WITH the Commonwealth Games in Manchester just round the corner, this feature covers some interesting information about the city in north-west England that is hosting the event in July.
For instance, the city grew out of the town of Mancunian, a settlement which sprung up around a fort built by Roman General Agricola in the area now known as Castlefield, in the year 79. The remains of this ancient fort have undergone a recent reconstruction and are well worth visiting.
Here are some more fascinating facts:
1. This year Manchester has the chance to show the world what they missed out on when their two recent bids to host the Olympics were rejected in favour of Atlanta and Sydney. However, after the sun-drenched success of Sydney, the city may already be at a disadvantage climatically because it is said to be one of the wettest cities in the UK (an average 810 millimetres of rain each year). But on the bright side, the city is lit by sunshine for an average of 1,380 hours every year.
2. The city is the UK’s most popular tourist destination, after London and Edinburgh, with 3.5 million visitors spending 460 million pounds sterling there every year. The night-time economy in the city centre is valued at 100 million pounds, with more than 450 licensed bars and restaurants in the centre, 4O,000 weekend entertainment seekers and a thriving youth and student population.
3. The city continues to pioneer methods of rail travel and nowadays has a modern tram service, the Metrolink, which opened in 1992 and was the UK’s first on-street light rapid transport system.
4. More people are flying into the city. Manchester International Airport is now the UK’s largest airport outside London. It serves 96 airlines and 17 million passengers each year. A second runway was built in 2000 at a cost of 172 million pounds.
5. The city’s population as a whole is multicultural and predominantly young, with 65 percent of people aged under 45.
6. The Trafford Centre is the north-west’s biggest shopping mall. It cost 700 million pounds to build, was opened in 1998 and has 280 stores, a 20-screen cinema, a bowling ally, a games arcade and a large food court.
7. Manchester is also home to the world’s biggest Marks & Spencer store, after the company built new premises in 1996 costing 85 million pounds.
8. It’s no shock that shopping seems to be one of the Mancunians favourite pastimes. A recent retail survey put them among the highest Christmas spenders in England.
9. The city certainly enjoys a good night out. There are at least 47 nightclubs.
10. If dining out is more the order of the day, then the place to go is Rusholme. As many as 10,000 people are served in the suburb’s Curry Mile each week. There are more than 50 Indian restaurants in Rusholme as well as French, Italian, Thai and Japanese offerings.
11. The city’s Chinatown area is the largest in the UK. It grew in the 1970s after many cotton warehouses were redeveloped following the industry’s fall into decline.
12. Manchester has grown into a city with a population of 46O,00O, covering an area of 116 square kilometres (45 square miles) and merges into neighbouring towns such as Salford and Stockport.
13. It continues to expand and claims to have the fastest-growing city centre in the UK. It is estimated that 2O,000 people will live there by 2005.
14. Slightly more serious gatherings also take place in Manchester, with 65 venues within an easy radius of the city centre hosting a conference or convention in 2001. These venues range from small hotels to big arenas such as the G-Mex Centre and Manchester International Convention Centre (MICC) which are hosting Commonwealth Games events.
15. It was one of the first cities in Europe to introduce public lending libraries and is home to three historic establishments.
16. The city is the regional theatre capital of the UK, with no fewer than 13 such auditoriums situated across its metropolis. The most notable are the Royal Exchange, the Palace Theatre, the Opera House, the Lowry and Manchester Library Theatre.
17. The Lowry is the area’s newest attraction. The impressive new complex on Salford Quays contains two theatres, an interactive gallery and the world’s largest collection of paintings by the local-born artist after whom it is named: L S Lowry.
18. Manchester grew to prominence during the industrial revolution of the 1800s because of its tradition of textile manufacture, especially cotton cloth. The development of canals, coupled with the region’s plentiful coalfields, saw the city go on to play a role of immense industrial importance.
19. With the build up of industry came canals and the waterways network in and around the city totals 95 kilometres in distance.
20. The city’s foremost waterway, the Manchester Ship Canal, opened in 1894. This impressive feat of engineering and excavation allowed ocean-going vessels to enter the city from the Irish Sea for the first time, removing dependence on Liverpool as the nearest major port. It is 57km long.
21. Manchester was also connected to Liverpool by the world’s first passenger railway which opened on 15 September 1830.
22. Not surprisingly, the common raincoat does indeed come from Manchester. Methods of waterproofing fabric were first patented by Charles Macintosh in 1823 before he went on to set up business in the city and gave his name to the “mac”.
23. There are four universities in the city; the University of Manchester, University of Manchester Institute of Science and Technology, Manchester Metropolitan University and the nearby University of Salford. The four account for 6O,000 students.
24. The city is also the home of the world’s first large steerable telescope which is operated by the University of Manchester at Jodrell Bank and came into operation in 1957. The dish of the Lovell Telescope is about 76 metres in diameter and 92 metres high. Jodrell Bank is now formally known as the Nuffield Radio Astronomy Laboratories.
25. The first computer capable of storing programs was also developed at Manchester University by Frederick Williams in 1948. The Manchester Mark 1 followed a year later becoming, under its new guise as the Ferranti Mark 1, the world’s first commercially available computer. — Dawn\LPS Service
