Manchester

UK Tourist: Accommodation in Manchester
Directory of hotels, bed and breakfasts, cottages, self-catering, apartments and other tourist accommodations in Manchester for Manchester United matches and 2002 Commonwealth Games.
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{{Infobox Settlement|official_name = City of Manchester|other_name =|native_name = |nickname = "Capital of the North", "Cottonopolis", "Madchester", "Second city of the United Kingdom"|settlement_type = Metropolitan borough & City status in the United Kingdom|motto = "Concilio Et Labore" "Wisdom and effort"|image_skyline = Manchester Sky.jpg|imagesize = 280px|image_caption = Manchester City Centre|subdivision_type1 = [Constituent country|subdivision_type2 = Region|subdivision_name2 = [North West England|subdivision_name3 = [Greater Manchester, [City status in the United Kingdom|leader_title =Governing body|leader_name =Manchester City Council:|leader_name2 =[Paul Goggins Labour Party (UK)
Gerald Kaufman Labour Party (UK)
John Leech (politician) Liberal Democrats
Tony Lloyd Labour Party (UK)
Graham Stringer Labour Party (UK)|leader_title3 =|leader_name3 =|leader_title4 =|leader_name4 =|established_title = Founded|established_date = 1st century|established_title2 = Town charter|established_date2 = 1301|established_title3 = City status|established_date3 = 1853|area_magnitude =|unit_pref = |area_footnotes =|area_total_km2 = 115.65|area_land_km2 = |area_water_km2 =|area_total_sq_mi =|area_land_sq_mi =|area_water_sq_mi =|area_water_percent =|area_urban_km2 =|area_urban_sq_mi =|area_metro_km2 =|area_metro_sq_mi =|area_blank1_title =|area_blank1_km2 =|area_blank1_sq_mi =|population_as_of =|population_footnotes =|population_note =|population_total = (List of English districts by population)|population_density_km2 =3815|population_density_sq_mi =|population_metro = 4209132|population_density_metro_km2 =|population_density_metro_sq_mi =|population_urban = 2240230
(Greater Manchester Urban Area)]|population_blank1 = 2547700|population_density_blank1_title = Density|population_density_blank1_km2 = 1997|population_density_blank1_sq_mi = 5172.2|population_blank2_title =Ethnicity
(United Kingdom Census 2001) |population_blank2 = 81% White
9.1% Asian
4.5% Black British
2.17% Chinese
3.23% Mixed race|population_density_blank2_km2 =|population_density_blank2_sq_mi =|timezone = Greenwich Mean Time|area_code =0161|blank_name =[ISO 3166-2:GB|blank_info =GB-MAN|blank1_name =ONS coding system|blank1_info =00BY|blank2_name =British national grid reference system|blank2_info =|blank3_name =Nomenclature of Territorial Units for Statistics 3|blank3_info = UKD31|blank4_name =|blank4_info =|website = www.manchester.gov.uk|footnotes =-->Manchester (pronounced ) is a city and metropolitan borough of Greater Manchester, England. The City of Manchester metropolitan borough, which has City status in the United Kingdom, has a population of 452,000. Manchester lies at the centre of the wider Greater Manchester Urban Area which has a population of 2,240,230, the United Kingdom's List of conurbations in the United Kingdom. It is also the second Larger Urban Zones (LUZ) in the European Union in the UK and the fourteenth most populated in Europe.

Forming part of the English Core Cities Group, and often described as the "Capital city of the Northern England",
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• Manchester today is a centre of the arts, the News 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. A report commissioned by Manchester Partnership, published in 2007, showed Manchester to be the "fastest-growing city" economically. It is the third most visited city in the United Kingdom by foreign visitors and is now often considered to be the Second city of the United Kingdom.
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• Manchester was the host of the 2002 Commonwealth Games, and among its other sporting connections are its two Premier League football teams, Manchester United F.C. and Manchester City F.C..Note: Manchester United's ground is in Greater Manchester but outside Manchester city limits; it is in the borough of Trafford

It is claimed that Manchester was the world's first Industrialisation city
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• and is notable for the central role it played during the Industrial Revolution. It was the dominant international centre of Textile manufacture during the Industrial Revolution and Spinning (textiles). During the 19th century it acquired the nickname Cottonopolis, 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.

History Toponymy The name Manchester came from the Ancient Rome name Mamucium, thought to be a Latinisation of an original Celtic languages name (possibly meaning "breast-like hill" from mamm- = "breast"), plus Old English language ceaster = "town", which is derived from Latin castra = "camp".

Early history of 1819.There are few signs of Prehistory occupation of the city. The only major Bronze age#Great Britain 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.

Central Manchester has been settled since at least Roman Empire times. 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 Deva Victrix, Eboracum, 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 River Irwell and River 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 Manchester (ancient 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.

Around the 14th century, Manchester received an influx of Flemish people 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.

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 as it was sometimes referred) during the early 19th century

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. 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." 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 Post Office (United Kingdom) (the forerunner of BT Group) provided its first telephones to a firm in Manchester.

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."
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• 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. Manchester was also an important cradle of the Labour Party (UK) and the Suffragette Movement.

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 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. Large quantities of machinery, including cotton processing plant, were exported around the world.

By 1963 the port was the UK's third largest,
• and employed over 3,000 men, but the canal was unable to handle the increasingly large Containerization ships. Traffic declined, and the port closed in 1982.

In 1913, 65% of the world's cotton was processed in the area, 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.

World War II 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 Tyres's rubber works in Chorlton-on-Medlock made barrage balloons; and just outside the city in Trafford Park, engineers Metropolitan-Vickers and Ford Motor Company 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 "Manchester Blitz" on the nights of 22/23 and 23/24 December 1940, when an estimated 467 long 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.

1996 bomb 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 Pound sterling50 million, but this was quickly revised upwards. The final insurance payout has been estimated at over GB£400 million; many affected businesses never recovered from the loss of trade.

Redevelopment during a BBC Big Screen showing of a FIFA world cup game, it was constructed after rapid development in the Manchester City CentreSpurred by the investment after the 1996 bomb, and aided by the 2002 Commonwealth Games, Manchester's city centre has undergone extensive regeneration.
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• 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, Manchester, 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. 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 British House of Commons acceptance meaningless. This left the supercasino, and fourteen 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".

Governance , used for the local governance of Manchester, is an example of Victorian era Gothic revival architecture.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, 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 the United Kingdom 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 History of Lancashire, the township of Manchester lay within the historic counties of England of Lancashire. It has been said "That Stretford and Salford are not administratively one with Manchester is one of the most curious anomalies of England". A stroke of a Normans 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 Manchester (ancient parish). 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, Greater Manchester, 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, Greater Manchester, 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 counties of England 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 Northern 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. Also in 1974, Ringway, now home to Manchester Airport, was added to the city.

Geography {{climate chart||1|6|69|1|7|50|3|9|61|4|12|51|7|15|61|10|18|67|12|20|65|12|20|79|10|17|74|8|14|77|4|9|78|2|7|78|source=|float=right-->At (53.466, -2.233), 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 Manchester City Centre is on the east bank of the River Irwell, near its confluences with the Rivers River Medlock and River Irk, and is relatively low-lying, being between 35 and 42 metres (115 to 138 Foot (unit of length)) 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 port at Liverpool, the availability of water power from its rivers, and its nearby coal reserves.

Manchester experiences a temperate Oceanic 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 compared to the UK average of 1125.0 mm, and its mean rain days are 140.4 per annum, compared to the UK average of 154.4. 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 climate 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 road (Snake Pass) towards Sheffield, and the M62 motorway over Saddleworth Moor.

Demography {| class="wikitable" id="toc" style="float: right; margin-left: 2em; width: 40%; font-size: 90%;" cellspacing="3"!colspan="4"|Manchester Compared|-|United Kingdom Census 2001||Manchester||Greater Manchester] 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. 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.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.

{]| 62.4%|-| No religion| 16.0%|-| Not stated| 9.7%|-| Islam| 9.1%|-| Judaism| 1.0%|-| Hinduism| 0.7%|-| Buddhism| 0.5%|-| Sikhism| 0.4%|-| Other| 0.3%|}

Manchester is a religiously diverse city. It has the second largest Jewish population in the country, 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. Kidd identifies Moss Side, Longsight, Cheetham Hill, Rusholme, as centers of population for ethnic minorities. It has been estimated that around 35% of Manchester's population has Irish people ancestry.

Manchester's Irish Festival, including a St Patrick's Day parade, is one of Europe's largest. 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.

Economy from the Beetham Tower, Manchester at night. The city has become a large economic centre for the UK.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, and the second best place to do business in the UK and the eighteenth best city in Europe.

Manchester's Central Business District is in the Manchester City Centre, 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. The project is being spear-headed by Norman Foster, Baron Foster of Thames Bank. Other buildings include a 110-metre (361 ft) tall office building, a new civil justice centre, and new Magistrates Court, 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.

Landmarks on Deansgate, currently List of tallest buildings in Manchester.Manchester's buildings display a variety of architectural styles, ranging from Victorian architecture 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 ex-cotton mills, some of which have been left virtually untouched since their closure whilst many have been redeveloped into apartment buildings and office space. A fine example of Gothic Revival architecture architecture is the Manchester Town Hall located on Albert Square, Manchester, noted for its use in film as a replacement location for the Palace of Westminster as filming is not permitted. Manchester also has a number of Tallest Buildings of Manchester built during the 1960s and 1970s, the tallest of which is the CIS Tower located near Manchester Victoria station. The Beetham Tower, Manchester, completed in 2006, is an example of the new surge in high-rise building and includes a Hilton Hotels, 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, is scheduled to begin construction behind Manchester Piccadilly station in 2007. The Green Building, opposite Manchester Oxford Road railway station, is a pioneering eco-friendly housing project, almost unique in the UK. in Sportcity, built to mark the 2002 Commonwealth Games.Two large squares hold many of Manchester's public monuments. Albert Square has monuments to Prince Albert of Saxe-Coburg-Gotha, James Fraser (bishop), Oliver Heywood, William Ewart Gladstone and John Bright. Piccadilly Gardens has monuments dedicated to Victoria of the United Kingdom, Robert Peel, James Watt and the Arthur Wellesley, 1st 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 staue of Abraham Lincoln by George Gray Barnard in the eponymous Lincoln Square 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. The success of the 2002 Commonwealth Games is commemorated by the B of the Bang, located near the City of Manchester Stadium in the Eastlands area of the city. At tall, the sculpture is the tallest in the UK.

Transport , the principal railway and Manchester Metrolink station in Manchester.Manchester and the surrounding towns and cities of North West England are served by Manchester Airport. The airport is the largest in the UK outside London, serving 22 million passengers in 2006, with connections to many destinations in Europe, North America, the Caribbean, Africa, the Middle East and Asia (with more destinations from Manchester than from London Heathrow).

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. Prior to the Bus deregulation of 1986, SELNEC operated all buses in Manchester. The buses were then taken over by GM Buses which after privatisation was split into GM Buses North and GM Buses South and taken over by First Manchester and Stagecoach Manchester respectively. First Manchester also operates a three route Zero-fare public transport bus service called Metroshuttle which carries commuters around Manchester's business districts.

Manchester is also well served by train. In terms of passengers, Manchester Piccadilly Station is the busiest train station in England, outside London.Local operator Northern Rail operates all over the north of England, and other national operators include Virgin Trains. The Liverpool and Manchester Railway was the first passenger railway in the world. Greater Manchester has an extensive countywide railway network, and two mainline stations. Manchester city centre is also serviced by over a dozen rail-based park and ride sites. Manchester became the first city in the UK to acquire a modern light rail system when the Manchester Metrolink opened in 1992. An expansion program is underway. 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 Northern England.

An extensive canal network remains from the Industrial Revolution, nowadays mainly used for leisure. The ship canal is open, but traffic to the upper reaches is light.
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Culture Nightlife , one of Manchester's most active nightspots, part of the city's gay village.Manchester played several key roles in the development of nightclub and DJ culture, most notably with The Hacienda, the nightclub which helped to popularise Acid House and House Music before its closure in 1997. One of the oldest venues is the Band on the Wall, a live music club in the Northern Quarter. It was built around 1862 as the flagship pub of a local brewery and originally called The George & Dragon. In 1975 it was taken on by jazz musician Steve Morris and Frank Cusick, and renamed The Band on the Wall, a longtime nickname for the club since the late 1920s alluding to its stage high on the back wall.

Along with other areas that are frequented by late night revellers (such as Castlefield, Deansgate Locks, the Printworks and the Northern Quarter), Manchester boasts the famous Canal Street (Manchester), the centre of the city's gay community. This was made famous by the Channel 4 programme, Queer as Folk (UK TV series), and is the centre of the annual Pride celebrations, held on the last weekend in August.

Music and theatre , one of the biggest musical acts from Manchester.Manchester is home to two symphony orchestras, the Hallé Orchestra and the BBC Philharmonic Orchestra. 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. The main classical venue was the Free Trade Hall on Peter Street, until the opening in 1996 of the 2,500 seat Bridgewater Hall.

Manchester’s main pop music venue is the Manchester Evening News Arena, situated next to Manchester Victoria railway station. It seats over 21,000, is the largest arena of its type in Europe, and has been voted International Venue of the Year.
• Other major venues include the Manchester Apollo and the Manchester Academy. Smaller venues are the Bierkeller, the Roadhouse, and Night and Day Cafe.

Bands that have emerged from the Manchester music scene include The Smiths, the Buzzcocks, The Fall (band), Joy Division and its successor group New Order, Oasis (band) and Doves. Manchester was credited as the main regional driving force behind Indie music bands of the 1980s including Happy Mondays, The Charlatans (UK band), Inspiral Carpets, James (band), and The Stone Roses. These groups came from what became known as the "Madchester" scene that also centred around the legendary club Fac 51 Haçienda (also known as simply The Haçienda) developed by founder of factory records Anthony Wilson. Although from southern England, The Chemical Brothers subsequently formed in Manchester. Ex-Stone Roses frontman Ian Brown and ex-The Smiths Morrissey continue successful solo careers. Other Greater Manchester natives include A Guy Called Gerald, Richard Ashcroft and Jay Kay of Jamiroquai.

, one of Manchester's largest theatre venues.Larger venues include the Manchester Opera House, featuring large-scale touring shows and West End theatre shows; the Palace Theatre, Manchester; the Royal Exchange Theatre, Manchester in Manchester’s former cotton exchange; and the Lowry Centre, a touring venue in Salford. Smaller sites include the Library Theatre, a producing theatre in the basement of the central library; the Green Room (Manchester); the Contact Theatre; and Studio Salford. The Dancehouse is dedicated to dance productions.

Literature In the 19th century, Manchester featured in novels highlighting the changes that industrialisation had brought to Britain. These included works such as Mary Barton: A Tale of Manchester Life (1848) by Elizabeth Gaskell, and The Condition of the English Working Class 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 Elizabeth Gaskell.

Second City Manchester has recently been regarded by the international press, British public, and government ministers as being the second city of the United Kingdom. A 2007 poll by the BBC placed it ahead of Birmingham and Liverpool in the category of second city of England, but also ahead in the category of third city. Neither categories are officially sanctioned, and criteria for determining what 'second city' means are ill-defined. Manchester is not the second largest city in size or population, but it is argued that cultural and History of Manchester criteria are more important. The BBC reports that redevelopment of recent years has heightened claims that Manchester is the second city of the UK.
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• This title however, which is unofficial in the UK, is also claimed by a number of other cities, including Glasgow and Birmingham which have traditionally held this title since the early 20th century.

Education There are two University in Manchester: the University of Manchester and Manchester Metropolitan University. 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. Manchester Business School, which offered the first MBA course in the UK in 1965, is also part of the University of Manchester. Manchester Metropolitan University was formed as Manchester Polytechnic on the meger of three colleges in 1970. It took 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, and form the largest city-centre group of higher education institutions in Europe.

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 Grammar schools in the United Kingdom (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 two schools nearby: Withington Girls' School and Manchester High School for Girls.

Sports , used for the 2002 Commonwealth GamesTwo Premier League football (soccer) clubs, Manchester United F.C. and Manchester City F.C., bear the city’s name. Manchester City's ground is at the City of Manchester Stadium, (48,000 capacity); Manchester United's Old Trafford (football ground) ground, the largest club football ground in the United Kingdom with 76,000 capacity, and England's only UEFA-rated 5-star stadium, is just outside the city in the borough of Trafford. Trafford is also the home of Old Trafford cricket ground which is home to Lancashire County Cricket Club (LCCC).
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The City of Manchester Stadium was built for the 2002 Commonwealth Games. After the games, one of the stands was replaced in preparation for Manchester City F.C. arrival in 2003. The stadium holds 48,000 fans all-seated, and is one of the largest football stadiums in England. It will host the 2008 UEFA Cup Final. Old Trafford is the only club football ground in England to host the UEFA Champions League Final, having done so in 2003.

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, being beaten by Atlanta for 1996 and Sydney for 2000. Various sporting arenas around the city will be used as training facilities prior to the 2012 Olympics in London. Manchester Velodrome was built as part of the bid for the 2000 games. The Manchester Evening News Arena will be the host for the UK's first FINA World Swimming Championships in 2008.

Media ITV franchisee Granada Television has its original headquarters on Quay Street in the Castlefield area of the city. The city is where programmes including the world's oldest and most watched television soap opera, Coronation Street, which is networked five times a week on ITV, is made. Local News for the Granada Region, local programmes and Networked CiTV presentations 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 (television), 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 BBC One for five series. Life on Mars (TV series) was set in 1973 Manchester. The first edition of Top of the Pops was broadcast from a converted church in Longsight 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.
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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

The University of Manchester
Official site with general information and links to the various institutions that make up the university.

About Manchester (The University of Manchester)
Manchester is buzzing with shops, cafes and culture. It is no surprise that it is heralded as the capital of the North.

Manchester City Council Homepage
Offers information for local residents, visitors and the business community.

Manchester UK Guide
Information resource for the area. Includes guidebook, travel, sports, and business information.

Manchester Computing - University of Manchester
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School of Dentistry (University of Manchester)
Innovative dental teaching, excellent facilities and a world-renowned research portfolio

School of Mathematics
School of Mathematics. Merging into The University of Manchester School of Mathematics.

Manchester Photo Gallery
Manchester Photo Gallery ... Click on any photo to see a larger version

The John Rylands University Library (The University of Manchester)
The largest non legal deposit academic library in the United Kingdom. Lists information about the library, A to Z index, subject information, services and contact details.

School of Medicine (University of Manchester)
Details of the research groups and teaching programs.