The city of Manchester is one of England’s core cities and lies at the centre of the Greater Manchester Urban Area, which has a population of over 2.2 million residents, making it the second largest urban zone within the U.K. The city lies just over 250 kilometres north-west of London and is a major economic centre, considered to be England’s second city, and often described as the ‘Capital of the North’!! Statistically, Manchester is the fastest growing city in England, and has had a history dominated by the manufacturing of textiles, becoming a major centre during the industrial revolution. Today the city’s economic base has changed and is a major service centre, supplying financial and professional services.
Essentially a Victorian city, Manchester’s origins are Roman. Known as Mancunium, it was the site of a camp, between Chester and York, built by Agricola’s legions. By the 14th century it was little more than a market town with a weaving tradition, and it was not until the Industrial Revolution that it became the main trading centre in Lancashire for cotton. When the industry moved westwards towards the coastal ports, it looked as if Manchester would be stranded, but it was saved by the completion of the Manchester Ship Canal in 1894 which converted it into an inland port. Re-development was necessary after the Second World War when areas of the city, including many of the 16th century buildings in the Old Shambles, had been flattened by bombing, and slum clearance of the shoddy 19th century workers’ houses and factories led to the re-building of the city centre. Much of the better Victorian architecture survived the War and re-development. The Perpendicular Gothic Cathedral started its days as the parish church but it was made a cathedral in 1847 in tribute to the expansion of Manchester. It is now one of the city’s showpieces after having been scrubbed clean of grime to reveal its sandstone façade. It is famous for its canopied choir stalls and rood screen. The Town Hall, which was completed in 1877, was also built in the Gothic style and the 85 metre tower contains a carillon of 23 bells. Inside, it has marble corridors and vaulted ceilings, and a Great Hall with a lofty hammer beam ceiling. In the Sculpture Hall, with its gleaming marble, are busts of local worthies. The Museum of Science and Industry is housed in the world’s first passenger railway station at Liverpool Road. The booking hall has been restored to its 1830s appearance. The Museum, also contains steam locomotives and enormous mill engines, paper making machinery and computers. The City Art Gallery, in Mosley Street, contains a vast array of paintings: Stubbs, Gainsborough, Reynolds and others, and the displays are frequently changing. Early 20th century paintings of Manchester by local artist, L S Lowry, are shown, along with a re-creation of his sitting room. No mention of Manchester would be complete without writing of the county and test-match ground at Old Trafford and Manchester’s two well-known football grounds, Manchester United’s ‘Old Trafford’ and Manchester City’s ‘Maine Road’.
Other sites, in the city, worthy of mention:
The Air and Space Museum, which covers all aspects of flight and space technology, but is mainly dedicated to the Manchester firm of Avro, with a replica of the tri-plane in which the pioneer aviator A V Roe made the first British powered flight in 1909.
The Granada Studios Tours with sets of Downing Street, Sherlock Holmes’s Baker Street and, of course, Coronation Street and the ‘Rover’s Return’.
The Royal Exchange, mostly built from 1874, containing what was said to be the ‘biggest room in the world’, providing trading space for 7000 dealers, now has a tubular steel and glass theatre-in-the-round, home to one of the country’s leading repertory companies.
The John Rylands Library, built in the Gothic style in 1899, has a collection of 750,000 books, 3000 of them printed before 1501.
Other places of interest within 30 kilometres:
Platt Hall, Rushmolme, a fine Georgian mansion, home to the Gallery of English Costume.
Quarry Bank Mill and Styal Estate, one of Britain’s greatest industrial heritage sites, contains a complete working cotton mill.
Museum of Transport, Cheetham, with buses and vehicles galore.
Dunham Massey, a Georgian mansion, built around a Tudor core and re-worked in the Edwardian era, has fine collections of 18th century furniture, paintings and silver. It is in the care of the National Trust.
Did you know that – Manchester supported the Union cause in the American Civil Was and have a statue of Abraham Lincoln in Brazenose Street commemorating the fact?
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