Manchester

In addition, the British Council maintains a headquarters building in the city centre. . Manchester and its conurbation are home to a number of foreign consulates and commissions:. Matrix can refer to:. Manchester used to have its own police service until 1974 when its force and the lower divisions of Lancashire Constabulary merged to from Greater Manchester Police. MATRIX, the acronym for Multistate Anti-Terrorism Information Exchange. Manchester’s railways are policed by the nationwide British Transport Police. A housing development in Glasgow, Scotland, inspired by Le Corbusier's Unite d'Habitation and designed by Davis Duncan Architects.

Manchester and its metropolitan conurbation are policed by Greater Manchester Police who are based at Manchester’s Chester House Police Station. Nickname of NBA player Shawn Marion. See Manchester City Council. A hair styling product line of the L'Oréal Group. The City of Manchester is divided into 32 wards. Metal matrix composite, a type of composite material. The centre of Salford is adjacent to the centre of Manchester, with only the River Irwell separating the two by 20 metres. Matrix management, a organizational managment style.

Places like Trafford and Salford can be considered part of the Manchester urban area in a way that Wigan or Bolton are not. Toyota Matrix, an automobile produced by Toyota. Towns in the Greater Manchester urban area include Sale, Altrincham, Cheadle, Stockport, Ashton-under-Lyne, Oldham, Bury, Rochdale, Glossop, Stockport, Middleton and Stretford. The Matrix, a book on computer networks by John Quarterman. The metropolitan county of Greater Manchester is made up of 10 metropolitan boroughs:. The 1997 remix album by the German band Haujobb. Georges Cathedral was built over a period of 600 years and is built in the Gothic Style. One of the incarnations of Supergirl in DC Comics.

The cathedral often known as St. An information database in William Ford Gibson's novels. Manchester has also has in own Anglican Cathedral. M@rix (pronounced Matrix) the 1997 album by the German band P.A.L. Manchester has the largest Jewish community outside of the capital and there is a large Muslim population. Autobot Matrix of Leadership, a talisman in the fictional Tranformer's Universe. Manchester is in the Central North Division of the Salvation Army. Matrix (music), an element of variations which does not change, especially in folk and popular music.

Manchester lies within the Roman Catholic Diocese of Salford . Matrix (artist), a UK drum and bass producer. The Anglican Diocese of Manchester was established in 1847. The Matrix (music producer), a music production team. Other buildings include a 150 metre tall office building, a new justice centre and new crown court. Matrix (Doctor Who), an advanced computer network and a virtual reality environment from the British series Doctor Who. The project is being spear-headed by Sir Norman Foster. Matrix (fictional universe), the world referred to in the the Matrix series.

The first building to be produced was the RBS's new headquarters on Deansgate. The Matrix series, the film series made by Larry and Andy Wachowski consisting of The Matrix, The Matrix Reloaded, and The Matrix Revolutions. The new area will be home to several headquarters, squares and cafes. Matrix (numismatics), an intermediate into which the design of a coin is engraved. Spinningfields is a new development in Manchester of a new piece of land being converted into Manchester's business centre of Deansgate. Matrix (IT), a group of data which forms the "essence" of an application. Other notable places in Manchester include:. Matrix (printing), a mold for shaping the letters.

To the south of the city centre, Wilmslow Road is the hub of much student life and is home to Manchester’s curry mile. Matrix (sound recording), a disc in the early stages of processing a record for mass production. Two large squares, Albert Square, in front of Manchester Town Hall, and Piccadilly Gardens, the original site of the Manchester Royal Infirmary, are public plazas that hold many of Manchester’s public monuments. Extracellular matrix, any material part of a tissue that is not part of any cell. Canal Street, is the centre of Manchester's Gay Village and home to may pubs and bars. Matrix (geology), the fine grains between larger grains in igneous or sedimentary rocks. In the city centre Deansgate has many shops, including the department store House of Fraser (formerly Kendals), along with pubs and bars, while King Street is an affluent shopping area with many original notable buildings preserved in a conservation area. Matrix (biology), the material between animal or plant cells or the material in the inner membrane of a mitochondria.

Manchester has a number of busy squares, plazas and shopping streets. Matrix (mathematics), a rectangular array of scalars. A monument to Abraham Lincoln in Lincoln Square marks the cotton famine of 1861 - 1865. The success of the 2002 Commonwealth Games is commemorated by B of the Bang, Britain’s tallest sculpture, located near the City of Manchester Stadium. Queen Victoria is also remembered by Edward Onslow Ford’s Queen Victoria statue in Piccadilly Gardens.

The Alan Turing Memorial situated in Sackville Park close to Canal street remembers the father of modern computing and the Albert Memorial, Albert Square, by Thomas Worthington is in memory of Queen Victoria’s consort. Within Manchester there are monuments to several people and events that have helped to shape the city and influence the wider community. Another skyscraper, even taller than the Beetham Hilton tower, has been approved and will be built near Manchester Piccadilly station. As of 2005, the tallest building in Manchester is the CIS Tower.

The tallest skyscraper ^[7] in the United Kingdom outside London is currently under construction in Manchester: the 47 storey, 561 ft (~171 m) tall Beetham Hilton tower, on Deansgate is due for completion in late 2006. Structures of interest in Manchester include:. Many warehouses have now been converted for other uses but the external appearance remains mostly unchanged so the city maintains much of its original character. Much of the architecture in the city harks back to its former days as a global centre for the cotton trade.

Manchester has a wide variety of buildings mainly from Victorian architecture through to modern. The scene set in Coronation Street of real northern life with a traditional English pub can also be found in the region. Although ‘The Cream of Manchester’, Boddingtons, only the cask ales are brewed in the city, there are still many international, local and independent breweries operating in the Greater Manchester area. Manchester is also famous for its beer.

Other, independent restaurants, bars and clubs can be found in the Northern Quarter area of the city centre. The coffee chain Starbucks has 12 outlets in a 2 mile radius. There is a Hard Rock Cafe, chain restaurants such as Wagamama and bars that include Waxy O’Connors and The Living Room. The traditional pie capital of the UK is supposedly at the heart of Wigan, 15 miles outside the city.

Regional favourites include the Eccles cake. There are now many top class restaurants. Manchester has a vibrant and exciting range of restaurants, bars and clubs, spanning the famous curry mile in Rusholme to traditional ‘grub’, China Town[6], modern bars and bistros at Deansgate Lock in the city centre. Affleck’s is located on Oldham Street, in the Northern Quarter, along with a range of independent music, clothing and other shops.

Affleck’s Palace is a building providing low-cost stalls for independent traders and creatives. There is also a range of designer clothing stores, with the Triangle centre housing several. There is a large John Lewis department store situated eight miles to the south of the city centre at Cheadle and from November 2005, at the Trafford Centre. The city also contains two Selfridges, a Harvey Nichols, and the UK’s flagship Marks and Spencer store.

Other shopping centres include the Triangle (formerly known as the Corn Exchange Building) which caters for a more youthful and upmarket clientele and the Royal Exhange Centre. There are two large shopping centres; the Arndale Centre in the middle of the city and the out-of-town Trafford Centre which includes food hall, multi-screen cinema and Namco games centre. Manchester is one of the main retail centres of the North. This network is what prevents Manchester from having an underground rail system.

Manchester also had Britain's first sewer network, which still exists today. In the past, the city also had a ‘pressurised water’ power supply system, a predecessor of the modern electricity network. In some cases these lakes form long chains, as in Longdendale. The Manchester area is supplied with water by numerous artificial lakes, built on the former small rivers around the city.

Today, most of these canals are used for recreation. One legacy of the industrial revolution is an extensive network of canals: the Manchester, Bolton & Bury Canal, Rochdale Canal, Manchester Ship Canal, which provides access to the sea, Bridgewater Canal, Ashton Canal, and the Leigh Branch of the Leeds & Liverpool Canal. The old station was notorious for crime and prostitution. This smart, modern station opened in March 2002 and replaced the old Chorlton Street coach station (on exactly the same site).

Long distance coaches - operated mainly by National Express - serve the Manchester Central Coach Station at Chorlton Street. When Shudehill interchange is open, the temporary terminus at Exchange ( the old Victoria bus station, on the Salford side of the river) will close. This will be joined by the Shudehill Bus/Metrolink Interchange - serving routes mainly on the north side of the city - which is due to open at the end of January, 2006. Manchester's principal bus station for local services is at Piccadilly Gardens, which is also served by Metrolink.

High frequency bendy bus routes include the Bury-Manchester 135 service and the Bolton-Manchester 8 service, which operate every six minutes. It should be noted, however, that if one sits waiting on the Metroshuttle for 10 minutes one could have easily walked the distance to the Train Station, less than 1/2 mile away. Those arriving at Manchester Piccadilly Bus Station and requiring to take a Train from Manchester Piccadilly Train Station can choose either to take a Metrolink or wait for the free Metroshuttle. They run every 5-10 minutes, are divided into three routes, complement the Metrolink and National Rail services, and link them with the city’s car parks, tourist attractions and bus termini.

These services are very successful and therefore often busy. First Manchester also operates free Metroshuttle services which link important areas of the city like Manchester Victoria, Piccadilly and Oxford Road stations with Chinatown, Deansgate, Salford Central, and Albert Square. Other routes, that are not as commercially attractive, with smaller passenger volumes, are less well provided for, and the cost of a single journey can be similar to that of a Week Pass for the 'South Manchester' journey. The major routes, with high passenger volumes, are well provided for, including Oxford Road/Wilmslow Road, one of the busiest bus routes in Europe, bringing large numbers of students & commuters from Fallowfield / Withington / Didsbury to the university buildings that have campuses scattered around the city centre, and the various office buildings - including the BBC.

Bullock. The City’s buses are operated by a range of companies including First, Stagecoach (incorporating the lower-cost Magicbus), Finglands, UK North (also trading as GM Buses), and R. Maps of bus routes and a public transport journey planner for the Greater Manchester can be found on the GMPTE website. Manchester and the surrounding area have an extensive bus network, with regular services in and out of the city connecting to all the satellite towns and villages.

However, if you have a valid train ticket for that day, you can use this to also ride the Metrolink without needing to purchase an additional ticket. You must therefore ensure that you have plenty of coins (£2, £1, 50p, 20p, 10p) before travelling. These ticket machines do not accept credit cards or debit cards, and many (half) do not accept banknotes despite the high cost of some routes. Warning: If you wish to take a trip on the Metrolink you must purchase a ticket before the journey, from a ticket machine on one of the platforms.

Many routes are extremely busy, especially at Peak Times, and prices have risen at a rate far above that of inflation. Since Metrolink's inception and the initial euphoria at the huge success, by the Public / Local & National Government / Environmental Groups it has become something of a victim of its own popularity. The line from Manchester City Centre to Eccles Town Centre is also judged by many to be a failure as it takes longer than an equivalent bus journey following a similar route, but achieves this without the Metrolink's advantage of using 'Metrolink-only' specially dedicated / constructed routes. 5 miles away in Trafford Park), with a wide possibility of routes for this task.

A widely held view of many in Manchester of one of the major failings of the Metrolink is that it has never been extended to reach the Trafford Centre (approx. If the desired system, nicknamed the big bang, is completed, passenger numbers are predicted to more than double; to an estimated 50 million per year. The Greater Manchester Passenger Transport Executive (GMPTE), responsible for public transport in the area, led the fight to ensure that the extensions are to be built, with significant support from Local Councils and Communities, as well as the main Manchester City Council [5]. Plans to extend Manchester Metrolink were reinstated after an election-time u-turn by the Labour Government which had previously rejected the plans months earlier, despite years of support.

It carries nearly 20 million passengers each year. It is a high-frequency service, with trams running every 6–12 minutes. Operated by Serco, the Metrolink links the city centre to Altrincham, Eccles and Bury. Manchester has a tram system called Metrolink.

The urban and suburban areas are covered by a sizeable network of rail lines, including lines to Ashton-under-Lyne, Bolton, Oldham, Stockport and Wilmslow. This may well have referred to the 'Guardian' underground nuclear bunker network, originally constructed by NATO (as a means of protecting communications in the city in the event of an atom bomb being deployed) and now used by BT. Excavation work under the Arndale Centre for this project began in the 1970s, but was soon abandoned due to costs and rumours of 'subterranean obstacles'. Although there is no Underground Railway system similar to London's, the city has had several failed attempts to create one including the infamous "Picc-Vicc", a heavy rail tunnel linking the main stations.

There are also several smaller stations remaining around the City Centre, including Manchester Oxford Road, Deansgate and Salford Central. High speed trains to London are run from Manchester Piccadilly by Virgin Trains, journeys typically taking around 2 hr 15 min. In just 50 years the city centre was encircled by almost a dozen stations but currently has just two City Centre major mainline Train Stations, Manchester Victoria and Manchester Piccadilly, linking Manchester to most other places in the United Kingdom. Manchester holds a pivotal position in Railway history as the birthplace of passenger rail travel on the The Liverpool and Manchester Railway opened in 1830 after the famous Rainhill Trials chose Stephensons Rocket to pull the trains.

Most of these routes link onto the M60, Manchester’s orbital motorway. The main roads serving Manchester are the M56, M6, M61, M62 and M66 motorways. It is very busy heliport and has small runways which deal with small aircraft. Barton Aerodrome, one of the world's oldest airports, is still in operation.

The airport has been voted the best airport in the UK by: Which Consumer Magazine, Travel Weekly Globe, Business Magazines International and in the Airport World’s Service Excellence Awards (European runner up, 2nd only to Copenhagen). Manchester to London is the only high density airline route within England and is one of the busiest domestic sectors in Europe providing serious competition for the railways. Many European and domestic destinations are served. There are also firm plans for a direct service to Beijing.

Long haul scheduled destinations served directly from Manchester include New York (JFK and Newark), Chicago, Boston, Philadelphia, Atlanta, Orlando, Miami, Houston, Las Vegas, Toronto, Port of Spain, Antigua, Barbados, Damascus, Dubai, Abu Dhabi (starting Spring 2006), Doha, Karachi, Islamabad, Lahore, Singapore, Kuala Lumpur and (resuming in Spring 2006), Hong Kong. In 2005 the airport handled 22.1 million passengers and provided direct flights to over 180 destinations worldwide by over 90 airlines. Manchester International Airport, formerly Manchester Ringway Airport, is the third busiest airport in the UK in terms of passengers per year^[4] and is served by a dedicated railway station. It was announced in 2005 that various sporting arenas around the city will be used in the 2012 Olympics.

Manchester has also competed twice to host the Olympic Games being beaten by Atlanta in 1996 and Sydney in 2000. Manchester is a successful sporting city with many famous sporting people heralding from the city as well as from the surrounding area of Greater Manchester. Manchester also has an ice hockey team called the Manchester Phoenix there in the process of buliding an arena called the Trafford ice dome. Gorton in Manchester is home to the Belle Vue Aces speedway team.

Manchester is also home to Swinton Lions who play at Sedgley Park. The Manchester area is also represented in rugby union by Sale Sharks, who currently play their home games at Edgeley Park in Stockport and Manchester R.C.; and in Rugby League by Wigan Warriors, who share the JJB Stadium with Wigan Athletic, and Salford City Reds, who are currently in the process of constructing a new state-of-the-art stadium in Eccles, over the Manchester Ship Canal from the Trafford Centre. Old Trafford cricket ground, home of Lancashire County Cricket Club, hosts many first-class cricket and important international matches including Test Matches. Many first class sporting facilities were built for the 2002 Commonwealth Games, including the Manchester Velodrome, the City of Manchester Stadium, the National Squash Centre and the Manchester Aquatics Centre.

United of Manchester. Other professional football teams in Greater Manchester include Oldham Athletic, Stockport County, Bury, Wigan Athletic, Rochdale, Bolton Wanderers and F.C. These football teams are just two examples: according to the Urbis centre, Greater Manchester has the highest concentration of football clubs per capita of anywhere in the world. Manchester City play at the City of Manchester Stadium, while Manchester United’s Old Trafford ground, the largest club football ground in England, is just outside the city proper in the borough of Trafford.

Two major football clubs, Manchester United and Manchester City, bear the city’s name. Sport and especially football are an important part of Manchester culture. Manchester Metropolitan University, the University of Manchester and the Royal Northern College of Music are grouped together on the southern side of the city centre, and effectively form one large campus, split down the centre by Oxford Road, the busiest bus route in Europe. Together with the University of Bolton and the Royal Northern College of Music and University Centre Oldham all nearby, these give the area a student population in excess of 73,000, one of the largest in Europe.

Within nearby Salford is the University of Salford, which is within 2 miles of Manchester City Centre. The former is the largest full-time non-collegiate university in Britain, and was created in autumn 2004 by the merger of the former Victoria University of Manchester and UMIST. Manchester is home to two major universities: The University of Manchester and Manchester Metropolitan University. Manchester’s claim to status of gay capital of the UK was strengthened in 2003 when it played host city to the annual Europride festival.

The year round gay and lesbian heritage trail exhibits Manchester’s gay history. Manchester has its own gay sports teams, Village Manchester FC (soccer), Northern Wave (swimming) and Village Spartans (Rugby) which take part in Manchester's annual Pride Games. It is also the birthplace of several gay rights organisations including the Campaign for Homosexual Equality and the Queer Youth Alliance. Manchester’s gay culture was brought to mainstream attention in 1999 by the acclaimed and controversial Channel 4 drama series Queer as Folk, which was set in the village.

On the last weekend in August it hosts the Manchester Pride Festival (previously known as Mardi Gras and Gayfest). Manchester has the UK’s largest gay population outside of London, and is renowned for its gay village; centred around the Canal Street area the gay village is home to various gay shops, restaurants, bars and clubs. Free commuting papers include Manchester Evening News Lite and Metro North West, both of which are available from Metrolink stops, rail stations and other busy locations across the city at rush-hour. It still shares a Manchester office on Deansgate with its sister publication, the Manchester Evening News, Manchester’s biggest-selling daily paper.

Its head office is still in Manchester, though many of its management functions were moved to London in 1964. The Guardian newspaper was founded in Manchester in 1821 as The Manchester Guardian. This is a list of films (Partial) set in Manchester:. Manchester is home to the Manchester film festival and has held the commonwealth film festival.

There were also scores of pirate radio, student radio (currently consisting of Fuse FM at the University of Manchester and Shock FM at the University of Salford) and community radio stations and initiatives in Manchester. The latter three played a significant role in the city's emerging House music culture, also known as the Madchester scene, which was partly based around clubs like the the Hacienda which had its own show on Kiss 102. Several now defunct radio stations are much lamented including "BBC Radio Manchester" - now BBC GMR, Sunset (which became) Kiss 102 (now Galaxy) and KFM which became Signal Cheshire (now Signal 1). There is also a community radio network coordinated by Radio Regen^[3], and with stations covering the South Manchester communities of Ardwick, Longsight and Levenshulme (ALL FM 96.9) and Wythenshawe (Wythenshawe FM 97.2).

It has several local radio stations including BBC GMR, Key 103, Galaxy, Piccadilly Magic 1152, 105.4 Century FM , 100.4 Smooth FM, Capital Gold 1458 and Xfm. Manchester has its own television channel, Channel M, owned by the Guardian Media Group and operated since 2000. The BBC intends to relocate large numbers of staff and facilities to Manchester from London, once a site has been selected. Programmes including A Question of Sport, Mastermind and Real Story are made there.

The BBC has its headquarters for Northern England in New Broadcasting House on Oxford Road in the south of the city. The city is the main UK television production centre outside London and is where programmes including Coronation Street and many Children’s ITV presentations are produced. ITV franchisee Granada Television has its original headquarters on Quay Street in the Castlefield area of the city. As well as many sporting venues Manchester has many venues for performances and conventions:.

In addition the Royal Northern College of Music (RNCM) has 4 theatre spaces especially noted for its opera and classical music productions. The city is also home to two highly-regarded drama schools; The Manchester Metropolitan University School of Theatre and the Arden School of Theatre. The Dancehouse is a theatre dedicated to dance productions. Smaller sites include the Green Room, which focuses on fringe productions and Contact Theatre, a theatre for young people with a bold contemporary design.

The Library Theatre is a small producing theatre situated in the basement of the city’s central library and the Lowry is a large touring venue in Salford. Larger venues include the Opera House, a commercial theatre promoting large scale touring shows which regularly plays host to touring West End shows, the Palace Theatre and the Royal Exchange Theatre, a large producing theatre located in Manchester’s former cotton exchange. Manchester is noted for its excellent theatres. Local poet and author Mike Duff has lived his entire life in the city; he is a passionate advocate of Manchester and it's people.

The Writer's Bureau - a private company set up to help new freelance writers through its home-study courses - also runs its offices from the city. Manchester is home to the Manchester Metropolitan University Writers School, one of the top creative writing schools in the country. Charles Dickens was known to visit the city, and Karl Marx and Friedrich Engels are known to have found much to inspire their thoughts and writing when visiting the city during the Industrial Revolution. Sebald lived in Manchester when he first came to England, and the city features prominently in his novel The Emigrants. Jeff Noon, the author of Vurt, writes novels which take place in Manchester.

G. W. Famous writers from the Manchester area include Elizabeth Gaskell and Anthony Burgess, the author of A Clockwork Orange. The many smaller venues throughout the city, such as the Bierkeller, the Roadhouse and Night and Day Cafe, ensure that Manchester’s music scene is always vibrant and interesting.

Other major venues include the Manchester Apollo and the Manchester Academy. Manchester’s main popular music venue is the Manchester Evening News Arena, situated next to Victoria rail station, which seats over 21,000 and is the largest arena of its type in Europe, going on to be voted International Arena of the Year, beating New York’s Madison Square Garden. Local groups have included the Bee Gees, The Hollies, 10cc, Buzzcocks, Magazine, Joy Division, New Order (both on local label Factory Records), The Smiths, The Fall, M People, Oasis, the Chameleons, Simply Red and the "Madchester" scene bands the Happy Mondays, The Inspiral Carpets, James, The Stone Roses. The city’s eclectic mix of music has created the sense among its inhabitants that Manchester is the most important city in world music.

For Mancunians, the popular musical heritage of the city has always been a source of great pride. In the 1950s the city was home to the so-called ‘Manchester School’ of classical composers, which comprised Harrison Birtwistle, Peter Maxwell Davies and Alexander Goehr. Manchester is a centre for musical education, being home to the Royal Northern College of Music and Chetham’s School of Music. Other venues for classical concerts include the RNCM, the Royal Exchange Theatre and Manchester Cathedral.

The hall is one of the country’s most technically advanced classical music and lecture venues, with an acoustically designed interior and suspended foundations for an optimum sound. Since 1996, however, Manchester has had a modern 2,500 seat concert venue called the Bridgewater Hall, which is also home to the Hallé Orchestra. For many years the city’s main classical venue was the Free Trade Hall on Peter Street. There is also a chamber orchestra, the Manchester Camerata.

Manchester is home to two symphony orchestras, the Hallé Orchestra and the BBC Philharmonic Orchestra. Museums in Manchester include:. There are many art galleries in Greater Manchester, notably:. Tony Wilson '24-hour Party People' Channel 4 Books, 2002, ISBN 075222025X.

Sean Bidder 'Pump Up the Volume: A History of House Music', MacMillan, 2002, ISBN 0752219863. Dave Haslam 'Adventures on the Wheels of Steel: The Rise of the Superstar DJs' Fourth Estate, 2002, ISBN 1841154334. Bill Brewster & Frank Broughton 'Last Night a DJ Saved My Life: The History of the Disc Jockey', Grove Press, 2000, ISBN 0802136885. Mick Middles 'From "Joy Division" to "New Order": The True Story of Anthony H.Wilson and Factory Records' Virgin Books, 2000, ISBN 0753506386.

Dave Haslam 'Madchester, England' Fourth Estate, 2000, ISBN 1841151467. Sean Bidder 'The Rough Guide to House Music', Rough Guides, 1999, ISBN 1858284325. Further Reading; Simon Reynolds 'Energy Flash: Journey Through Rave Music and Dance Culture' Picador, 1998, ISBN 0330350560. 'Danceteria'.

'Homoelectric'. 'Flesh'. 'Home'. 'Paradise Factory' & 'The Breakfast Club' at Manto's.

'Bowlers' - home of happy hardcore. 'The Number One' - first gay rave/house club. Other historical clubs and nights in Manchester include 'Naked under leather' – one of UK birthplaces of Electronic Music. The Hacienda was also at the setting of the 2002 movie 24 Hour Party People.

When Rob Gretton, members of New Order and Factory Records boss Tony Wilson opened Fac 51 The Hacienda on Whitworth Street in 1982 it quickly became the focus of electronic music and the start of house music, the Madchester sound and the Ibiza scene, which all came together in the Summer of Love in 1988. Many teenagers of the 1960's developed a love for Northern Soul, which had as two of its epicentres the Wigan Casino and Manchesters Twisted Wheel and is credited as being instrumental to the development of the Motown Sound. Tony Prince is credited as becoming the world's first full time club DJ in 1964 when Jimmy Savile who was then a Mecca manager in Manchester told him that Top Rank considered him to be the first person ever to be on their payroll as a pure DJ. The first place he used this device to play to the public in 1946 was a nightclub called The Ritz on Whitworth Street (which opened in 1927).

UK broadcaster Jimmy Savile is credited as being the first modern DJ by using twin turntables for continuous play after he obtained two domestic record decks welded together. Like any large city there has always been a thriving nightclub culture here but Manchester's place in the history of modern clubbing surpasses every other city in the UK with the possible exception of London. Some areas, like Hulme, have undergone extensive regeneration programmes and many million-pound lofthouse apartments have since been developed to cater for its growing business class community. Many old mills have been converted into apartments, helping to give the city a much more modern, upmarket look and feel.

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; a good example of this transformation would be the Arndale Centre. Since the regeneration after the 1996 PIRA attack and aided by the XVII Commonwealth Games Manchester's city centre has changed significantly. Rapidly developing institutions attract crime and disorder; see main article crime and policing in Manchester. Manchester has twice failed in its bid to host the Olympic Games, losing to Atlanta in 1996 and Sydney in 2000.

In 2002, the city successfully hosted the XVII Commonwealth Games, earning praise from many sources. A following regeneration took almost a decade to complete, with the last part of the Arndale centre renovated opening in the Autumn of 2005. The consequent reconstruction spurred a massive regeneration of the city centre, with complexes such as the Printworks and the Triangle creating new city focal points for both shopping and entertainment. Whilst this bomb caused over 200 injuries, it caused no deaths and the principal damage was to the physical infrastructure of nearby buildings.

At 11.20 am on Saturday 15 June 1996 the PIRA detonated a large bomb in the city centre. In 1974 Manchester was split from the county of Lancashire and the Metropolitan Borough of Manchester was created. In 1889, when county councils were created in England, the municipal borough became a county borough with even greater autonomy. City status for the borough was conferred in 1853.

In 1838 was incorporated as a municipal borough, soon after the Municipal Corporations Act 1835 allowed this. Trafford Park in Stretford was the world's first industrial estate and still exists today, however with a significant tourist and recreational presence. Manchester became the world's first industrial city and the model for industrial development throughout the western world. Its growth was also aided by its proximity to Liverpool's shipping ports and the emerging canal and rail networks (With the exception of Holland, Manchester had the first canal in Western Europe).

This is the largest Jewish community outside London by quite some way. The area, including Salford and Prestwich, today has a Jewish population of about 40,000. Large numbers of ( mostly Jewish) immigrants came to Manchester from central and eastern Europe. It is estimated that about 35% of the population of Manchester and Salford has at least some Irish ancestry.

The Irish influence continues to this day and, every March Manchester plays host to one of the world's largest St Patricks Day parades. Particularly large numbers came from Ireland, especially after the Potato Famine of the 1840's. Manchester’s population exploded as people moved from the surrounding countryside, and from other parts of the British Isles, into the city seeking new opportunities. Manchester was home to Avro (now BAE Systems) which built countless aircraft for the RAF, most famous being the Avro Lancaster bomber.

In the Second World War Manchester was involved in heavy industrial construction which cumulated in the bombing of the city by the Luftwaffe. The first Trades Union Congress was held in Manchester (at the Mechanics' Institute, David Street), from June 2nd to June 6th 1868. Manchester was a focus of the movement to reform the Corn Laws (the Anti Corn Law League (ACLL), set up in 1836 by Cobden and Bright) and later the Free Trade movement known as ‘The Manchester School’ or 'Manchesterism'. The so-called Peterloo massacre became a cause célèbre for the reformers of that era.

This resulted in a civil commotion and the deaths of eleven people with over four hundred injured, as local magistrates, fearful of a large crowd, ordered cavalry armed with sabres to clear the area. A famous meeting, held in furtherance of parliamentary reform, took place in St Peter’s Field on 16 August 1819. Throughout the nineteenth and twentieth centuries Manchester was an important seat of radical, reformist politics. The docks functioned up until the 1970s, with their closure leading to a large increase in unemployment in that area.

This enabled ocean going ships to sail right into the Port of Manchester Docks (technically in Salford). During the 18th century a deep canal (the Manchester Ship Canal) was dug, 36 miles long, from Salford to the River Mersey at the port of Liverpool. Manchester quickly grew into the most important industrial centre in the world, blotting Salford off the map to such an extent that nowadays tourists are unaware that by crossing a bridge they enter a different city. Quarry Bank Mill in Styal, Cheshire).

Its damp climate was ideal for cotton processing and with the development of steam-powered engines for spinning and weaving, the cotton industry quickly developed throughout the region (eg. Manchester remained a small market town, dwarfed by Salford until the Industrial Revolution, beginning in the 18th century. In the 14th century, Salford and Manchester became home to a community of Flemish weavers who settled in the town to produce wool and linen, beginning the tradition of cloth manufacture. The River Irwell is only 20 metres wide when it runs between the two cities.

Around the same period the town (now City) of Salford arose on the West bank. There is a facsimile of part of a Roman fort in Castlefield, in the city centre. The Roman general Agricola set up a fort at Mamucium on the East bank of the Irwell. The Manchester area was settled in or before Roman times.

The precipitation is light however, so a small volume of rain may take an hour to fall in Manchester, compared to several minutes of heavy rain experienced in Rome. In international terms, Manchester receives substantially less rain than New York City, which receives 1200 mm of rain in an average year and the average annual rainfall total is comparable with that of Rome. The average annual rainfall is 809 mm, meaning that this reputation is relatively undeserved.^[2] This total is less than Plymouth, Cardiff, Glasgow, and Edinburgh for example. Manchester has a damp climate and a reputation as a rainy city.

These are its climate, its proximity to a sea port at Liverpool, the availabilty of water power from its rivers, and nearby coal reserves. It has some geographic features which were influential in its early development as an industrial city. Much of the inner city, especially in the south, is flat, offering extensive views of the moors from the floors of many tall buildings. The River Mersey also flows through the south of the city.

The city centre is located on the East bank of the River Irwell, near the confluence of two other rivers, the River Medlock and the River Irk. Manchester is situated in a bowl-shaped land area, bordered to the north and east by the Pennine moors and to the south by the Cheshire Plain. . Many class Manchester as being the combined areas of Manchester, Trafford, Tameside, Salford and Stockport, with the other areas being towns in Lancashire or Cheshire.

People from Manchester are called Mancunians. The name 'Manchester' is often used to refer to the entire metropolis (which extends even outside Greater Manchester). Greater Manchester was created in 1974, mostly from Lancashire and Cheshire, and some people still consider Manchester to be part of Lancashire. ^[1].

The borough has a population of 437,000, whilst the urban area has a population of 2,237,000, and is situated in the metropolitan county of Greater Manchester which has a population of 2,539,000. Manchester is a metropolitan borough with city status. The place is named from the old British name Mamucium plus ceaster, derived from the old Latin 'Castra'. Manchester is a city in the North West of England, UK.

- Consulate General of Switzerland: 24th Floor, Sunley Tower, Piccadilly Plaza, Manchester M1. - Consulate General of Spain: 1a Brook House, 70 Spring Gardens, Manchester M2 2BQ. - Vice-consulate of Pakistan: 4th Floor Hilton House, 26/28 Hilton Street, Manchester M1. - The Royal Consulate of the Netherlands: 123 Deansgate, Manchester M3.

- Consulate of Monaco: Dene Manor, Dene Park, Manchester M20. - Consulate of Italy: Rodwell Tower, 111 Piccadilly, Manchester M1. - Trade Board of Ireland: 56 Oxford Street, Manchester M1. 0161 237 5255.

- Consulate General of Germany: Westminster House, 11 Portland Street, Manchester, M60 1HY, Tel. - Trade Commission of France: 24th Floor, Sunley Tower, Piccadilly Plaza, Manchester M1. - Trade Office of Denmark: 4th Floor, Arkwright House, Parsonage Gardens, Manchester M3. - Consulate General of The People's Republic of China: Denison House, Denison Road, Rusholme, Manchester M14.

0161 439 5999. - Consulate of Belgium : 76 Moss Lane Bramhall, Stockport, SK7 1EJ, Tel. - High Commission People's Republic of Bangladesh. - Australian Consulate: Chatsworth House, Lever Street, Manchester M1 2QL Tel: 0161 228 1344 Fax: 0161 236 4074.

Wuhan - China. St Petersburg - Russia. Rehovot - Israel. Faisalabad - Pakistan.

Cordoba - Spain. Chemnitz - Germany. Amsterdam - Netherlands. Trafford.

City of Salford. Wigan. Bolton. Bury.

Rochdale. Oldham. Tameside. Stockport.

City of Manchester. See also: The Salvation Army in Manchester. China Town, The Second Largest China Town in Europe. New Cathedral Street.

St Ann’s Square. St Peters Square. Market Street. Cathedral Gardens.

Spring Gardens. Great Northern Square. Portland Street. Exchange Square featuring a BBC Big Screen.

The Victoria Baths. Victoria Station. Trinity Bridge over River Irwell by Santiago Calatrava. Sunlight House.

Strangeways Prison by Waterhouse. South Manchester Synagogue. The Royal Exchange. The Portico Library.

Palace Hotel. Piccadilly Gardens by Tadao Ando. The Midland Hotel. Midland Bank building (now HSBC), King Street by Sir Edwin Lutyens.

Manchester Town Hall by Alfred Waterhouse, extended by E. Vincent Harris. Vincent Harris. Manchester Central Library, St Peter’s Square, by E. London Road Fire Station.

John Rylands Library, Deansgate. Beetham Tower, due for completion in 2006. Imperial War Museum North by Daniel Libeskind and Lowry Footbridge. The G-Mex Centre.

The Corn Exchange (now the Triangle shopping centre). The Bridgewater Hall, home of the Hallé Orchestra. Control 2006. 24 Hour Party People 2002.

The Parole Officer 2001. East is East 1999. Billy Liar 1963. MEN Arena.

Lowry. Bridgewater Hall. Manchester International Conference Centre. G-Mex.

Urbis, a museum of city life. People’s History Museum. Pankhurst Centre. Museum of Science and Industry.

Manchester Museum. Manchester Jewish Museum. Imperial War Museum North (Trafford Park). Greater Manchester Police Museum.

The Barn Gallery. Comme Ca Art Gallery. Cube Gallery. The Castlefield Gallery.

Cornerhouse. The Chinese Arts Centre. The Whitworth Art Gallery. Manchester Art Gallery.

Salford Museum and Art Gallery (Salford). The Athenaeum. Lowry. S.

The Lowry in Salford Quays (Salford), which houses works by the Salford painter L.