Information and Articles About Manchester, England

While London is the most populous urban area in the United Kingdom, Manchester is the second, numbering at 2.55 million in 2013. Its population grew exponentially during the Victorian era, reaching up to 766,311 in 1931, but sharply decreased as the years progressed. This is mostly due to the eviction of the homeless from slums and the increased demand for social housing.

Manchester is known for many things. Its architecture includes the Beetham Tower and the Manchester Town Hall, as well as its cotton mills and canals. Manchester has a variety of architectural styles - products of the industrial revolution and refined by other styles like Palazzo, Gothic and Baroque.

One of the more unique features of  Manchester is its "Gay Village", public houses in the Canal Street district built since the 1940's where much of its gay community reside, and as many as 20,000 guests visit the area each week. And every August, the community holds the Manchester Pride festival.

Its music industry contains famous names from groups like Oasis and the Bee Gees, to people like Stephen Fretwell and Jim Noir. Before the 80's, Manchester already had a number of successful groups. When the 90's rolled in, the rise of Britpop saw more artists from the city joining the industry.

The scientific field also saw its share of famous people, like Joseph Whitworth's creation of the Whitworth Rifle and John Frederick Bateman, a civil engineer who helped work on the country's modern water reservoirs that helped supply Manchester with water since the 19th century.

In sports, the city specializes in Football and Rugby. It has its own governing bodies overlooking the sports - the Manchester City Football Club and the Rugby Football Union.

Manchester began as a small settlement associated with Mamucium, a Roman fort. All through the Middle Ages, Manchester remained as a town, but by the 19th century it began to expand exponentially. One of the reasons for this is the unexpected boom in the textile industry during the Industrial Revolution, which boosted the town's economy and brought in more people, making it one of the country's most industrialized city during that era. However, the city's economy decreased during World War II.

During the war, however, the city was heavily mobilized into manufacturing bombs, balloons, planes and other weapons. This resulted in making Manchester one of the key cities in providing equipment and ammo for the war effort. However, this also made the city a target for the Germans. Thus on the nights of December 22 to 24, an event known as the "Christmas Blitz", the city was bombed by the Germans, resulting in a massive loss of Manchester’s businesses, buildings and lives.

After the war, its economy continued to deteriorate, resulting in many businesses closing. Few of these were the cotton industry, which closed in 1968, and its trading ports, which shut down in 1982. Fortunately by the late 1980's, the local economy began to heal.

Today, Manchester is labelled as a "Beta World City", a level under the Alpha level (the same category as London). And with enough time, even Manchester will become an Alpha-level city like London.

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Articles Featuring Manchester, England From British Heritage Magazine