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World changing history happened here and because Manchester has so many
sites and attractions we'll be "experiencing" the city thematically and,
as always, with an emphasis on its history. The city is comprised of
nine distinct neighborhoods and
ten districts and we will be visiting several of the districts.
Manchester City Centre, where the vast majority of the sites I'll talk
about in part one are, are all within walking distance of each other.
Should you not care to walk there is free bus transportation throughout
the heart of the city. www.marketingmanchester.com
Visitors should take special note of the black, blue and red plaques
that are located around the city. Black Plaques designate buildings that
are architecturally or historically significant. Blue Plaques are
attached to the home or workplace of individuals who made an important
contribution to the sciences, arts, business or technology. Honorees
must have been born prior to 1911 and have died prior to 1991. Events
that affected the social history of the city are commemorated with Red
Plaques. A list is available at
www.manchester.gov.uk
Sometime between 40 and 93 AD 480 Roman legionnaires, led by General
Julius Agricloa, erected a wooden fort on a breast-shaped hill on the
road from Deva to Eboracum, Chester and York. The Romans called the
5-acre fortress, built to protect them from the indigenous Celts and
Brigantes, "Mamuciam" after its shape. It was the first to be protected
by a moat. About 200 AD a stone fort replaced the wooden one and was
soon surrounded by a market colony that supplied the soldiers. In 407 AD
the Romans abandoned the fort and it was not until 300-years later that
the Saxons settled in the area and called their village Mameceaster. The
spelling was later changed to Manchester.
An archeological dig has revealed remains of the original fort on
Bridgewater St. A reconstruction of the fort's North Gate and the
foundations of three structures outside of the walls are on the site and
s series of panels interpret the history of the site.
The
Manchester Cathedral, Victoria St., is one of the most storied
structures in the city. A church has existed in the location since 623.
The current Gothic building dates from 1420 and was dedicated by Henry V
to Saints Denys, George and Mary and served a 60-sq. mile parish. In
1506 the church was deemed a cathedral.
In the mid-1500s Edward VI sought to complete Henry VIII's work and
convert the Mancunians to the Anglican Church. People refused to
cooperate and John Bradford was sent to convert them. Legend has it that
while watching one who refused to convert being drug off to execution he
is said to have uttered," There but for the grace of God go I." He would
go on to martyrdom when he was burned at the stake in 1555 for his
Anglican conversions when Mary I gained the throne.
Highlights of tours include medieval woodcarvings, handcrafted choir
stalls and misericords and
Margaret Traherne's
stained glass Fire Window located where the cathedral took a direct
bombing hit during the 1940 Manchester Blitz. The Saxon "Angel Stone," a
carving from the first church, is on view under glass. The choir
presents a daily program that is awe-inspiring. The tour and concert are
free.
www.manchestercathedral.org
One of the grandest civic buildings in the city centre is the neo-Gothic
Town Hall designed by Alfred Waterhouse and constructed in 1887. The
286-ft edifice is situated on Albert Square in view of a monument
dedicated to the prince. The walls of the Great Hall feature
pre-Raphaelite murals on the history of the city and of particular note
are the mosaics on the 2nd-floor adorned with bees, the
city's symbol reflecting its fame as a "hive of activity."
The sandstone neo-Gothic John Rylands University Library, 150 Deansgate,
is one of the most beautiful libraries in the world. The building is
stunning and the collection nonpareil. Enriqueta Rylands commissioned
the library in 1899 as a memorial to her husband. Originally it was to
be a lending library but as Enriqueta purchased outstanding private
collections it changed to become a research library filled with rare
books and manuscripts. It opened in 1900 and was the first building to
be completely illuminated by self-generated electric lighting.
The collection includes a 1476 edition of
Canterbury Tales, an original
Gutenberg Bible and Biblical texts in more than 400 languages. The star
of the collection is a fragment of the St. John's Testament, the
earliest New Testament fragment in existence.
The main entrance is a new construction that houses a cafe and shop and
provides access to the six levels of the library. The Introductory
Gallery features exhibitions and relates the history of the library. The
Historic Reading Room is an enormous space with stained glass windows,
ornate fixtures and statues of John and Enriqueta Rylands at either end.
It is located on the 3rd-level, a choice made so that readers
could avoid 20th-century street noises. Entrance is free.
www.library.manchester.ac.uk
Imperial War Museum North (IWM),
designed by Daniel Libeskind in his signature defragmentation-style,
opened in 2002. The stainless steel clad structure was designed to bring
to mind a globe shorn into three shards by war on land, water and in the
air. The museum is located
inside the earth shard. Exhibits are chronological from 1900 to the
present and creatively employ showcases, freestanding artifacts and
state-of-the-art technology. Individual war themes are presented in
galleries called silos. Visits should begin with "The Big Picture," a
15-minute sound and light presentation, using sixty projectors on
twenty, 360-degree, 50-ft. high screens. There are approximately 150,000
artifacts and at Time Stack kiosks visitors are allowed to handle some
of them.
www.iwm.org.uk
The IWM is situated on the banks of the
Manchester Ship Canal
at
Salford Quays
directly across from the Lowery Centre. The Lowery, a multi-use arts
complex is accessed by another
Libeskind creation, the Lowery Footbridge.
The Lowery is home to two theaters, exhibition space, a studio, a bar,
cafe and two galleries of the paintings of L. S. Lowery, the community
artist after whom the building was named. It is the size of 5.5 football
fields and incorporates more than 25,000-sq. ft. of glass. This
award-winning structure is a must visit.
www.thelowery.com
No visit to Manchester is complete without checking out its
internationally famous nightlife. This is the home of the Manchester
Sound, Northern Soul, and
a host of cutting edge rockers. You might see anyone on Jersey St. at
the internationally renowned Sankeys where everyone notable drops by to
be a guest DJ. Swan Street's Band on the Wall, because the stage is
literally on the wall, has been a world famous jazz venue since the
1930s.
The
Printworks, once the Withy Grove Printing House, was built in 1873 and
functioned for more than 100-years. In 2000 it was restyled as an
entertainment complex featuring 15 restaurants, a cinema, gym and 4
super clubs. One of its anchors is the UK's largest Hard Rock Cafe. The
gems in this Hard Rock's memorabilia collection are handwritten Beatle's
letters, Little Richard's cape and Hendrix's guitar. Live performances
make this one of the hottest places in the city and the wait can be as
long as three hours.
www.theprintworks.com
Manchester's main shopping district was the scene of an IRA bombing on
June 15, 1996.
There were
no deaths but more than 200 were injured. Almost immediately Manchester
spent more than $1-billion on rebuilding Exchange Square and it is now
one of the trendiest shopping areas in the country. Visitors can make
purchases in designer boutiques, specialty stores and the largest Marks
and Spencer in the world as well as dine in two medieval pubs that were
relocated brick by brick. The pubs, Old Wellington and Sinclair's Oyster
Bar, are the oldest structures in the city This district is a shopper's
paradise.
www.citylife.co.uk
Ironically the bomb was placed inside a mailbox that blew up but
remained unscathed. It is on its original site and a small plaque has
been attached.
Manchester offers 30 different types of cuisine but it is most notable
for its more than 50 Asian restaurants along what is known as the Curry
Mile.
If you are in search of great gourmet dining in a historic setting
"Room," 91 King St., is a best bet. The food is outstanding and you dine
in what was once a private gentleman's club. Winston Churchill gave a
speech from the balcony and more recently it has been the in place for
in people to relax.
www.roomrestaurants.com
The earliest documentary proof of sub-Saharan Africans in Britain is of
their presence in the early 2nd-century AD in a military
colony in Carlisle. Less than 50 years later, 253-58, a North African
division of Roman legionnaires was sent to England with the express
purpose of guarding Hadrian's Wall and seven centuries later there is
evidence of Moroccan prisoners being transported to Ireland by the
Vikings. The oldest, authenticated, physical record of the presence of
blacks is that of a young girl's skeleton dating from 1000 AD found
150-miles from Manchester in Norfolk.
John Hawkins led England's first slave voyage in 1562. He captured and
traded for 300 backs in Sierra Leone. By the time Britain declared the
trade illegal at least 10-million Africans were transported across the
Atlantic Ocean with a low estimate of 2-million failing to survive the
voyage. More than 1.5-million enslaved were carried to North America's
British islands but census figures reveal that the total black
population was only 600,000 by 1807.
The United Kingdom (UK) interprets the story of its role in the slave
trade in ways that the US does not. They have taken a holistic look at
slave trafficking in the 18th and 19th centuries
and, even more impressively, at the economic implications and benefits
for institutions, individuals and the country as a whole. While
Liverpool was the epicenter of the trade in slaves, Manchester, known as
"Cottonopolis," was the industrial ground zero for the profits of
the cotton industry.
Manchester's story is remarkable and is not only the story of the
"detestable trade," but also, true to
Mancunians
natural radicalism, a tale of the birth of British abolitionism.
Manchester is indeed magical and as you walk its streets many of the
relevant sites remain intact and evoke a sense of the era when cotton
was king and drove the world's economy.
Oddly enough the best orientation for this tour is a quick trip to
Liverpool's International Slavery Museum (ISM) located along the Albert
Docks. The 8-acre dock area on the Mersey River inlet was opened in 1846
with more than 1-million feet of floor space in five warehouses.
The ISM, located on the upper levels of the Maritime Museum, presents an
outstanding historical overview of the international slave trade from
its inception to modern slavery through state-of-the-art exhibits,
innovative presentations, videos, artifacts, interactive stations and
dioramas. There are three thematic galleries, "Life
in West Africa",
"Enslavement
and the Middle Passage"
and the "Legacies of Slavery".
The initial exhibits are displays of African artifacts that lead to a
reconstruction of an Igbo family compound. Information in this area
relates to the fact that Africa's archeological record is the oldest in
the world with stone tools dating from 2.6-million years ago.
Highlights of the museum include gold artifacts from ancient
kingdoms, a harrowing 360-degree theater experience that puts you in the
hold of a slave ship, an interpretation of slave rebellions beginning
with the first one in 1522 and a Klan outfit from 20th-century
New York.
The view from a
window on the tour route directs your attention to George's Dock where
slave ships were unloaded, the European answer to Africa's Goree Island.
www.liverpoolmuseums.org.uk/ism
Manchester seems always to have been involved with the textile industry,
first wool, but by the 17th-century also silk and cotton.
Early mills needed fast-flowing water to turn waterwheels to power the
machines. In 1781 the first steam-powered cotton mill was built by
Richard Arkwright in Manchester. It was the first factory of its type
and served as a prototype for other mills heralding the Industrial
Revolution. The mechanization of the textile mills allowed mills to move
away from water sources and into the cities and increased production by
functioning 23 hours a day.
Manchester's economy thrived on the mills and their connection to the
African slave trade. In the beginning the raw cotton came from
plantations in the West Indies, as demand grew cotton was obtained from
the American South. The cotton was brokered in Manchester and sold to
mills. Manchester's mills wove it into fabric and goods that were traded
in Africa for slaves as well as coarse
annabasses, the loincloths worn by the captured. It is estimated that
the city earned the equivalent of $50-million in modern currency.
The Museum of Science & Industry (MOSI)
on Liverpool Road is situated inside and around the world's oldest
commercial railway station. The complex consists of 15 galleries
including the Making of Manchester, a model of "The Baby," the 1st
computer with a memory and storage and a working textile mill. A
highlight of the tour is an interactive walk-thru trail that explains
how cotton was traded and its affect on the slave trade. This is a must.
It is free and has access for the disabled.
www.mosi.org.uk
Situated on St. Ann's Square are two important slave trade landmarks,
the Cotton Bud Fountain and the Royal Exchange. The fountain, a giant
cotton boll, was erected to memorialize Manchester's dependence on the
cotton trade.
The Royal Exchange was the site of cotton trading in the 18th
and 19th centuries. The first Exchange opened in 1729. There
was need for a larger building erected in 1809, expanded in 1849 and
after Queen Victoria's 1851 visit it became the "Royal" Exchange. During
WWII the building was bombed but did not cease operation until 1968. In
1973 the Royal Exchange Theater opened as the largest theater in the
round in the world. This futuristic stage is suspended from the ceiling.
Once the largest commercial building in the world, this glass and steel
roofed structure is worth a visit.
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Manchester played a role in the early abolitionist movement when Thomas
Clarkson spoke there in 1787 after being physically attacked in
Liverpool. His speech was delivered in the cathedral, the largest
meeting space in the city at the time. As a result of his speech 20% of
the people signed a petition in support of abolition. The city continued
its support through boycotts, meetings, petitions and lectures. Henry
"Box" Brown arrived to lecture and made his home in Manchester.o:p>
When the Civil War started and the South wanted England's support the
mill workers of Manchester wrote a letter to Lincoln expressing their
support for the Union cause. He responded, thanking them for their
refusal to process American cotton. To commemorate this event a bronze
statue of Abraham Lincoln, inscribed with the words of the letter,
stands in Lincoln Square. Directly behind him is what was the Calico
Warehouse complete with original glass roof. More than 85% of the
world's finished cotton was stored there.
In the 1850s Manchester was the
largest textile city in the world and
a walk along Whitworth Street is a step back in time. These
architecturally unique multi-story buildings functioned as warehouses,
offices and inspection stations. The street has been designated a
conservation area.
The
People's History Museum is committed to interpreting the history of
Britain's working class. It is located inside the only surviving
Edwardian Pump House. Reopened in 2001, the museum artfully presents an
overview of the revolutionary and reform history of Manchester.
Information is discover through opening doors and drawers and peering at
artifacts. A gallery is dedicated to the abolitionist movement and
allows you to meet" those dedicated to the cause.
www.phm.org.uk
Our last three stops are in districts outside of the City Centre. All
three are easily accessible, unique and very much worth the effort.
Samuel Greg's 1783 Quarry Bank Mill & Styal Estate is located in Styal.
Greg was also the owner of a Dominican sugar plantation and
slaves' clothing was manufactured in his mill. Tours of the 6 major
sites include the original 32-ft. high waterwheel, the worker's village,
the 1790 Apprentice House and Garden and the functioning mill. An
authentically clad docent guides you through the life of a child worker
on Apprentice House tours. Contracted children older than seven were
fed, clothed and made to work 6 days a week from 6 AM to 8 PM. They
slept in a dorm, 2 to a bed, with fresh sheets once a month and new
straw once a year. Quarry Bank was considered a model mill because Greg
was so humane.
www.nationaltrust.org.uk
A must visit is the original
Stockport Air Raid Shelters. Work started on these shelters in September
1938 and a portion opened in October 1939. The tunnels are 7-ft. high,
7-ft. wide, 40-ft. underground and nearly 1-mile long. A designated
route takes you into the hospital, canteen, first aid station, toilets
and the detention area. Interesting things you see along the way are a
baby's gas mask and the bunk bed area. By war's end the tunnels could
accommodate up to 6,000 people. This is a totally unique experience and
one I highly recommend. www.airraidshelters.org.uk
Nearby the air raid shelter is the Stockport Hatworks, a working hat
factory and the world's only museum dedicated to the industry.
For more than 200-years Stockport was the center of the hatmaking
industry. Tours begin with a 10-minute orientation film and proceed to a
series of dioramas that depict it as a cottage industry. The third area
is the workroom floor where hats are still made by hand. For years
hatmaking was hazardous because workers breathed in fibers and were
prone to tremors and depression because of exposure to the mercury salts
rubbed into the fabrics, hence, "the Mad Hatter."
The cowboy hat Americans believe
was first created by John Stetson was not. He was sued by Christie's hat
shop that proved they made it first and they won the suit. The Stockport
Hatworks makes hats for many western movies and made cowboy hats for
John Wayne. They have a shop on site.
www.hatworks.org.uk
MManchester, England is not just a perfect destination but it is also an
ideal base for exploring the Lake District and Liverpool. What are
you waiting for?
www.visitmanchester.com
and
www.visitbritain.org
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