Coordinates	26°11′0″N91°44′0″N
Official name	City of Manchester
Native name
Nickname	"Cottonopolis", "Warehouse City", "Rainy City", Madchester, Mancunia
Settlement type	City & Metropolitan borough
Motto	"Concilio Et Labore" "By wisdom and effort"
Blank emblem type	Coat of Arms of the City Council
Blank emblem link	Manchester City Council
Map caption	Manchester shown within Greater Manchester and England
Dot x	|dot_y
Pushpin map
Pushpin label position
Pushpin mapsize
Coordinates region	GB
Subdivision type	Sovereign state
Subdivision name	United Kingdom
Subdivision type1	Constituent country
Subdivision name1	England
Subdivision type2	Region
Subdivision name2	North West England
Subdivision type3	Ceremonial county
Subdivision name3	Greater Manchester
Subdivision type4	Admin HQ
Subdivision name4	Manchester city centre
Government type	Metropolitan borough, City
Leader title	Governing body
Leader name	Manchester City Council
Leader title1	Lord Mayor
Leader name1	Mark Hackett
Leader title2	MPs:
Leader name2	Paul Goggins (Lab)Sir Gerald Kaufman (Lab)John Leech (Lib Dem)Tony Lloyd (Lab)Graham Stringer (Lab)
Established title	Founded
Established date	1st century
Established title2	Town charter
Established date2	1301
Established title3	City status
Established date3	1853
Unit pref
Area total km2	115.65
Area land km2
Area blank1 sq mi
Population as of	2011
Population total	498,800
Population density km2	4313
Population demonym	Mancunian
Timezone	Greenwich Mean Time
Utc offset	+0
Elevation footnotes
Elevation m	38
Elevation ft	125
Postal code type	Postcode
Postal code	M
Area code	0161
Blank name	Ethnicity2001 census
Blank info	81.0% White9.1% Asian4.5% Black
Blank1 name	OS grid reference
Blank1 info
Website	www.manchester.gov.uk
Footnotes	}}

Manchester () is a city and metropolitan borough in Greater Manchester, England. According to the Office for National Statistics, the 2010 mid-year population estimate for Manchester was 498,800. Manchester lies within one of the UK's largest metropolitan areas, the metropolitan county of Greater Manchester, which has an estimated population of 2.6 million. The demonym of Manchester is Mancunian and symbols include the Manchester bee.

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 vicus associated with the Roman fort of Mamucium, which was established 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. Throughout the Middle Ages Manchester remained a manorial township, but began expanding "at an astonishing rate" around the turn of the 19th century as part of a process of unplanned urbanisation brought on by a boom in textile manufacture during the Industrial Revolution. The urbanisation of Manchester largely coincided with the Industrial Revolution and the Victorian era, resulting in it becoming the world's first industrialised city. As the result of an early-19th century factory building boom, Manchester was transformed from a township into a major mill town, borough and was later granted city status in 1853.

Manchester was the site of the world's first railway station, hosted the first meeting of the Trades Union Congress and is where scientists first split the atom and developed the first programmable computer. The city is known for its music scene and its sporting connections. Manchester was the host of the 2002 Commonwealth Games and its sports clubs include two Premier League football teams, Manchester City and Manchester United, currently FA Cup holders and Premier League champions respectively. Manchester hosts the largest single-site university in the United Kingdom, has one of the country's largest urban economies, and is ranked as a Gamma-class world city. Manchester is also the third-most visited city in the United Kingdom by foreign visitors, after London and Edinburgh, and the most visited in England outside London.

History

Etymology

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". 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.

Early history

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. 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. Central Manchester has been permanently settled since this time. 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. By the time of the Norman Conquest in 1066, the focus of settlement had shifted to the confluence of the rivers Irwell and Irk. Much of the wider area was laid waste in the subsequent Harrying of the North.

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. 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.

Manchester is mentioned as having a market in 1282. Around the 14th century, Manchester received an influx of Flemish weavers, sometimes credited as the foundation of the region's textile industry. 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." The cathedral and Chetham's buildings are the only significant survivors of Leland's Manchester.

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.

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. 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. Manchester became the dominant marketplace for textiles produced in the surrounding towns. A commodities exchange, opened in 1729, and numerous large warehouses, aided commerce.

In 1780, Richard Arkwright began construction of Manchester's first cotton mill.

Industrial Revolution

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, and later the world's largest marketplace for cotton goods. Manchester was dubbed "Cottonopolis" and "Warehouse City" during the Victorian era. In Australia, New Zealand and South Africa, the term "manchester" is still used for household linen: sheets, pillow cases, towels, etc.

Manchester began expanding "at an astonishing rate" around the turn of the 19th century as part of a process of unplanned urbanisation brought on by the Industrial Revolution. It developed a wide range of industries, so that by 1835 "Manchester was without challenge the first and greatest industrial city in the world." 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. In 1878 the GPO (the forerunner of British Telecom) provided its first telephones to a firm in Manchester.

The Manchester Ship Canal was built in 1894, in some sections by canalisation of the Rivers Irwell and Mersey, running 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. Large quantities of machinery, including cotton processing plant, were exported around the world.

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 riot 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 himself spent much of his life in and around Manchester, and when Karl Marx visited Manchester, they met at Chetham's Library. The economics books Marx was reading at the time can be seen on the shelf in the library, as can the window seat where Marx and Engels would meet. The first Trades Union Congress was held in Manchester (at the Mechanics' Institute, David Street), from 2 to 6 June 1868. Manchester was also an important cradle of the Labour Party and the Suffragette Movement.

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." 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".

The number of cotton mills in Manchester itself reached a peak of 108 in 1853. 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. However, this period of decline coincided with the rise of city as the financial centre of the region. Manchester continued to process cotton, and in 1913, 65% of the world's cotton was processed in the area. 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

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 tons (475 tonnes) 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. Manchester Cathedral was among the buildings seriously damaged; its restoration took 20 years.

Post-Second World War

Cotton processing and trading continued to fall in peacetime, and the exchange closed in 1968. By 1963 the port of Manchester was the UK's third largest, 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. 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.

Regeneration began in the late 1980s, with initiatives such as the Metrolink, the Bridgewater Concert Hall, the Manchester Evening News 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.

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. The final insurance payout was over £400 million; many affected businesses never recovered from the loss of trade.

Spurred by the investment after the 1996 bomb, and aided by the XVII Commonwealth Games, Manchester's city centre has undergone extensive regeneration. 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.

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 at the time the highest residential accommodation in Europe. The lower 23 floors form the Hilton Hotel, featuring a "sky bar" on the 23rd floor. Its upper 24 floors are apartments. In January 2007, the independent Casino Advisory Panel awarded Manchester a licence to build the only supercasino in the UK to regenerate the Eastlands area of the city, but in March the House of Lords rejected the decision by three votes rendering previous House of Commons acceptance meaningless. This left the supercasino, and 14 other smaller concessions, in parliamentary limbo until a final decision was made. On 11 July 2007, a source close to the government declared the entire supercasino project "dead in the water". A member of the Manchester Chamber of Commerce professed himself "amazed and a bit shocked" and that "there has been an awful lot of time and money wasted". After a meeting with the Prime Minister, Manchester City Council issued a press release on 24 July 2007 stating that "contrary to some reports the door is not closed to a regional casino". The supercasino was officially declared dead in February 2008 with a compensation package described by the media as "rehashed plans, spin and empty promises."

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

Government

Manchester is represented by three tiers of government, Manchester City Council ("local"), UK Parliament ("national"), and European Parliament ("Europe"). Greater Manchester County Council administration was abolished in 1986, and so the city council is effectively a unitary authority. Since its inception in 1995, Manchester has been a member of the English Core Cities Group, which, among other things, serves to promote the social, cultural and economic status of the city at an international level.

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. From a very early time, the township of Manchester lay within the historic county boundaries of Lancashire. Pevsner wrote "That [neighbouring] Stretford and Salford are not administratively one with Manchester is one of the most curious anomalies of England". 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. 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. 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. 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.

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. 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. 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. That year, Ringway, the town where Manchester Airport is located, was added to the city.

Geography

At , 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 and 42 m) 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 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. 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. The economic geography of the Manchester City Region is used to define housing markets, business linkages, travel to work patterns, administrative areas etc. As defined by The Northern Way economic development agency the City Region territory encompasses most of the natural economy’s Travel to Work Area and includes the cities of Manchester and Salford, plus the adjoining metropolitan boroughs of Stockport, Tameside, Trafford, Bolton, Bury, Oldham, Rochdale and Wigan, together with High Peak (which lies outside the North West England region), Cheshire East, Cheshire West and Chester and Warrington.

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 , 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 compared to the UK average of , and its mean rain days are 140.4 per annum, compared to the UK average of 154.4. 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. notably the A62 road via Oldham and Standedge, the A57 (Snake Pass) towards Sheffield, and the M62 over Saddleworth Moor.

Location and climate

Demography

Manchester 398,819 15.0% 81.0% 9.1% 4.5% 6.4% 62.4% 9.1%

Manchester compared
United Kingdom Census 2001	UK Census 2001	|	Greater Manchester	England
Total population	|	2,547,700	49,138,831
Foreign born	|	7.2%	9.2%
White	|	91.0%	91.0%
Asian	|	5.7%	4.6%
Black	|	1.2%	2.3%
Over 75 years old	|	7.0%	7.5%
Christian	|	74%	71.8%
Muslim	|	5.0%	3.1%

The United Kingdom Census 2001 showed a total resident population for Manchester of 392,819, a 9.2% decline from the 1991 census. Approximately 83,000 were aged under 16, 285,000 were aged 16–74, and 25,000 aged 75 and over. 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 higest proportion of students amongst local authorities. A 2007 report noted "60 per cent of Manchester people are living in some of the UK's most deprived areas".

Historically the population of Manchester began to rapidly increase during the Victorian era and peaked 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.

The inhabitants of Manchester, like in 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. The Jewish population is second only to London, and Greater Manchester also has one of the largest Muslim populations.

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%.

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). 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. Kidd identifies Moss Side, Longsight, Cheetham Hill, Rusholme, as centres of population for ethnic minorities. Manchester's Irish Festival, including a St Patrick's Day parade, is one of Europe's largest. 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.

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. 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. The number of sexual offences was 1.9 compared to the average of 0.9. The national average of violence against another person was 16.7 compared to the Manchester average of 32.7. The figures for crime statistics were all recorded during the 2006/7 financial year.

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. In addition to Manchester itself, the LUZ includes the remainder of the county of Greater Manchester. The Manchester LUZ is the second largest within the United Kingdom, behind that of London.

Economy

Manchester was at the forefront of the 19th-century Industrial Revolution, 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. 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. The city was ranked in 2010 as the second-best place to do business in the UK and the twelfth best in Europe.

Manchester has the largest UK office market outside London. 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.

Manchester is a focus for businesses which serve local, regional and international markets. 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. 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.

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.

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

Landmarks

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. 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. It has been used in film as a replacement location for the Palace of Westminster, in which filming is not permitted. 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). 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 of parkland. The city has 135 parks, gardens, and open spaces. 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. 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.  

Transport

Manchester and North West England are served by Manchester Airport. The airport is the busiest airport in the country outside the London region making it the 4th busiest airport in the United Kingdom in terms of passenger numbers, 3rd in terms of total aircraft movements and overall the 17th busiest airport in Europe as of 2009. 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). 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. 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.

Manchester is well served by trains. In terms of passengers, Manchester Piccadilly was the busiest English railway station outside London in 2007/08 and the third busiest in 2008/09. 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. 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.

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. The -network consists of three lines with 37 stations (including five on-street tram stops in the centre). An expansion programme is underway 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.

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. 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. First Manchester also operates a three route zero-fare bus service called Metroshuttle which carries commuters around Manchester's business districts. Stagecoach Manchester is the Stagecoach Group's largest subsidiary and operates around 690 buses and serves 87 million passengers a year. One of its services is the 192 bus service, the busiest bus route in the UK.

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. There has been a proposal to create a spur from the ship canal to the Trafford Centre and to Manchester city centre.

Culture

Music

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 The Haçienda nightclub developed by founder of Factory Records Tony Wilson. Although from southern England, The Chemical Brothers subsequently formed in Manchester. 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 and the Bee Gees, who grew up in Chorlton.

Manchester’s main pop music venue is the Manchester Evening News Arena, situated next to Victoria station. It seats over 21,000, is the largest arena of its type in Europe, and has been voted International Venue of the Year. 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. Other major venues include the Manchester Apollo and the Manchester Academy. Smaller venues are the Band on the Wall, the Roadhouse, the Night and Day Café, the Ruby Lounge, and The Deaf Institute.

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. 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.

Brass band music, a tradition in the north of England, is an important part of Manchester's musical heritage; 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

thumb|right|The Opera House, one of Manchester's largest theatre venuesManchester 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; the Royal Exchange Theatre in Manchester’s former cotton exchange; and the Lowry Centre, a touring venue in Salford which often hosts performances by Opera North.

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

Museums and galleries

Museum of Science & Industry|thumb|The Museum of Science and IndustryManchester has a wide selection of public museums and art galleries. 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. The Museum of Transport displays a collection of historic buses and trams. Trafford Park in the neighbouring borough of Trafford is home to the Imperial War Museum North. The Manchester Museum opened to the public in the 1880s, has notable Egyptology and natural history collections.

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.

In the south of the city, the Whitworth Art Gallery displays modern art, sculpture and textiles. 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, the Manchester United Museum in Old Trafford football stadium and the Manchester Jewish Museum.

The works of Stretford-born painter , 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.

Literature

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), and The Condition of the Working Class in England 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 Mrs Gaskell.

Nightlife

thumb|right|[[Canal Street (Manchester)|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. The more than 500 licensed premises in the city centre have a capacity to deal with over visitors, with 110– people visiting on a typical weekend night. The night-time economy has a value of about and supports jobs.

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. 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. Following a series of drug-related violent incidents, The Hacienda closed in 1997.

Gay Village

Public houses in the Canal Street area have had a gay clientele since at least 1940 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 and has hosted a popular festival, Manchester Pride, each August since 1991. The TV series Queer as Folk was set in the area.

Education

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. 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.

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. Together they have a combined population of 73 160 students in higher education, though almost 6 000 of these were based at Manchester Metropolitan University's campuses at Crewe and Alsager in Cheshire.

One of Manchester's most notable secondary schools is the Manchester Grammar School. Established in 1515, 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. 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. 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).

Sport

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, currently FA Cup holders and Premier League champions respectively. Manchester City's ground is at the City of Manchester Stadium (near 48,000 capacity); Manchester United's Old Trafford ground, the largest club football ground in the United Kingdom, with a capacity of 76,000, is just outside the city, in the borough of Trafford. 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. Lancashire County Cricket Club's ground is also in Old Trafford.

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. The stadium hosted the 2008 UEFA Cup Final.

Manchester City's former home Maine Road, now demolished, still holds a number of significant footballing milestones and records. These include the first World Cup qualifying match staged in England (1949); the record League crowd (83,260, Manchester United V Arsenal, 1948); and the record provincial attendance (84,569, Manchester City V Stoke City, FA Cup, 1934).

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. 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. 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 MEN Arena hosted the FINA World Swimming Championships in 2008. Manchester also hosted the World Squash Championships in 2008, and also hosted the 2010 World Lacrosse Championship in July 2010.

Media

ITV franchisee Granada Television has its headquarters in Quay Street, in the Castlefield area of the city. Granada produces the world's oldest and most watched television soap opera, Coronation Street, which is screened five times a week on ITV1. Local news and programmes for the north-west region are produced in Manchester.

Manchester is one of the three main BBC bases in England, alongside London and Bristol. Programmes including A Question of Sport, Mastermind, and Real Story, are made at New Broadcasting House on Oxford Road, just south of the city centre. The hit series Cutting It was set in the city's Northern Quarter and ran on BBC1 for five series. Life on Mars was set in 1973 Manchester. Also, The Street, winner of a BAFTA and International Emmy Award in 2007 is set in Manchester. The first edition of Top of the Pops was broadcast from a studio (a converted church) in Rusholme on New Year's Day 1964. 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 from London to Media City at Salford Quays. The Children's (CBBC), Comedy, Sport (BBC Sport) and New Media departments are all scheduled to move before 2010. Manchester has its own television channel, Channel M, owned by the Guardian Media Group and operated since 2000. The station produces almost all content including local news locally and is available nationally on the BSkyB television platform. Television characters from Manchester include Daphne Moon (played by Jane Leeves), of Frasier, Charlie Pace (played by Dominic Monaghan) of Lost, Naomi Dorrit (Lost) and Nessa Holt (Las Vegas), both played by local actress Marsha Thomason.

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 (previously 105.4 Century FM), 100.4 Smooth FM, Capital Gold 1458, 96.2 The Revolution, NMFM (North Manchester FM) and Xfm. Radio Manchester returned to its former title in 2006 after becoming BBC GMR in 1988. Student radio stations include Fuse FM at the University of Manchester and MMU Radio at the Manchester Metropolitan University. A community radio network is coordinated by Radio Regen, with stations covering the South Manchester communities of Ardwick, Longsight and Levenshulme (All FM 96.9) and Wythenshawe (Wythenshawe FM 97.2). Defunct radio stations include Sunset 102, which became Kiss 102, then Galaxy Manchester), and KFM which became Signal Cheshire (now Imagine FM). These stations, as well as pirate radio, played a significant role in the city's House music culture, also known as the Madchester scene, which was based on clubs like The Haçienda which had its own show on Kiss 102.

Manchester is also featured in several Hollywood films such as My Son, My Son! (1940), directed by Charles Vidor and starring Brian Aherne and Louis Hayward. Also Grand Hotel (1932), in which Wallace Beery often shouts "Manchester!". Others include Velvet Goldmine starring Ewan McGregor, and Sir Alec Guinness's The Man in the White Suit. More recently, the entire city of Manchester is engulfed in runaway fires in the 2002 film 28 Days Later. The 2004 Japanese animated film Steamboy was partly set in Manchester, during the times of the Industrial Revolution. The city is also home to the Manchester International Film Festival and has held the Commonwealth film festival.

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. 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. 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. 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, journalists were employed, though in the 1980s office closures began and today the "second Fleet Street" is no more. An attempt to launch a Northern daily newspaper, the North West Times, employing journalists made redundant by other titles, closed in 1988. 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. There are several local lifestyle magazines, including YQ Magazine and Moving Manchester.

Twin cities and consulates

Manchester has formal twinning arrangements (or "friendship agreements") with several places. In addition, the British Council maintains a metropolitan centre in Manchester. 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 the East".

>

	Country		Place		County / District / Region / State	Originally twinned with	Date
					! style="background:#ffffef; color:#000;" !
					! style="background:#ffffef; color:#000;" !
			! style="background:#ffffcf; color:#000;" !
					! style="background:#ffffef; color:#000;" !
					! style="background:#ffffef; color:#000;" !
					! style="background:#ffffef; color:#000;" !

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. The reduction in the amount of local paperwork required for modern international trade is partly offset by the increased number of international travellers. Many pass through Manchester Airport, easily the UK’s biggest and busiest airport outside the London area.

See also

Mulhouse, nicknamed "the French Manchester"

Ahmedabad, nicknamed "the Manchester of the East"

Tampere, nicknamed "the Manchester of Finland"

Brno, nicknamed "the Moravian Manchester"

Łódź, nicknamed "the Polish Manchester"

Covilhã, "the Portuguese Manchester"

References

Further reading

{| | style="vertical-align:top; font-size:90%;"|

Architecture

General

| style="vertical-align:top; font-size:90%;"|

Culture

Sport

|}

External links

Manchester City Council

Official tourist board site of Manchester

Category:Articles including recorded pronunciations (UK English) Category:Articles with inconsistent citation formats Category:Cities in North West England Category:Host cities of the Commonwealth Games Category:Local government districts of North West England Category:Metropolitan boroughs Category:Populated places established in the 1st century Category:79 establishments

simple:Manchester af:Manchester am:ማንችስተር ang:Mameceaster ar:مانشستر an:Manchester roa-rup:Manchester az:منچئستئر bn:ম্যানচেস্টার zh-min-nan:Manchester be:Горад Манчэстэр be-x-old:Манчэстэр bs:Manchester br:Manchester bg:Манчестър ca:Manchester cs:Manchester cy:Manceinion da:Manchester de:Manchester et:Manchester el:Μάντσεστερ es:Mánchester eo:Manchester eu:Manchester fa:منچستر fo:Manchester fr:Manchester fy:Manchester ga:Manchain gv:Manchuin gd:Manchester gl:Manchester ko:맨체스터 hi:मैन्चेस्टर hr:Manchester io:Manchester id:Manchester ie:Manchester os:Манчестер is:Manchester it:Manchester he:מנצ'סטר kn:ಮ್ಯಾಂಚೆಸ್ಟರ್ ka:მანჩესტერი sw:Manchester la:Mancunium lv:Mančestra lt:Mančesteris hu:Manchester mk:Манчестер mr:मँचेस्टर arz:مانشستر ms:Manchester nl:Manchester nds-nl:Mesjester (Engeland) ja:マンチェスター no:Manchester nn:Manchester nrm:Manchêtre pnb:مانچسٹر pl:Manchester pt:Manchester qu:Manchester ro:Manchester ru:Манчестер sc:Manchester sco:Manchester sq:Mançester scn:Manchester sk:Manchester sl:Manchester so:Manchester sr:Манчестер sh:Manchester fi:Manchester sv:Manchester tl:Manchester ta:மான்செஸ்டர் te:మాంచెస్టర్ th:แมนเชสเตอร์ tr:Manchester uk:Манчестер ug:Manchéstér vi:Manchester vo:Manchester war:Manchester yi:מאנטשעסטער zh:曼彻斯特

Coordinates	26°11′0″N91°44′0″N
name	Manchester Evening News Arena
nickname	M.E.N. Arena, Manchester Arena
logo image
former names	NYNEX Arena (1995–1998)
location	Manchester city centre, City of Manchester
coordinates
opened
owner	Capital & Regional and GE Real Estate UK
surface	grass
cost	£52 million (£77.1m in 2010)
capacity	up to 23,000
website	}}

The Manchester Evening News Arena (often referred to as M.E.N. Arena and the Manchester Arena) is a large indoor arena situated in Manchester city centre, England adjacent to Manchester Victoria station. It is currently sponsored by the Manchester Evening News hence its name.

Currently, the MEN arena is the the largest indoor arena in Europe and the United Kingdom with a capacity of 21,000, ahead of the 20,000 O2 Arena in London. Since opening, the M.E.N. Arena has become one of the world's busiest indoor arenas hosting music events as well as sporting events such as boxing and swimming.

Opening in 1995, the arena was built to coincide with Manchester's two bids to host the Olympic games in 1996 and 2000 (which were won by Atlanta in 1996 and Sydney in 2000) and was eventually used for the 2002 Commonwealth Games.

History

The Manchester Evening News Arena was constructed as part of Manchester's unsuccessful bid for the 2000 Summer Olympics. It cost £52 million to build with £35.5m from government grants and £2.5m from the European Economic Development Fund. The structure was designed by DLA Ellerbe Beckett, Ove Group, and Austin-Smith:Lord. The arena was opened on 15 July 1995. On the opening night, 15,000 spectators watched Jayne Torvill and Christopher Dean perform; the crowd was a record for an ice event. Attendance records were set in 1997 when 17,425 people watched Manchester Storm play Sheffield Steelers, a record for an ice hockey match in Europe. When 14,151 people watched Manchester Giants play London Leopards, it set a new British record for attendance at a basketball match.

It was opened in 1995, and was initially sponsored by NYNEX CableComms (a British cable television provider, part of the NYNEX Corporation, a telephone service provider in the United States) as the NYNEX Arena. The Arena took its current name in 1998 after the NYNEX brand name had disappeared as a result of a merger with Cable & Wireless Communications in 1997.

On 15 July 2010, the M.E.N. Arena celebrated its 15th birthday with a multi-artist gig, presented by Real Radio (North West). An audience of nearly 10,000 was entertained by headline acts Scouting for Girls, Pixie Lott, The Script, Alexandra Burke, The Hoosiers, The Saturdays, Gabriella Cilmi, Taio Cruz, Craig David, Beverley Knight, Olly Murs, Amy McDonald, The Baseballs and Fyfe Dangerfield. Former M.E.N Arena steward Peter Kay was a surprise guest on the night which was hosted by Real Radio breakfast presenters Ditchy and Salty.

Arena design and size

The M.E.N. Arena was one of the first indoor venues in Europe to be built following the traditionally American sports arena layout of 360 degree seating, and is the only arena in the UK to have this feature (London's O2 Arena also has 360 degrees seating, but only on its lower tier, whereas the M.E.N. Arena features it on both tiers). Other European indoor venues built to the same concept include the Lanxess Arena in Cologne, Arena Zagreb in Zagreb, Spaladium Arena in Split, Belgrade Arena in Belgrade, O2 Arena in Prague, and O2 World Hamburg in Hamburg.

Music venue

+ 'World's Busiest Arena' - 2007
! Venue	! 2007 Ticket sales for concerts/shows
Manchester Evening News Arena, Manchester, UK	1,245,196
Madison Square Garden, New York City, USA	1,230,433
	1,209,376
Wembley Arena, London, UK	901,778
Air Canada Centre, Toronto, Ontario, Canada	670,255
	666,587
Bell Centre, Montréal, Québec, Canada	620,403
Philips Arena, Atlanta, Georgia, USA	564,258
American Airlines Center, Dallas, Texas, USA	539,030
Time Warner Cable Arena, Charlotte, NC, USA	527,694

The M.E.N. Arena has attracted a huge number of customers since opening its doors on 15 July 1995, as it is Europe's largest concert venue. The opening event held there was a performance by Torvill and Dean, as part of their farewell tour. The venue attracts over a million customers each year for concerts and family shows alone, making the venue one of the world's busiest indoor arenas, in regard to this the M.E.N. Arena was named "International Venue Of The Year" in 2002 by concert industry insiders in the 'Pollstar' awards, and was nominated in the same category in 2002, 2003, 2004, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2008 and 2009. The M.E.N. Arena was also named "Busiest Arena Venue In The World", based on ticket sales for concerts in 2003, 2004, 2005, 2006 and 2007 beating competition from other indoor arena's including New York's Madison Square Garden and London's Wembley Arena. (2007 figures) The Arena has also been named the 'World's Busiest Arena' from 2001 until 2007 based solely on ticket sales for concerts, attracting five and a half million customers to concerts. The M.E.N. Arena was voted 'Europe's Favourite Arena' at the TIP Awards for 2008 voted for by the numerous touring companies that bring the shows to the venue.

In 2008, the M.E.N. Arena was named world's third busiest arena behind London's O2 Arena and New York's Madison Square Garden. In 2009, the MEN Arena was named world's second busiest arena behind London's O2 Arena and in front of Antwerp's Sportpaleis in Belgium and New York's Madison Square Garden. Although coming second place to London's O2 Arena the M.E.N. Arena had its busiest year in its history with over 1,500,000 people attending concerts and family shows at the venue. The arena hosts over 250 events annually including comedy acts, live music and tours, sporting events, and occasionally musicals.

Janet Jackson was scheduled to perform during her All for You Tour on 5 December 2001, but the show was cancelled, due to the 11 September 2001 attacks. Kylie Minogue did a special webcast of her KylieFever2002 tour back in 2002 on MSN for fans around the world to view.

The venue was used to record Westlife's Greatest Hits Tour DVD on 14 April 2003. P!nk's performance, during her Try This Tour on 26 March 2004, was filmed & later released as a DVD, titled Pink: Live in Europe. McFly recorded their Wonderland Tour at the arena in 2005. The DVD was one of their 3 number one music DVD's. Rihanna's performance, during The Good Girl Gone Bad Tour on 6 December 2007, was filmed & later released as a DVD, titled Good Girl Gone Bad Live. The Spice Girls performed 3 shows during the Return of the Spice GirlsTour on 23/24/26 January 2008, the three last European shows of the whole tour. On 13–14 June 2008, Boyzone filmed their reunion tour, Back Again ... No Matter What DVD here.

Sports

The M.E.N. Arena has been the home of three sports teams: the Manchester Storm and Manchester Phoenix ice hockey teams, and the Manchester Giants basketball team. However, with limited success, as the arena is not currently the home of any sports teams the venue is often promoted as a 'world class concert facility', However the arena is regularly used for one-off sports events such as boxing and football masters.

Many popular boxers have had bouts in the arena, such as Amir Khan, Jermaine Johnson, Ricky Hatton, Joe Calzaghe, Mike Tyson, and more recently David Haye. Hatton (a Manchester native) became a regular and favourite of the M.E.N. Arena.

WWE has hosted multiple events at the Arena over the years. It first hosted WWF Mayhem in Manchester in 1998 drawing over 19,600 people (a European record for an indoor WWF/WWE event). The arena also hosted No Mercy in 1999. On 26 October 2002 it hosted the SmackDown! UK-only pay-per-view WWE Rebellion, as it did in 2001. Also on 11 October 2004, it hosted a RAW taping, and was followed the next day by a taping of WWE SmackDown!. RAW and SmackDown! returned to the M.E.N. Arena on 13 and 14 November 2006 and returned for live tapings of RAW and Smackdown on 10 and 11 November 2008 respectively. Total Nonstop Action Wrestling (TNA), made their first appearance at the arena in January 2009 and again in January 2010.

The M.E.N. Arena has also hosted mixed martial arts events. UFC 70 on 21 April 2007, and UFC 105 on 14 November 2009 for which set the European record for largest UFC event outside the USA with 16,000 people in attendance. The World Taekwondo Qualification Event for the Beijing Olympic Games was held at the Arena on 28–30 September 2007; at this event 103 countries competed for 24 places at the Beijing Olympic Games in 2008. Also in April 2008, the arena hosted the FINA Short Course World Swimming Championships, the first time it has been held in the UK. For this occasion, the arena was transformed into a 17,250-seat swimming event venue. Two 25 m swimming pools were constructed into the floor of the arena and the pools were completed within 18 days.

The arena was also used by Manchester United when they won the Champions League Final in 1999. The 2008 UEFA Champions League Final was also shown in the arena on a big screen in front of 7000 spectators.

Monster truck racing events have also been staged at the arena in the past. To allow for the arena floor space to be extended for such events, the front section of seating in the lower tier (from around row H forward) can be removed.

A meeting of Premier League Darts from the PDC Professional Darts Corporation takes place once a year at the arena, and has done since 2008.

In July 2012 the MEN Arena will host international basketball as Great Britain play USA in the build up to the Olympics.

Technical facts

Lower tier fixed seated capacity – 10,762

Upper tier fixed seated capacity – 8,870

Large theatre setup – 7,600

Small theatre setup – 3,500

Ice hockey and gymnastics – up to 17,643

FINA Swimming championships 2008 – 17,250

Basketball – up to 20,500

Professional Wrestling – 14,000 to 18,500

Boxing – up to 21,000

Side stage – up to 11,150 (fully seated)

Conventional end-stage concerts – 13,500–15,800 (fully seated)

Conventional end-stage concerts – up to 19,350 (floor standing)

In the round concerts – up to 20,400 (fully seated)

In the round concerts – up to 21,000 (floor standing)

30 hospitality business suites (seats up to 12 guests)

8 top floor suites known as 'The White house' (each seats between 6 and 15 guests—located in the white sports commentators boxes when not in use)

4 party suites (seats up to 25 guests)

The arena has its own 1,500 capacity car park

The arena is the European flagship venue of SMG

Like Madison Square Garden in New York City, Philips Arena in Atlanta, and TD Banknorth Garden in Boston, The M.E.N. Arena is situated beside/above a main railway station (Victoria Station). This means that people can get a train to the venue instead of driving.

The M.E.N. Arena did claim to have the world's largest indoor video scoreboard when the venue opened in 1995. The videowall has since been deactivated, although it remains in situ mounted in the arena roof. It has been replaced with an LED Ribbonboard, which is mounted on the video scoreboards exterior.

Visitor transport information

The venue adjoins Victoria train station. This therefore provides good access to the arena from train lines calling here. A Metrolink tram stop is also located in the train station. This provides services to Bury in one direction and the city centre, onwards to Altrincham and Eccles, in the other. NB Those travelling from Eccles will have to change either at Cornbrook or St Peter's Square.

Visitors travelling by train to Manchester Piccadilly can either walk to the arena or catch a Metrolink tram from Piccadilly to Victoria. A number of bus routes always run to the area of the arena.

The arena has its own large car park nearby but by its nature endures delays upon departure after the event, as everyone tries to exit at the same time. Other smaller car parks are located around the city centre. On-street parking can be found in the area and on the various streets around the main Deansgate street area.

References

Bibliography

External links

Official website

M.E.N. Arena Photos

Category:Indoor arenas in England Category:Basketball venues in England Category:Indoor ice hockey venues in England Category:Music venues in Manchester Category:Mixed martial arts venues Category:Sports venues in Manchester Category:Premier League Darts venues

da:Manchester Evening News Arena de:Manchester Evening News Arena es:Manchester Evening News Arena fr:Manchester Evening News Arena it:Manchester Evening News Arena ja:マンチェスター・イブニング・ニュース・アリーナ no:Manchester Evening News Arena pl:Manchester Evening News Arena pt:Manchester Evening News Arena fi:Manchester Evening News Arena sv:Manchester Evening News Arena

Coordinates	26°11′0″N91°44′0″N
Name	Manchester Evening News
Logo
Type	Daily newspaper
Format	Tabloid
Foundation	1868
Price	£0.42 or free in Manchester city centre
Owners	Trinity Mirror
Headquarters	Chadderton, Oldham, England
Political	Labour
Editor	Maria McGeoghan ( Editor)
Circulation	81,326 sold, 99,574 free
Website	ManchesterEveningNews.co.uk }}

The Manchester Evening News (commonly abbreviated as the MEN) is a regional daily newspaper covering Greater Manchester in the United Kingdom. It is published every day except Sunday and is owned by Trinity Mirror plc following its sale by Guardian Media Group in early 2010. It sells 81,326 copies a day and gives away 99,574.

History

The paper was first published in 1868 by Mitchell Henry as part of his Parliamentary election campaign. Shortly after the election the newspaper was sold to John Edward Taylor, the son of the founder and owner of the Manchester Guardian (now The Guardian), becoming the evening counterpart of the morning newspaper. Taylor brought his brother-in-law Peter Allen in as a partner in the Evening Newsand, after Taylor's death in 1907, the Guardian was sold to its editor C. P. Scott while the Evening News passed into the hands of the Allen family. Scott's Guardian bought the Evening News in the 1920s, reuniting the papers, and the MEN was part of the Guardian Media Group until it was sold, along with GMG's other regional newspapers, to Trinity Mirror in February 2010.

Trinity Mirror agreed that the headquarters of MEN Media would be moved from its current location on Scott Place in the Spinningfields area of Manchester city centre to an existing Trinity Mirror site at Chadderton, Oldham. This is also where Trinity Mirror titles in the North West are printed.

Editions

Despite its "evening" title, the newspaper began publication of a morning edition in November 2004, a controversial move which brought union members to the brink of strike action over new work rotas.

MEN Lite

In March 2005 the paper launched a cut-down afternoon version of the paper titled MEN Lite, which was distributed free to commuters within Manchester's city centre.

Part-free

On 2 May 2006 the Evening News dropped the "Lite" edition in favour of a "part-free, part-paid" distribution model for the main paper. Copies were free in Manchester city centre, while readers outside that area continued to pay for the paper.

In December 2006, the paper also began free distribution at Manchester Airport and hospitals throughout Greater Manchester.

In December 2009, the newspaper announced that as of January 2010 the paper would no longer be handed out free Monday to Friday in the city centre and other selected locations. Instead they would be handed out free as previously on Thursdays and Fridays, but would regain their paid-for status in these locations at all other times.

It is unknown to whether under the new ownership of Trinity Mirror that this strategy may change again.

See also

Manchester Metro News—weekly sister paper

Manchester Evening News Arena

References and notes

External links

ManchesterEveningNews.co.uk—official website.

PressDisplay.co.uk—commercial website with exact online copies of the printed editions.

Category:Media in Manchester Category:Newspapers published in the United Kingdom Category:Publications established in 1868 Category:History of Manchester Category:Trinity Mirror Category:1868 establishments in England

sv:Manchester Evening News