Manchester. Great Britain. Ca. 1900

Manchester. Great Britain. Ca. 1900

Manchester

City in England

Manchester is a major city in the northwest of England with a rich industrial heritage. The Castlefield conservation area’s 18th-century canal system recalls the city’s days as a textile powerhouse, and visitors can trace this history at the interactive Museum of Science & Industry. The revitalised Salford Quays dockyards now house the Daniel Libeskind-designed Imperial War Museum North and the Lowry cultural centre.

Weather: 65°F (18°C), Wind W at 10 mph (16 km/h), 65% Humidity

Hotels: 3-star averaging $86, 5-star averaging $170. View hotels

Local time: Friday 5:47 PM

Ceremonial county: Greater Manchester

Colleges and Universities: University of Manchester, More

Manchester (local /ˈmæntʃɪstə/)^[4] is a major city and metropolitan borough in Greater Manchester, England, with a population of 514,417 as of 2013.^[5] It lies within the United Kingdom's second-most populous urban area, with a population of 2.55 million.^[6] Manchester is fringed by the Cheshire Plain to the south, the Pennines to the north and east and an arc of towns with which it forms a continuous conurbation. The local authority is Manchester City Council.

The recorded history of Manchester began with the civilian settlement associated with the Roman fort of Mamuciumor Mancunium, which was established in about 79 AD on a sandstone bluff near the confluence of the riversMedlock and Irwell. It was historically a part of Lancashire, although areas of Cheshire south of the River Merseywere incorporated during the 20th century.^[7] Throughout the Middle Ages Manchester remained a manorialtownship but began to expand "at an astonishing rate" around the turn of the 19th century. Manchester's unplanned urbanisation was brought on by a boom in textile manufacture during the Industrial Revolution,^[8] and resulted in it becoming the world's first industrialised city.^[9]

Manchester achieved city status in 1853. The Manchester Ship Canal opened in 1894, creating the Port of Manchester and linking the city to sea, 36 miles (58 km) to the west. Its fortunes declined after the Second World War, owing to deindustrialisation. The city centre was devastated in a bombing in 1996, but it led to extensive investment and regeneration that has since helped it turn into a thriving 'reborn' modern city.^[10]

In 2014, the Globalization and World Cities Research Network ranked Manchester as a beta world city, the highest-ranked British city apart from London.^[11] Manchester is the third-most visited city in the UK.^[12] It is notable for itsarchitecture, culture, musical exports, media links, scientific and engineering output, social impact, sports clubs andtransport connections. Manchester Liverpool Road railway station was the world's first inter-city passenger railway station and in the city scientists first split the atom and developed the stored-program computer.