Did you mean: Manchester (city, England), Manchester (city, New Hampshire), Manchester (city, Connecticut), Manchester (North America), Manchester (MO), Manchester (PA), Manchester (VT) More...
|
Results for Manchester
|
On this page:
|
A borough of northwest England east-northeast of Liverpool. Founded on the site of Celtic and Roman settlements, it was first chartered in 1301. Greater Manchester is densely populated and highly industrialized. The Manchester Ship Canal (completed in 1894) affords access for oceangoing vessels. Population: 394,000.
For more information on Manchester, visit Britannica.com.
Sited where natural routes crossed and bridges could be maintained, the Roman military station Mamucium or Mancunium controlled the Brigantes, while acting as a supply base. Encouraged by the moist atmosphere, soft water, and nearby coal supplies, local textile industries so flourished that Manchester became their chief commercial centre as well as a manufacturing and finishing site. Crowded, makeshift dwellings and dangerous sanitary conditions underlay a strong working-class radical movement and the so-called ‘Peterloo massacre’ (1819), but unemployment and Luddism were tempered by the rise of trade unionism and methodism. Belief in free trade prompted Cobden and Bright to push for the repeal of the Corn Laws, and the city's political temper began to harden into Liberalism. Home of the Manchester Guardian, Victoria University, and the Hallé Orchestra, it was a city of enormous vitality in its cultural and intellectual life.
A Celtic settlement is believed to have existed on the site of Manchester. The Romans called the town Mancunium, and there are remains of their occupation. Manchester's first charter was granted in 1301. Representation in Parliament was achieved in 1832, and in 1838, thanks to the efforts of Richard Cobden, Manchester was incorporated as a borough.
The Peterloo massacre occurred in Manchester in 1819, and the city has played a prominent role in liberal reform movements. The influential liberal daily the Manchester Guardian was founded in 1821. Manchester was the center of the Manchester school of economics and the Anti-Corn-Law League, led by Cobden and John Bright.
The first application of steam to machinery for spinning cotton was made in Manchester in 1789, and a terminus of the first English passenger railroad (to Liverpool) was constructed here by George Stephenson in 1830. The Manchester Ship Canal, opened in 1894, gave the city access to the sea. After World War I the artificial-silk industry tended to balance losses in the cotton market. The first municipal airport in Britain was established at Manchester in 1929. During World War II, Manchester suffered extensively from air raids.
The city has several libraries, including the John Rylands Library (founded 1899) and the Chetham Library (founded 1653), one of Europe's first free public libraries. The Univ. of Manchester, which has its origins in the Manchester Mechanics' Institute (1824) and Owens College (1851), is Britain's largest single-site university; the Univ. of Salford also is located there. Manchester has been an important center for scientific research. John Dalton, Lord Rutherford, and Niels Bohr, among others, did significant work in nuclear physics there. At Jodrell Bank, nearby, is a large radio telescope, once the world's largest. Manchester has several art galleries; a symphony orchestra of international repute, the Hallé Orchestra, founded in 1857 by Sir Charles Hallé; and the striking Imperial War Museum North. Robert Peel, the statesman, and Thomas de Quincy, the author, were born in Manchester.
City in northwestern England about thirty miles east of Liverpool.
The country code is: 44
The city code is: 161
| City of Manchester | |||
 |
|||
|
|||
| Nickname: "Capital of the North", "Cottonopolis", "Madchester", "Second city" | |||
| Motto: "Concilio Et Labore" "Wisdom and effort" | |||
 |
|||
| Coordinates: | |||
|---|---|---|---|
| Sovereign state | United Kingdom | ||
| Constituent country | England | ||
| Region | North West England | ||
| Ceremonial county | Greater Manchester | ||
| Admin HQ | Manchester City Centre | ||
| Founded | 1st century | ||
| Town charter | 1301 | ||
| City status | 1853 | ||
| Government | |||
| - Type | Metropolitan borough, City | ||
| - Governing body | Manchester City Council | ||
| - Lord Mayor | Glynn Evans | ||
| - MPs: | Paul Goggins (L) Sir Gerald Kaufman (L) John Leech (LD) Tony Lloyd (L) Graham Stringer (L) |
||
| Area | |||
| - Borough & City | sq mi (km²) | ||
| Elevation | ft ( m) | ||
| Population | |||
| - Borough & City | {{formatnum:452,000 (Ranked 5th)}} | ||
| - Density | /sq mi (/km²) | ||
| - Urban | {{formatnum:2240230 (Greater Manchester Urban Area)}} |
||
| - Metro | |||
| - County | |||
| - County Density | /sq mi (/km²) | ||
| - Ethnicity (2001 Census) |
{{formatnum:81% White 9.1% Asian 4.5% Black British 2.17% Chinese 3.23% Mixed race}} |
||
| Time zone | Greenwich Mean Time ([[UTC+0]]) | ||
| Postcode | M | ||
| Area code(s) | 0161 | ||
| ISO 3166-2 | GB-MAN | ||
| ONS code | 00BY | ||
| OS grid reference | SJ838980 | ||
| NUTS 3 | UKD31 | ||
| Website: www.manchester.gov.uk | |||
Manchester (pronounced IPA: /ˈmæntʃɛstɚ/) is a city and metropolitan borough of Greater Manchester, England. The City of Manchester metropolitan borough, which has city status, has a population of 452,000.[1] Manchester lies at the centre of the wider Greater Manchester Urban Area which has a population of 2,240,230,[2] the United Kingdom's third largest conurbation. It is also the second largest urban zone in the UK and the fourteenth most populated in Europe.
Forming part of the English Core Cities Group, and often described as the "Capital of the North",[3] Manchester today is a centre of the arts, the media, higher education and commerce. In a recent poll of British business leaders, Manchester was regarded as the best place to locate business in the UK.[4] A report commissioned by Manchester Partnership, published in 2007, showed Manchester to be the "fastest-growing city" economically.[5] It is the third most visited city in the United Kingdom by foreign visitors[6] and is now often considered to be the second city of the UK.[7] Manchester was the host of the 2002 Commonwealth Games, and among its other sporting connections are its two Premier League football teams, Manchester United and Manchester City.[8]
It is claimed that Manchester was the world's first industrialised city[9] and is notable for the central role it played during the Industrial Revolution. It was the dominant international centre of textile manufacture and cotton spinning.[10] During the 19th century it acquired the nickname Cottonopolis,[10] suggesting that the area was a metropolis of cotton mills. Manchester City Centre is now on a "tentative list" of UNESCO World Heritage Sites, mainly due to the network of canals and mills that facilitated its development during the 19th century.[11]
The name Manchester came from the Roman name Mamucium, thought to be a Latinisation of an original Celtic name (possibly meaning "breast-like hill" from mamm- = "breast"), plus Anglo-Saxon ceaster = "town", which is derived from Latin castra = "camp".[12]
There are few signs of prehistoric occupation of the city. The only major Bronze age finds have been to south of the city, where the remains of an extensive farming community were discovered during the construction of Manchester Airport's second runway.[13]
Central Manchester has been settled since at least Roman times.[14] The Roman general Gnaeus Julius Agricola constructed a fort called Mamucium in the 70s AD on a defensible hill where the River Medlock meets the River Irwell, at the junction of roads to Chester, York, Buxton, Ribchester, and Melandra. A stabilised fragment of foundations of the final version of the fort is visible in Castlefield. The Romans withdrew in the early fifth century, and by the time of the Norman Conquest in 1066 the focus of settlement had shifted to the confluence of the rivers Irwell and Irk.[15] Much of the wider area was laid waste in the subsequent Harrying of the North.[16][17]
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 now house Chetham's School of Music and Chetham's Library.[13][15]
Around the 14th century, Manchester received an influx of Flemish weavers, sometimes credited as the foundation of the region's textile industry.[18] 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."[15] The cathedral and Chetham's buildings are the only significant survivors of Leland's Manchester.[16]
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.[15] 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.[15][13] Manchester became the dominant marketplace for textiles produced in the surrounding towns.[15] A commodities exchange, opened in 1729,[16] and numerous large warehouses, aided commerce.
In 1780, Richard Arkwright began construction of Manchester's first cotton mill.[13][16]
The cotton industry was at the forefront of the industrial revolution in England. The great majority of cotton processing took place in the towns of south Lancashire and north Cheshire, and Manchester was the world's largest marketplace for cotton goods.[15][19] The area was dubbed "Cottonopolis" in its honour.
Manchester developed a wide range of industries, so that by 1835 "Manchester was without challenge the first and greatest industrial city in the world."[19] 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.[15] In 1878 the GPO (the forerunner of British Telecom) provided its first telephones to a firm in Manchester.[20]
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."[21] As well as being a centre of capitalism, the city has seen its fair share of rebellions by the working and non-titled classes; the most famous were the events on St Peter’s Field on 16 August 1819, which have become known as Peterloo. The first Trades Union Congress was held in Manchester (at the Mechanics' Institute, David Street), from 2 to 6 June 1868. Manchester was the subject of Friedrich Engels's The Condition of the Working Class in England in 1844, Engels himself spending much of his life in and around Manchester.[22] Manchester was also an important cradle of the Labour Party and the Suffragette Movement.[23]
Manchester's golden age was perhaps the last quarter of the 19th century. Many of the great public buildings (including the Town Hall) date from then. The city's cosmopolitan atmosphere contributed to a vibrant culture, which included the Hallé Orchestra. In 1889, when county councils were created in England, the municipal borough became a county borough with even greater autonomy. During this period, the Manchester Ship Canal was created by the canalisation of the Rivers Irwell and Mersey for miles ( km) from Salford to the Mersey estuary. 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.[15] Large quantities of machinery, including cotton processing plant, were exported around the world.
By 1963 the port was the UK's third largest,[24] 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.[25]
In 1913, 65% of the world's cotton was processed in the area,[15] but 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 inter-war depression and the underlying structural changes that began to supplant the old industries, including textile manufacture.
Like most of the UK, the Manchester area mobilised extensively during World War II. For example, casting and machining expertise at Beyer-Peacock'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 and Ford made aircraft and the Rolls-Royce Merlin engines to power them. Manchester was thus the target of bombing by the Luftwaffe, and by the middle of 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 23/24 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.[26] Manchester Cathedral was among the buildings seriously damaged; its restoration took 20 years.[27]
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) detonated a large bomb adjacent to a department store in the city centre. The largest to be detonated on British soil, the bomb caused over 200 injuries, heavily damaged nearby buildings, and broke windows half a mile away. The cost of the immediate damage was initially estimated at GB£50 million, but this was quickly revised upwards.[28] The final insurance payout has been estimated at over GB£400 million; many affected businesses never recovered from the loss of trade.[29]
Spurred by the investment after the 1996 bomb, and aided by the XVII Commonwealth Games, Manchester's city centre has undergone extensive regeneration.[30] 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.[31]
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 highest residential accommodation in the Western Europe. The lower 23 floors form the Hilton Hotel, featuring a 'sky bar' on the 23rd floor. Its upper 24 floors are apartments.[32] 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,[33] 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 fourteen other smaller concessions, in parliamentary limbo until a final decision was made.[34] On 11 July 2007, a source close to the government declared the entire supercasino project "dead in the water".[35] 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".[36] 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".[37]
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 is effectively a unitary authority. Since its inception in 1995, Manchester has been a member of the English Core Cities Group,[38] which, amongst 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.[39] From a very early time, the township of Manchester lay within the historic county boundaries of Lancashire.[39] It has been said "That [neighbouring] Stretford and Salford are not administratively one with Manchester is one of the most curious anomalies of England".[18] 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.[40] 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.[39] 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.[39] 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.[39]
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.[39] 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 Northern Etchells from the south of the River Mersey were added.[39] 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.[39] Also in 1974, Ringway, now home to Manchester Airport, was added to the city.
| Climate chart for Manchester | |||||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| J | F | M | A | M | J | J | A | S | O | N | D |
|
69
6
1
|
50
7
1
|
61
9
3
|
51
12
4
|
61
15
7
|
67
18
10
|
65
20
12
|
79
20
12
|
74
17
10
|
77
14
8
|
78
9
4
|
78
7
2
|
| temperatures in
°C • precipitation totals in mm source: [1] |
|||||||||||
At (53.466, -2.233), miles ( km) northwest of London, Manchester lies in a bowl-shaped land area bordered to the north and east by the Pennine hills, 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 35 and 42 metres (115 to 138 ft) above sea level.[41] 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.[42]
Manchester experiences a temperate maritime climate, like much of the British Isles, with relatively cool summers and mild winters. There is regular but generally light precipitation throughout the year. The city's average annual rainfall is 806.6 mm[43] compared to the UK average of 1125.0 mm,[44] and its mean rain days are 140.4 per annum,[43] compared to the UK average of 154.4.[44] Manchester also has a relatively high humidity level, which lent itself to the optimised and breakage-free textile manufacturing which took place there. Snowfall is not a common sight 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,[45] notably the A62 road via Oldham and Standedge, the A57 (Snake Pass) towards Sheffield,[46] and the M62 over Saddleworth Moor.
| Month | Jan | Feb | Mar | Apr | May | Jun | Jul | Aug | Sep | Oct | Nov | Dec | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Avg high °C (°F) | 6.4 (43.5) | 6.6 (43.9) | 8.9 (48.0) | 11.6 (52.9) | 15.3 (59.5) | 18.2 (64.8) | 19.6 (67.3) | 19.5 (67.1) | 17.0 (62.6) | 13.7 (56.7) | 9.1 (48.4) | 7.1 (44.8) | |
| Avg low temperature °C (°F) | 1.3 (34.3) | 1.2 (34.2) | 2.5 (36.5) | 4.3 (39.7) | 7.3 (45.1) | 10.2 (50.4) | 12.0 (53.6) | 11.9 (53.4) | 10.0 (50.0) | 7.5 (45.5) | 3.6 (38.5) | 2.0 (35.6) | |
| Mean Total Rainfall mm | 69 | 50 | 61 | 51 | 61 | 67 | 65 | 79 | 74 | 77 | 78 | 78 | |
| Mean Number of Rainy Days | 18.2 | 13.1 | 15.6 | 14.4 | 15.1 | 14.4 | 13.6 | 15.0 | 15.0 | 16.5 | 17.0 | 17.4 | |
| Source: Worldweather.org | |||||||||||||
| Manchester Compared[47][48] | |||
|---|---|---|---|
| UK Census 2001 | Manchester | Greater Manchester | England |
| Total population | 441,200 | 2,547,700 | 49,138,831 |
| Foreign born | 15% | 7.2% | 9.2% |
| White | 81% | 91% | 91% |
| Asian | 9.1% | 5.7% | 4.6% |
| Black | 4.5% | 1.2% | 2.3% |
| Christian | 62% | 74% | 72% |
| Muslim | 9.1% | 5.0% | 3.1% |
| Hindu | 0.7% | 0.7% | 1.1% |
| No religion | 16% | 11% | 15% |
| Over 75 years old | 6.4% | 7.0% | 7.5% |
| Unemployed | 5.0% | 3.5% | 3.3% |
The United Kingdom Census 2001 showed a total resident population for Manchester of 392,819, a 9.2% decline from the 1991 census.[49] Approximately 83,000 were aged under 16, 285,000 were aged 16–74, and 25,000 aged 75 and over.[49] 75.9% of Manchester's population claim they have been born in the UK, according to the 2001 UK Census. Inhabitants of Manchester are known as Mancunians or Mancs for short. Manchester reported the second-lowest proportion of the population in employment of any area in the UK. A primary reason cited for Manchester's high unemployment figure is the high proportion of the population who are students.[49] Mid-year estimates for 2006 indicate that the population of the metropolitan borough of Manchester stood at 452,000 making Manchester the most populous city in North West England.[50]
| Religion | Percentage of population[49] |
|---|---|
| Christian | 62.4% |
| No religion | 16.0% |
| Not stated | 9.7% |
| Muslim | 9.1% |
| Jewish | 1.0% |
| Hindu | 0.7% |
| Buddhist | 0.5% |
| Sikh | 0.4% |
| Other | 0.3% |
Manchester is a religiously diverse city. It has the second largest Jewish population in the country,[51] and one of the largest Muslim populations in Greater Manchester.
In 2001, 80% of people identified themselves as White British, 9% Asian or Asian British, 5% Black or Black British, 3% Mixed Race and 2% Chinese or other ethnic group.[52] Kidd identifies Moss Side, Longsight, Cheetham Hill, Rusholme, as centers of population for ethnic minorities.[15] It has been estimated that around 35% of Manchester's population has Irish ancestry.[53]
Manchester's Irish Festival, including a St Patrick's Day parade, is one of Europe's largest.[54] Also, Manchester's Palace Hotel hosted the 2007 Lloyds TSB's Northern Jewel Awards, where leaders of the Asian community in the North of the UK were recognised.[55]
Manchester is regarded to have been at the forefront of the 19th century industrial revolution, and was a leading centre for manufacturing, particularly cotton. However the city has now switched to a largely service-based economy with many financial institutions based in the city including the Manchester Building Society and the Co-operative Bank. The Co-operative Group, which is the world's largest consumer-owned business, is based in Manchester and is one of the city's biggest employers. The city is a growing centre for business and has recently been ranked both as the best place,[4] and the second best place to do business in the UK [56] and the eighteenth best city in Europe. [57]
Manchester's Central Business District is in the centre of the city, adjacent to Piccadilly, focused on Mosley Street, Deansgate, King Street and Piccadilly. Spinningfields is a large new business centre west of Deansgate that will serve as home to several headquarters, squares, and cafes. The first building on the site was the Royal Bank of Scotland's new headquarters on Deansgate.[58] The project is being spear-headed by Sir Norman Foster. Other buildings include a 110-metre (361 ft) tall office building, a new civil justice centre,[59] and new Magistrates Court,[60] to be built over the next few years.
The city boasts large numbers of shops from large chain stores up to high-end boutiques such as Vivienne Westwood, Emporio Armani, DKNY. The city also has several shopping malls including the Manchester Arndale which is currently the UK's largest inner city shopping mall.[31]
Manchester's buildings display a variety of architectural styles, ranging from
