspots saw "wretched, defrauded, oppressed, crushed human nature, lying and bleeding fragments".^[32]

The number of cotton mills in Manchester itself reached a peak of 108 in 1853.^[22] Thereafter the number began to decline and Manchester was surpassed as the largest centre of cotton spinning by Bolton in the 1850s and Oldham in the 1860s.^[22] However, this period of decline coincided with the rise of city as the financial centre of the region.^[22] Manchester continued to process cotton, and in 1913, 65% of the world's cotton was processed in the area.^[14] The First World War interrupted access to the export markets. Cotton processing in other parts of the world increased, often on machines produced in Manchester. Manchester suffered greatly from the Great Depression and the underlying structural changes that began to supplant the old industries, including textile manufacture.

The Second World War and the Manchester Blitz[link]

Like most of the UK, the Manchester area mobilised extensively during the Second World War. For example, casting and machining expertise at Beyer, Peacock and Company's locomotive works in Gorton was switched to bomb making; Dunlop's rubber works in Chorlton-on-Medlock made barrage balloons; and just outside the city in Trafford Park, engineers Metropolitan-Vickers made Avro Manchester and Avro Lancaster bombers and Ford built the Rolls-Royce Merlin engines to power them. Manchester was thus the target of bombing by the Luftwaffe, and by late 1940 air raids were taking place against non-military targets. The biggest took place during the "Christmas Blitz" on the nights of 22/23 and 24 December 1940, when an estimated 467 long tons (474 t)s) of high explosives plus over 37,000 incendiary bombs were dropped. A large part of the historic city centre was destroyed, including 165 warehouses, 200 business premises, and 150 offices. 376 were killed and 30,000 houses were damaged.^[33] Manchester Cathedral was among the buildings seriously damaged; its restoration took 20 years.^[34]

Post-Second World War[link]

Cotton processing and trading continued to fall in peacetime, and the exchange closed in 1968.^[14] By 1963 the port of Manchester was the UK's third largest,^[35] and employed over 3,000 men, but the canal was unable to handle the increasingly large container ships. Traffic declined, and the port closed in 1982.^[36] Heavy industry suffered a downturn from the 1960s and was greatly reduced under the economic policies followed by Margaret Thatcher's government after 1979. Manchester lost 150,000 jobs in manufacturing between 1961 and 1983.^[14]

Regeneration began in the late 1980s, with initiatives such as the Metrolink, the Bridgewater Concert Hall, the Manchester Arena, and (in Salford) the rebranding of the port as Salford Quays. Two bids to host the Olympic Games were part of a process to raise the international profile of the city.^[38]

Manchester has a history of attacks attributed to Irish Republicans, including the Manchester Martyrs of 1867, arson in 1920, a series of explosions in 1939, and two bombs in 1992. On Saturday 15 June 1996, the Provisional Irish Republican Army (IRA) carried out the 1996 Manchester bombing, the detonation of a large bomb next to a department store in the city centre. The largest to be detonated on British soil, the bomb injured over 200 people, heavily damaged nearby buildings, and broke windows half a mile away. The cost of the immediate damage was initially estimated at £50 million, but this was quickly revised upwards.^[39] The final insurance payout was over £400 million; many affected businesses never recovered from the loss of trade.^[40]

Exchange Square during a BBC Big Screen showing of a FIFA World Cup football game.

Spurred by the investment after the 1996 bomb, and aided by the XVII Commonwealth Games, Manchester's city centre has undergone extensive regeneration.^[38] New and renovated complexes such as The Printworks and The Triangle have become popular shopping and entertainment destinations. The Manchester Arndale is the UK's largest city centre shopping mall.^[41]

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. Old mills have been converted into modern apartments, Hulme has undergone extensive regeneration programmes, and million-pound lofthouse apartments have since been developed. The 169-metre tall, 47-storey Beetham Tower, completed in 2006, is the tallest building in the UK outside London and when finished was the highest residential accommodation in Europe.^[42] In January 2007, the independent Casino Advisory Panel awarded Manchester a licence to build the only supercasino in the UK,^[43] however plans were officially abandoned dead in February 2008.^[44]

Since around the turn of the 21st century, Manchester has been regarded by sections of the international press,^[45] British public,^[46] and government ministers^[47] as being the second city of the United Kingdom.^[48] The BBC reports that redevelopment of recent years has heightened claims that Manchester is the second city of the UK.^[49] Manchester and Birmingham have traditionally been considered for this unofficial title.^[49]

Government[link]

Manchester Town Hall in Albert Square, seat of local governance, is an example of Victorian era Gothic revival architecture.

Manchester is governed by Manchester City Council. Greater Manchester County Council was abolished in 1986 so it is effectively a unitary authority. Manchester has been a member of the English Core Cities Group since its inception in 1995.^[50]

The town of Manchester was granted a charter by Thomas Grelley in 1301 but lost its borough status in a court case of 1359. Until the 19th century, local government was largely provided by manorial courts, the last of which ended in 1846.^[51]

From a very early time, the township of Manchester lay within the historic county boundaries of Lancashire.^[51] Pevsner wrote "That [neighbouring] Stretford and Salford are not administratively one with Manchester is one of the most curious anomalies of England".^[20] A stroke of a Norman baron's pen is said to have divorced Manchester and Salford, though it was not Salford that became separated from Manchester, it was Manchester, with its humbler line of lords, that was separated from Salford.^[52] It was this separation that resulted in Salford becoming the judicial seat of Salfordshire, which included the ancient parish of Manchester. Manchester later formed its own Poor Law Union by the name of Manchester.^[51] In 1792, commissioners—usually known as police commissioners—were established for the social improvement of Manchester. In 1838, Manchester regained its borough status, and comprised the townships of Beswick, Cheetham Hill, Chorlton upon Medlock and Hulme.^[51] By 1846 the borough council had taken over the powers of the police commissioners. In 1853 Manchester was granted city status in the United Kingdom.^[51]

In 1885, Bradford, Harpurhey, Rusholme and parts of Moss Side and Withington townships became part of the City of Manchester. In 1889, the city became the county borough of Manchester, separate from the administrative county of Lancashire, and thus not governed by Lancashire County Council.^[51] Between 1890 and 1933, more areas were added to the city from Lancashire, including former villages such as Burnage, Chorlton-cum-Hardy, Didsbury, Fallowfield, Levenshulme, Longsight, and Withington. In 1931 the Cheshire civil parishes of Baguley, Northenden and Northen Etchells from the south of the River Mersey were added.^[51] In 1974, by way of the Local Government Act 1972, the City of Manchester became a metropolitan district of the metropolitan county of Greater Manchester.^[51] That year, Ringway, the town where Manchester Airport is located, was added to the city.

Geography[link]

At 53°28′0″N 2°14′0″W / 53.466667°N 2.233333°W / 53.466667; -2.233333, 160 miles (257 km) northwest of London, Manchester lies in a bowl-shaped land area bordered to the north and east by the Pennines, a mountain chain that runs the length of northern England, and to the south by the Cheshire Plain. The city centre is on the east bank of the River Irwell, near its confluences with the Rivers Medlock and Irk, and is relatively low-lying, being between 115 to 138 feet (35 to 42 metres) above sea level.^[53] The River Mersey flows through the south of Manchester. Much of the inner city, especially in the south, is flat, offering extensive views from many highrise buildings in the city of the foothills and moors of the Pennines, which can often be capped with snow in the winter months. 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.^[54]

The City of Manchester. The land use is overwhelmingly urban

The name Manchester, though officially applied only to the metropolitan district of Greater Manchester, has been applied to other, wider divisions of land, particularly across much of the Greater Manchester county and urban area. The "Manchester City Zone", "Manchester post town" and the "Manchester Congestion Charge" are all examples of this.

For purposes of the Office for National Statistics, Manchester forms the most populous settlement within the Greater Manchester Urban Area, the United Kingdom's third largest conurbation. There is a mixture of high-density urban and suburban locations in Manchester. The largest open space in the city, at around 260 hectares (642 acres),^[55] is Heaton Park. Manchester is contiguous on all sides with several large settlements, except for a small section along its southern boundary with Cheshire. The M60 and M56 motorways pass through the south of Manchester, through Northenden and Wythenshawe respectively. Heavy rail lines enter the city from all directions, the principal destination being Manchester Piccadilly station.

Manchester experiences a temperate maritime climate, like much of the British Isles, with warm summers and cold winters. There is regular but generally light precipitation throughout the year. The city's average annual rainfall is 806.6 millimetres (31.76 in)^[56] compared to the UK average of 1,125.0 millimetres (44.29 in),^[57] and its mean rain days are 140.4 per annum,^[56] compared to the UK average of 154.4.^[57] Manchester however has a relatively high humidity level, which optimised the textile manufacturing (with low thread breakage) which took place there. Snowfalls are not common in the city, due to the urban warming effect. However, the Pennine and Rossendale Forest hills that surround the city to its east and north receive more snow and roads leading out of the city can be closed due to snow.^[58] notably the A62 road via Oldham and Standedge, the A57 (Snake Pass) towards Sheffield,^[59] and the M62 over Saddleworth Moor.

Location and climate[link]

Destinations from Manchester

	Bolton, Wigan, Preston	Bury, Blackburn, Burnley	Oldham, Rochdale, Huddersfield, Halifax, Leeds
	Leigh, St Helens, Liverpool		Hyde, Stalybridge, Glossop, Sheffield
		Manchester    East
	Sale, Altrincham, Knutsford	Cheadle, Wilmslow, Alderley Edge	Stockport, Chapel-en-le-Frith, Buxton, Derby

Demography[link]

The United Kingdom Census 2001 showed a total resident population for Manchester of 392,819, a 9.2% decline from the 1991 census.^[64] Approximately 83,000 were aged under 16, 285,000 were aged 16–74, and 25,000 aged 75 and over.^[64] According to the 2001 census, 85.2% of Manchester's population claim they have been born in the UK. Inhabitants of Manchester are known as Mancunians or Mancs for short. The census also revealed that Manchester had the second-lowest proportion of the population in employment of any local authority in the UK. In part this was due to the high proportion of students as Manchester had the highest proportion of students amongst local authorities.^[64] A 2007 report noted "60 per cent of Manchester people are living in some of the UK's most deprived areas".^[65]

Historically the population of Manchester began to increase rapidly during the Victorian era, peaking at 766,311 in 1931. From then the population began to decrease rapidly, due to slum clearance and the increased building of social housing overspill estates by Manchester City Council after the Second World War such as Hattersley and Langley.^[66]

The inhabitants of Manchester, as of many other large cities, are religiously diverse. At the time of the 2001 census, 62.4% of the city's population were Christian, and 9.1% Muslim. Other religions represented less than 1% each. The proportion of people without a religion (16%) was above the national average (14.8%), with 9.7% not stating their religion.^[67] The Jewish population is second only to London,^[68] and Greater Manchester also has one of the largest Muslim populations.

The population of Manchester shown with other boroughs in the Greater Manchester county from 1801 to 2001.

The percentage of the population in Manchester who reported themselves as living in the same household in a same-sex relationship was 0.4%, compared to the English national average of 0.2%.^[69]

In terms of districts by ethnic diversity, the City of Manchester is ranked highest in Greater Manchester and 34th in England. Estimates from 2005 state 77.6% people as 'White' (71.0% of residents as White British, 3.0% White Irish, 3.6% as Other White – although those of mixed European and British ancestry is unknown, there are over 25,000 Mancunians of Italian descent alone which represents 5.5% of the city's population^[70]). 3.2% as Mixed race (1.3% Mixed White and Black Caribbean, 0.6% Mixed White and Black African, 0.7% Mixed White and Asian, 0.7% Other Mixed). 10.3% of the city's population are South Asian (2.3% Indian, 5.8% Pakistani, 1.0% Bangladeshi, 1.2% Other South Asian). 5.2% are Black (2.0% Black Caribbean, 2.7% Black African and 0.5% Other Black). 2.3% of the city's population are Chinese, and 1.4% are another ethnic group.^[71] Kidd identifies Moss Side, Longsight, Cheetham Hill, Rusholme, as centres of population for ethnic minorities.^[14] Manchester's Irish Festival, including a St Patrick's Day parade, is one of Europe's largest.^[72] There is also a well-established Chinatown in the city with a substantial number of oriental restaurants and Chinese supermarkets. The area also attracts large numbers of Chinese students to the city, attending the local universities.^[73]

Based on population estimates for 2005, crime levels in the city were considerably higher than the national average. Some parts of Manchester were adversely affected by its rapid urbanisation, resulting in high levels of crime in areas such as Moss Side and Wythenshawe.^[74] The number of theft from a vehicle offences and theft of a vehicle per 1,000 of the population was 25.5 and 8.9 compared to the English national average of 7.6 and 2.9 respectively.^[75] The number of sexual offences was 1.9 compared to the average of 0.9.^[75] The national average of violence against another person was 16.7 compared to the Manchester average of 32.7.^[75] The figures for crime statistics were all recorded during the 2006/7 financial year.^[76]

The Manchester Larger Urban Zone, a Eurostat measure of the functional city-region approximated to local government districts, has a population of 2,539,100 in 2004.^[77] In addition to Manchester itself, the LUZ includes the remainder of the county of Greater Manchester.^[78] The Manchester LUZ is the second largest within the United Kingdom, behind that of London.

Economy[link]

Manchester city centre from the Beetham Tower at night

Manchester was at the forefront of the Industrial Revolution in the 19th-century, and was a leading centre for manufacturing. The city's economy is now largely service-based and, as of 2007, is the fastest growing in the UK, with inward investment second only to the capital.^[79] Manchester's State of the City Report identifies financial and professional services, life science industries, creative, cultural and media, manufacturing and communications as major activities.^[79] The city was ranked in 2010 as the second-best place to do business in the UK and the twelfth best in Europe.^[80]

The arched entrance into Chinatown

Manchester has the largest UK office market outside London.^[81] Greater Manchester represents over £42 billion of the UK GVA, the third largest of any English county and more than Wales or North East England.^[82]

Manchester is a focus for businesses which serve local, regional and international markets.^[81] It is the fifth-largest financial centre in the United Kingdom outside London with more than 96,300 people employed in banking, finance and insurance.^[83] The Co-operative Group, the world's largest consumer-owned business, is based in Manchester and is one of the city's biggest employers. Legal, accounting, management consultancy and other professional and technical services exist in Manchester.^[81]

Manchester's commercial centre is in the centre of the city, adjacent to Piccadilly, focused on Mosley Street, Deansgate, King Street and Piccadilly. Spinningfields is a £1.5 billion mixed-use development that is expanding the district west of Deansgate. The area is designed to hold office space, retail and catering facilities, and courts. Several high-profile tenants have moved in, and a Civil Justice Centre opened in October 2007.^[84]

Manchester is the commercial, educational and cultural focus for North West England,^[81] and in 2010 was ranked as the fourth biggest central retail area in the UK by sales.^[85] The city centre retail area contains shops from chain stores up to high-end boutiques such as Vivienne Westwood, Emporio Armani, DKNY, Harvey Nichols, Boodles, Chanel and Hermès.

Manchester City Centre skyline from the south west in March 2009. Notable buildings from left to right include the Beetham Tower, City Tower and CIS Tower. The West Pennine Moors can be seen in the background.

Landmarks[link]

Beetham Tower on Deansgate, currently Manchester's tallest building and England's tallest residential tower

Manchester's buildings display a variety of architectural styles, ranging from Victorian to contemporary architecture. The widespread use of red brick characterises the city. Much of the architecture in the city harks back to its days as a global centre for the cotton trade.^[17] Just outside the immediate city centre is a large number of former cotton mills, some of which have been left virtually untouched since their closure while many have been redeveloped into apartment buildings and office space. Manchester Town Hall, in Albert Square, was built in the Gothic revival style and is considered to be one of the most important Victorian buildings in England.^[86] Manchester also has a number of skyscrapers built during the 1960s and 1970s, the tallest of which was the CIS Tower located near Manchester Victoria station until the Beetham Tower was completed in 2006; it is an example of the new surge in high-rise building and includes a Hilton hotel, a restaurant, and apartments. On its completion, it was the tallest building in the UK outside London, although an even taller building, the Piccadilly Tower, began construction behind Manchester Piccadilly station in early 2008 (a project currently in abeyance).^[87] The Green Building, opposite Oxford Road station, is a pioneering eco-friendly housing project, one of very few in the UK. The award-winning Heaton Park in the north of the city borough is one of the largest municipal parks in Europe, covering 610 acres (250 ha) of parkland.^[88] The city has 135 parks, gardens, and open spaces.^[89] Two large squares hold many of Manchester's public monuments. Albert Square has monuments to Prince Albert, Bishop James Fraser, Oliver Heywood, William Ewart Gladstone,and John Bright. Piccadilly Gardens has monuments dedicated to Queen Victoria, Robert Peel, James Watt and the Duke of Wellington. The cenotaph in St Peter's Square, by Edwin Lutyens, is Manchester's main memorial to its war dead. The Alan Turing Memorial in Sackville Park commemorates his role as the father of modern computing. A larger-than-life statue of Abraham Lincoln by George Gray Barnard in the eponymous Lincoln Square (having stood for many years in Platt Fields) was presented to the city by Mr. and Mrs. Charles Phelps Taft of Cincinnati, Ohio, to mark the part that Lancashire played in the cotton famine and American Civil War of 1861–1865.^[90] A Concorde is on display near Manchester Airport.

Manchester has six designated Local Nature Reserves which are Chorlton Water Park, Blackley Forest, Clayton Vale and Chorlton Ees, Ivy Green, Boggart Hole Clough and Highfield Country Park.^[91]

Transport[link]

Manchester Airport has double the number of annual passengers of its nearest non-London airport rival.

Manchester and North West England are served by Manchester Airport. The airport is the third busiest in the United Kingdom and the largest outside the London region. Airline services exist to many destinations in Europe, North America, the Caribbean, Africa, the Middle East and Asia (with more destinations from Manchester than from London Heathrow).^[92] A second runway was opened in 2001 and there have been continued terminal improvements. Despite being a regional airport, the airport currently has the highest rating available, "Category 10" encompassing an elite group of airports which are able to handle "Code F" aircraft including the Airbus A380 and Boeing 747-8.^[93] From September 2010 the airport became one of only 17 airports in the world and the only airport other than Heathrow Airport to operate the Airbus A380 in the United Kingdom.^[94]

Manchester Piccadilly Station, one of the two principal railway stations in Manchester

Manchester is well served by the rail network.^[95] In terms of passengers, Manchester Piccadilly was the busiest English railway station outside London in 2007/08 and the third busiest in 2008/09.^[96] Local operator Northern Rail and First Transpennine Express operates all over the North of England, and other national operators include East Midlands Trains and Virgin Trains. The city's other main central railway station, Manchester Victoria, had many more platforms before the arrival of the Manchester Arena than it now has. The Liverpool and Manchester Railway was the first passenger railway in the world. Manchester is at the centre of an extensive countywide railway network with two mainline stations: Piccadilly and Victoria. Manchester city centre is also serviced by over a dozen rail-based park and ride sites.^[97] In October 2007, the government announced that a feasibility study had been ordered into increasing the capacity at Piccadilly Station and turning Manchester into the rail hub of the north.^[98] Future improvements include a £560 million Northern Hub scheme by Network Rail to alleviate bottlenecks on Manchester's rail routes and, if constructed, the High Speed 2 link to London.

The Manchester Metrolink will have the largest tram system in the UK once the expansion is complete.

Manchester became the first city in the UK to acquire a modern light rail tram system when the Manchester Metrolink opened in 1992. The present system mostly runs on former commuter rail lines converted for light rail use, and crosses the city centre via on-street tram lines.^[99] The 23 mi (37 km)-network consists of three lines with 37 stations (including five on-street tram stops in the centre). An expansion programme is underway^[100] which will create 4 new lines to add to the current 3 and will be at least 99 stops, 62 more than in 2010. Upon completion Manchester will have the largest tram system in the UK.^[101]

The city has one of the most extensive bus networks outside London with over 50 bus companies operating in the Greater Manchester region radiating from the city. Before the deregulation of 1986, SELNEC and later GMPTE operated all buses in Manchester.^[102] The bus system was then taken over by GM Buses which after privatisation was split into GM Buses North and GM Buses South and at a later date these were taken over by First Manchester and Stagecoach Manchester respectively.^[103] First Manchester also operates a three route zero-fare bus service called Metroshuttle which carries commuters around Manchester's business districts.^[104] Stagecoach Manchester is the Stagecoach Group's largest subsidiary and operates around 690 buses and serves 87 million passengers a year.^[105] One of its services is the 192 bus service, the busiest bus route in the UK.^[106]

An extensive canal network remains from the Industrial Revolution, nowadays mainly used for leisure. The Manchester Ship Canal is open, but traffic to the upper reaches is light.^[107]

Culture[link]

Music[link]

The Gallagher brothers of Oasis

Bands that have emerged from the Manchester music scene include The Smiths, the Buzzcocks, The Fall, Joy Division and its successor group New Order, Oasis, Doves and Ten. Manchester was credited as the main regional driving force behind indie bands of the 1980s including Happy Mondays, Inspiral Carpets, James, and The Stone Roses. These groups came from what became known as the "Madchester" scene that also centred around The Haçienda nightclub developed by founder of Factory Records Tony Wilson. Although from southern England, The Chemical Brothers subsequently formed in Manchester.^[108] Ex-Stone Roses' frontman Ian Brown and ex-Smiths Morrissey continue successful solo careers. Notable Manchester acts of the 1960s include The Hollies, Herman's Hermits, Davy Jones of the Monkees and the Bee Gees, who grew up in Chorlton.^[109]

The Manchester Arena, the city's premier indoor multi-use venue

Its main pop music venue is the Manchester Arena with over 21,000 seats, the largest arena of its type in Europe which was voted International Venue of the Year in 2007.^[110] In terms of concert goers, it is the busiest indoor arena in the world ahead of Madison Square Garden in New York and the O2 Arena in London, the second and third busiest respectively.^[111] Other major venues include the Manchester Apollo and the Manchester Academy. Smaller venues are the Band on the Wall, the Roadhouse,^[112] the Night and Day Café,^[113] the Ruby Lounge,^[114] and The Deaf Institute.^[115]

Manchester has two symphony orchestras, the Hallé and the BBC Philharmonic. There is also a chamber orchestra, the Manchester Camerata. In the 1950s, the city was home to the so-called 'Manchester School' of classical composers, which comprised Harrison Birtwistle, Peter Maxwell Davies, David Ellis and Alexander Goehr. Manchester is a centre for musical education, with the Royal Northern College of Music and Chetham’s School of Music.^[116] Forerunners of the RNCM were the Northern School of Music (founded 1920) and the Royal Manchester College of Music (founded 1893). The main classical venue was the Free Trade Hall on Peter Street, until the opening in 1996 of the 2,500 seat Bridgewater Hall.^[117]

Brass band music, a tradition in the north of England, is an important part of Manchester's musical heritage;^[118] some of the UK's leading bands, such as the CWS Manchester Band and the Fairey Band, are from Manchester and surrounding areas, and the Whit Friday brass band contest takes place annually in the neighbouring areas of Saddleworth and Tameside.

Performing arts[link]

The Opera House, one of Manchester's largest theatre venues

Manchester has a thriving theatre, opera and dance scene, and is home to a number of large performance venues, including the Manchester Opera House, which feature large-scale touring shows and West End productions; the Palace Theatre; and the Royal Exchange Theatre in Manchester’s former cotton exchange.

Smaller performance spaces include the Library Theatre, a producing theatre in the basement of the Central Library; the Contact Theatre; and Studio Salford. The Dancehouse is dedicated to dance productions.^[119] The Library Theatre closed in 2010, and will reopen in 2014 in a new custom built arts complex it will share with Cornerhouse.^[120]

Museums and galleries[link]

City Art Gallery

Manchester's museums celebrate Manchester's Roman history, rich industrial heritage and its role in the Industrial Revolution, the textile industry, the Trade Union movement, women's suffrage and football. A reconstructed part of the Roman fort of Mamucium is open to the public in Castlefield. The Museum of Science and Industry, housed in the former Liverpool Road railway station, has a large collection of steam locomotives, industrial machinery and aircraft.^[121] The Museum of Transport displays a collection of historic buses and trams.^[122] Trafford Park in the neighbouring borough of Trafford is home to the Imperial War Museum North.^[123] The Manchester Museum opened to the public in the 1880s, has notable Egyptology and natural history collections.^[124]

The Museum of Science and Industry

The municipally-owned Manchester Art Gallery on Mosley Street houses a permanent collection of European painting, and has one of Britain's most significant collections of Pre-Raphaelite paintings.^[125][126]

In the south of the city, the Whitworth Art Gallery displays modern art, sculpture and textiles.^[127] Other exhibition spaces and museums in Manchester include the Cornerhouse, the Urbis centre, the Manchester Costume Gallery at Platt Fields Park, the People's History Museum and the Manchester Jewish Museum.^[128]

The works of Stretford-born painter L. S. Lowry, known for his "matchstick" paintings of industrial Manchester and Salford, can be seen in both the city and Whitworth Manchester galleries, and at the Lowry art centre in Salford Quays (in the neighbouring borough of Salford) devotes a large permanent exhibition to his works.^[129]

Literature[link]

In the 19th century, Manchester featured in works highlighting the changes that industrialisation had brought to Britain. These included Elizabeth Gaskell's novel Mary Barton: A Tale of Manchester Life (1848),^[130] and The Condition of the Working Class in England in 1844, written by Friedrich Engels while living and working in Manchester.^[131] 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 Mrs Gaskell.^[132]

Nightlife[link]

Canal Street, one of Manchester's liveliest nightspots, part of the city's gay village

The night-time economy of Manchester has expanded significantly since about 1993, with investment from breweries in bars, public houses and clubs, along with active support from the local authorities.^[133] The more than 500 licensed premises^[134] in the city centre have a capacity to deal with over 250,000 visitors,^[135] with 110–130,000 people visiting on a typical weekend night.^[134] The night-time economy has a value of about £100 million pa^[136] and supports 12,000 jobs.^[134]

The Madchester scene of the 1980s, from which groups including The Stone Roses, the Happy Mondays, Inspiral Carpets, 808 State, James and The Charlatans emerged, was based on clubs such as The Haçienda.^[137] The period was the subject of the film 24 Hour Party People. Many of the big clubs suffered problems with organised crime at that time; Haslam describes one where staff were so completely intimidated that free admission and drinks were demanded (and given) and drugs were openly dealt.^[137] Following a series of drug-related violent incidents, The Hacienda closed in 1997.^[133]

Gay Village[link]

Public houses in the Canal Street area have had a gay clientele since at least 1940^[133] and now form the centre of Manchester's gay community. Following the council's investment in infrastructure, the UK's first gay supermarket was opened; since the opening of new bars and clubs the area attracts 20,000 visitors each weekend^[133] and has hosted a popular festival, Manchester Pride, each August since 1991.^[138] The TV series Queer as Folk was set in the area.

Education[link]

The entrance to the Old Quadrangle and Whitworth Hall, part of the University of Manchester campus

There are two universities in the City of Manchester. The University of Manchester is the largest full-time non-collegiate university in the United Kingdom and was created in 2004 by the merger of Victoria University of Manchester and UMIST.^[139] It includes the Manchester Business School, which offered the first MBA course in the UK in 1965. Manchester Metropolitan University was formed as Manchester Polytechnic on the merger of three colleges in 1970. It gained university status in 1992, and in the same year absorbed Crewe and Alsager College of Higher Education in South Cheshire.^[140]

The University of Manchester, Manchester Metropolitan University and the Royal Northern College of Music are grouped around Oxford Road on the southern side of the city centre, which forms Europe's largest urban higher education precinct.^[141] Together they have a combined population of 73 160 students in higher education,^[142] though almost 6 000 of these were based at Manchester Metropolitan University's campuses at Crewe and Alsager in Cheshire.^[143]

One of Manchester's most notable secondary schools is the Manchester Grammar School. Established in 1515,^[144] as a free grammar school next to what is now the Cathedral, it moved in 1931 to Old Hall Lane in Fallowfield, south Manchester, to accommodate the growing student body. In the post-war period, it was a direct grant grammar school (i.e. partially state funded), but it reverted to independent status in 1976 after abolition of the direct-grant system.^[145] Its previous premises are now used by Chetham's School of Music. There are three schools nearby: William Hulme's Grammar School, Withington Girls' School and Manchester High School for Girls.

In 2010, the Manchester Local Education Authority was ranked last out of Greater Manchester's ten LEAs – and 147th out of 150 in the country LEAs – based on the percentage of pupils attaining at least five A*–C grades at General Certificate of Secondary Education (GCSE) including maths and English (38.6 per cent compared with the national average of 50.7 per cent). The LEA also had the highest occurrence of absences, with 11.11 per cent of "half day sessions missed by pupils", above the national average of 5.8 per cent.^[146][147] Of the schools in the LEA with 30 or more pupils, four had 90 per cent or more pupils achieving at least five A*–C grades at GCSE including maths and English (Manchester High School for Girls, St Bede's College, Manchester Islamic High School for Girls, and The King David High School) while three managed 25 per cent or below (Plant Hill Arts College, North Manchester High School for Boys, Brookway High School and Sports College).^[148]

Sport[link]

The City of Manchester Stadium, used for the 2002 Commonwealth Games and home of Manchester City F.C.

Manchester is well known for being a city of sport. Two Premier League football clubs bear the city's name, Manchester City and Manchester United, the 2012 Premier League champions and 2011 Premier League champions respectively.^[149] Manchester City's ground is the City of Manchester Stadium (near 48,000 capacity); its former ground, Maine Road was demolished. Manchester United's Old Trafford ground, the largest club football ground in the United Kingdom, with a capacity of 76,000, is in the borough of Trafford just outside the city. It is the only club football ground in England to have hosted the UEFA Champions League Final, in 2003. It is also the venue of the Super League Grand Final in rugby league.^[150]

The City of Manchester Stadium was built for the 2002 Commonwealth Games. After the games, a temporary stand at the northern end of the stadium was dismantled and a permanent structure matching the rest of the stadium was developed. In addition the ground level was lowered by approximately 10m and the entire level 1 seating area was constructed. The capacity for the Games was approximately 38,000. This increased in preparation for Manchester City's arrival in 2003, and the official capacity by April 2008 was recorded as 47,726.^[151] The stadium hosted the 2008 UEFA Cup Final.

First class sporting facilities were built for the 2002 Commonwealth Games, including the City of Manchester Stadium, the National Squash Centre and the Manchester Aquatics Centre.^[152] Manchester has competed twice to host the Olympic Games, beaten by Atlanta for 1996 and Sydney for 2000. The Manchester Velodrome was built as a part of the bid for the 2000 games.^[133] It hosted the UCI Track Cycling World Championships for the third time in 2008. Various sporting arenas around the city will be used as training facilities by athletes preparing for the 2012 Olympics in London. The Manchester Arena hosted the FINA World Swimming Championships in 2008.^[153] Manchester also hosted the World Squash Championships in 2008,^[154] and also hosted the 2010 World Lacrosse Championship in July 2010.^[155]

Media[link]

Granada Studios, headquarters of Granada Television

The ITV franchisee Granada Television which has headquarters in Quay Street^[156] produces the world's oldest and most watched television soap opera, Coronation Street^[157] and local news and programmes for the north-west region.

Manchester was one of three main BBC bases in England,^[156] with London and Bristol. Programmes including A Question of Sport, Mastermind,^[158] and Real Story,^[159] were made at New Broadcasting House. The Cutting It series set in the city's Northern Quarter and The Street were set in Manchester^[160] as was Life on Mars was set in 1973. The first edition of Top of the Pops was broadcast from a studio in a converted church in Rusholme on New Year's Day 1964.^[161] Manchester was the regional base for BBC One North West Region programmes^[162] before it relocated to MediaCityUK at Salford Quays.^[163] The Manchester television channel, Channel M, owned by the Guardian Media Group operated in the city from 2000 but closed in 2012.^[156][164]

The former headquarters of the Manchester Evening News, in the Spinningfields district

The city has the highest number of local radio stations outside London including BBC Radio Manchester, Key 103, Galaxy, Piccadilly Magic 1152, Real Radio North West, 100.4 Smooth FM, Capital Gold 1458, 96.2 The Revolution, NMFM (North Manchester FM) and Xfm.^[165][166] Student radio stations include Fuse FM at the University of Manchester and MMU Radio at the Manchester Metropolitan University.^[167] A community radio network is coordinated by Radio Regen, with stations covering Ardwick, Longsight and Levenshulme (All FM 96.9) and Wythenshawe (Wythenshawe FM 97.2).^[166] Defunct radio stations include Sunset 102, which became Kiss 102, then Galaxy Manchester), and KFM which became Signal Cheshire (now Imagine FM). These stations and pirate radio played a significant role in the city's house music culture, the Madchester scene, which was based in clubs like The Haçienda.

The Guardian newspaper was founded in Manchester in 1821 as The Manchester Guardian. Its head office is still in the city, though many of its management functions were moved to London in 1964.^[14] Its sister publication, the Manchester Evening News, has the largest circulation of a UK regional evening newspaper. It is free in the city centre on Thursdays and Fridays, but paid for in the suburbs. Despite its title, it is available all day.^[168] The Metro North West is available free at Metrolink stops, rail stations and other busy locations. The MEN group distributes several local weekly free papers.^[169] For many years most of the national newspapers had offices in Manchester: The Daily Telegraph, Daily Express, Daily Mail, The Daily Mirror, The Sun. Only The Daily Sport remains based in Manchester. At its height, 1,500 journalists were employed, though in the 1980s office closures began and today the "second Fleet Street" is no more.^[170] An attempt to launch a Northern daily newspaper, the North West Times, employing journalists made redundant by other titles, closed in 1988.^[171] Another attempt was made with the North West Enquirer, which 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.^[171] There are several local lifestyle magazines, including YQ Magazine and Moving Manchester.^[172]

Twin cities and consulates[link]

Manchester has formal twinning arrangements (or "friendship agreements") with several places.^{[173][174][175]} In addition, the British Council maintains a metropolitan centre in Manchester.^[176] Although not an official twin city, Tampere, Finland is known as "the Manchester of Finland" – or "Manse" for short. Similarly, Ahmedabad, India established itself as the centre of a booming textile industry, which earned it the nickname "the Manchester of India".^[177][178]

• Bilwi, Nicaragua
• Chemnitz, Germany (1983)
• Kanpur, India (1970)
• Córdoba, Spain
• Rehovot, Israel
• Saint Petersburg, Russia (1962)
• Wuhan, China (1986)
• Faisalabad, Pakistan (1997)
• Los Angeles, United States (2009)

Manchester is home to the largest group of consuls in the UK outside London. The expansion of international trade links during the Industrial Revolution led to the introduction of the first consuls in the 1820s and since then over 800, from all parts of the world, have been based in Manchester. Manchester has remained (in consular terms at least) the second city of the UK for two centuries, and hosts consular services for most of the north of England.^[179]

See also[link]

Greater Manchester portal

References[link]