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TheCulture of Manchester is notable artistically,[1] architecturally,[2][3] theatrically and musically.[4] Despite being the 5thlargest city in the United Kingdom by population and the second largest conurbation,Manchester has been ranked as thesecond city of the United Kingdom in numerous polls since the 2000s (decade),[5][6] with an influential culture scene helping to elevate Manchester's importance in the national psyche.[7] This has helped the city's population grow by 20% in the last decade, and made the universities the most popular choices for undergraduate admission.
20th century broadcaster and social commentatorBrian Redhead once said "Manchester ... is the capital, in every sense, of theNorth of England, where the modern world was born. The people know their geography is without equal. Their history is their response to it".[8] WhilstIan Brown ofthe Stone Roses has previously said that "Manchester has everything except a beach".[9]
Often cited as the world's first industrialised city,[10][11] with little pre-factory history to speak of, Manchester is the third most visited city in theUnited Kingdom afterLondon andEdinburgh and is a major centre of thecreative industries.
TheArt Treasures of Great Britain was an exhibition offine art held in Manchester from 5 May to 17 October 1857.[12] It remains the largest art exhibition to be held in the UK,[13] possibly in the world,[14] with over 16,000 works on display. It attracted over 1.3 million visitors in the 142 days it was open, about four times the population of Manchester at that time, with many visiting on organised railway excursions. Its selection and display of artworks had a formative influence on the public art collections which were being established in the UK at the time, such as theNational Gallery, theNational Portrait Gallery and theVictoria and Albert Museum.[15]
There are severalart galleries in Manchester, notably:
The municipally ownedManchester Art Gallery on Mosley Street houses extensive displays of paintings by Italian and Flemish masters, as well as a notable collection ofPre-Raphaelite paintings,[16][17] including works byFord Madox Brown,Holman Hunt andRossetti. A major Pre-Raphaelite work,The Manchester Murals, is a series of twelve paintings on thehistory of Manchester by Ford Madox Brown which were commissioned for the Great Hall ofManchester Town Hall in 1879. The Great Hall is open to the public, except during private functions.
Manchester's importance in the textile industry is reflected in the collections in theWhitworth Art Gallery, which also displays modern art and sculpture, including works byEpstein,Hepworth,van Gogh andPicasso.[18]
Other exhibition spaces and museums in Manchester include the Smolensky Gallery, and the Manchester Costume Gallery atPlatt Fields Park.[19] The gallery atFletcher Moss Botanical Garden in Didsbury has now closed.[20]
Home was opened in 2015 as a merger of the exhibitions and cinemas inCornerhouse, and theLibrary Theatre Company. It hosts exhibitions of both local and international art, including the biennial Manchester Open Exhibition.
The works ofStretford-born painterL. S. Lowry, known for his "matchstick" paintings of industrial Manchester and Salford, can be seen in both the Manchester Art Gallery and the Whitworth Art Gallery, andthe Lowry art centre inSalford Quays (in the neighbouring borough of Salford) devotes a large permanent exhibition to his works.[21] The French Impressionist painterAdolphe Valette spent a period of his life in Manchester and painted local scenes.[22][23] The Irish sculptorJohn Cassidy worked in Manchester for most of his life and produced many fine works of sculpture. TheTurner Prize-winning artistChris Ofili hails from Manchester.
The architecture of Manchester demonstrates a wide variety of architectural styles, from early 19th century Neoclassical andVictorian through to the most modern. Much of the architecture in the city harks back to its former days as a global centre for thecotton trade. Many warehouses have now been converted for other uses but the external appearance remains mostly unchanged so the city keeps much of its original character. An interesting facet of the architecture of Manchester and several other cities which underwent a construction boom during theIndustrial Revolution is that inspiration was taken fromVenice. Examples of this architecture can be easily found to the south and east ofAlbert Square and near the 92nd lock of theBridgewater Canal, near the Beetham Tower.
Manchester also has a number ofskyscrapers. Most were built during the 1960s and 1970s. However, in the 21st century, there has been a renewed interest in buildingskyscrapers in Manchester. Numerous residential and office blocks are being built or have recently been built in the city centre. TheBeetham Tower was completed in the autumn of 2006 and houses a Hilton hotel along with a restaurant and residential properties. It was the tallest building in the UK outside London until November 2018, when it was surpassed by theSouth Tower at Deansgate Square, which is 201 m (659 ft) tall.[24][25]
Museums in Manchester include:
Manchester Museum opened to the public in 1888, has notable collections in archaeology, particularlyEgyptology, and innatural history, particularly in botany, entomology and palaeontology.[26]
In theCastlefield district, a reconstructed part of the Roman fort of Mamucium is open to the public in Castlefield. Manchester's rich industrial heritage is celebrated in theScience and Industry Museum, also in Castlefield. This large collection ofsteam locomotives, working machines from theIndustrial Revolution,aircraft andspace vehicles is appropriately housed in the formerLiverpool Road railway station, the terminus of theworld's first passenger railway.[27] Transport heritage in Manchester is also presented in theMuseum of Transport inCheetham Hill.[28] Salford Quays, a short distance from the city centre in the adjoining borough of Trafford, is home toImperial War Museum North.[29]
Other museums in Manchester reflect the history of the city's people; thePeople's History Museum presents the history of the work and politics in the city, commemorating thePeterloo Massacre, and Manchester's strong association with theTrade union movement,Women's suffrage andfootball.
Manchester, being situated in theNorth West England is also a hugely popular footballing city[30] and its football past is remembered at the home stadiums of the cities'Premier League clubs,Manchester City andManchester United. Both have museums at theCity of Manchester Stadium[31] andOld Trafford football stadium.
Furthermore, theNational Football Museum is moving toUrbis[32] in Manchester city centre and will become its new permanent home. The move to Manchester is aimed at maximising the museum's visitor rates - it is predicted the move will boost visitor rate fourhold to 400,000 rather the 100,000 annual visitors at its previous home inPreston.[33] The new National Football Museum is due to open in late 2011.[34]
In Cheetham Hill, theManchester Jewish Museum tells the story of the Jewish community in Manchester from the Industrial Revolution to the present day.[35]
In Elizabethan times the Court Leet of the manor of Manchester appointed town waits to undertake certain duties, one of which was of "playing morning and evening together, according as others have been heretofore accustomed to do". In 1603 they welcomed into their company a more skilful musician and it was then ordered that "the said waits shall hereafter be received to play music at all and every wedding and dinners in this town".[36]
In 1918 the Education Committee appointed a Music Adviser to the schools of the city who encouraged the formation of school choirs and orchestras and the teaching of musical appreciation and the playing of instruments.[37]
According to C.H. Herford (writing in 1915): "Music has been said to divide with Mammon the devotion of the people of Manchester. Possibly this sets their musical enthusiasm too high; but music has some chance of being that one of the fine arts to which her climate is least unkind."[38]
Manchester has twosymphony orchestras, theHallé and theBBC Philharmonic. There is also achamber orchestra, the Manchester Camerata, and theGorton Philharmonic Orchestra, an amateur orchestra founded in 1854.[39] In the 1950s, the city was home to the so-called 'Manchester School' of classical composers, which comprisedHarrison Birtwistle,Peter Maxwell Davies, David Ellis andAlexander Goehr. Manchester is a centre for musical education, with theRoyal Northern College of Music andChetham's School of Music.[40] Forerunners of the RNCM were theNorthern School of Music (founded 1920) and theRoyal Manchester College of Music (founded 1893). The Gentlemen's Concerts were begun in the year 1765 by a group of amateurs who ten years later built their own Concert Rooms on Fountain Street with space for an audience of 900.[41] The name of Concert Lane is derived from this building. A later venue for these concerts was in Lower Mosley Street (on the site of the presentMidland Hotel).[42]
From the 1820s, the large and responsive public of the town began to attract famous singers and instrumentalists.Franz Liszt visited Manchester in 1824 (aged 13) and again in 1840. His performances were highly praised in theManchester Guardian.[43] In 1828 and 1836 the Manchester Festivals were well covered by theManchester Guardian whose writers found much of the performances which included a Beethoven symphony to be of a fine quality, though they were had mixed opinions of the singing of Mr Braham.[44]Maria Malibran, the great French singer, appeared at the festival of 1836 having been injured in a fall from her horse in July which led to her death on 23 September. Though buried in theCollegiate Church she was afterwards exhumed and reburied atBrussels. A medallion of her was sculpted byWilliam Bally which was presented to theHenry Watson Music Library.Felix Mendelssohn conducted a performance of his oratorioElijah in theFree Trade Hall, Manchester, in 1847.[45] In 1848Frédéric Chopin, already suffering from serious illness, came to play in a Manchester concert and the Guardian writer noted his extraordinary subtleties of tone and feeling.[44]
Nymphs and Shepherds
Nymphs and shepherds, come away.
In ye groves let's sport and play,
For this is Flora's holiday,
Sacred to ease and happy love,
To dancing, to music and to poetry;
Your flocks may now securely rove
Whilst you express your jollity.
Nymphs and shepherds, come away.[46]
Both theRing and theMeistersinger by Richard Wagner were performed in Manchester in the autumn of 1913. Musical ensembles active in the early 20th century included the Gentlemen's Glee Club, the Manchester Vocal Society and the Brodsky Quartette.[47] In 1929 the 250-strong Manchester Children's Choir recordedHenry Purcell's "Nymphs and Shepherds" and the Evening Benediction fromHansel and Gretel with theHallé Orchestra at the Free Trade Hall. Therecording was made on 24 June 1929 forColumbia Records and followed a year of rehearsals by the 60 boys and 190 girls who took part. Musical training for the choir had begun when SirHamilton Harty, the conductor of the Hallé Orchestra, was engaged by the Education Committee to contribute to musical education in schools. The recordings were an unexpected success and the discs (with Nymphs on the A-side and the Benediction on the B-side) sold over a million copies.
In 1989 EMI awarded it a Gold Disc and after BBC Radio 4 played the recording in December 1989, it was re-released as part of the compilation recordHello Children Everywhere. The choir was disbanded after the recording but members were reunited in 1979 and the golden jubilee of the choir's formation was celebrated at a civic reception at the town hall.[48]
For many years the city's main classical venue was theFree Trade Hall on Peter Street. Since 1996, however, Manchester has had a modern 2,500 seat concert venue called theBridgewater Hall in Lower Mosley Street, which is also home to the Hallé Orchestra.[49] The hall is one of the country's most technically advanced[citation needed] classical music and lecture venues, with an acoustically designed interior and suspended foundations for an optimum sound. Other venues for classical concerts include theRNCM, theRoyal Exchange Theatre andManchester Cathedral.
Brass band music, a tradition in the North of England, is an important part of Manchester's musical heritage;[50] some of the UK's leading bands, such as theCWS (Manchester) Band[51] and theFairey Band ofHeaton Chapel, are from Manchester and surrounding areas, and theWhit Friday brass band contest takes place annually in the neighbouring areas ofSaddleworth andTameside.
Manchester had a significant pop music scene in the 1960s and early 1970s, with bands such asThe Hollies,The Bee Gees,Herman's Hermits, and10cc preceding[52] the renowned Sex Pistols' performance at the Lesser Free Trade Hall in 1976 which led directly[53] to the formation of a wave of important bands whose acclaim spread internationally. These include artists like theBuzzcocks,[54]the Smiths andthe Fall, as well as one of the most significant independent labels of the time,Tony Wilson'sFactory Records,[55][56] home to many major groups originating locally includingJoy Division andNew Order.
The "Madchester" music scene brought much media attention to the city from the late 1980s to the beginning of the 1990s. Bands such asthe Stone Roses,Happy Mondays,the Charlatans, theInspiral Carpets andJames mixedalternative rock,psychedelic rock anddance music to create a sound which led to commercial success in the indie rock field and a wider musical influence nationally. The '90s brought forth Manchester's popular band,Oasis.
The Chemical Brothers (fromSouthern England) formed in Manchester.[57] Also, ex-Stone Roses frontmanIan Brown has forged a successful solo career, as has ex-Smiths' leadmanMorrissey. Among the others born in the Manchester area areRichard Ashcroft, front man of alternative rock groupthe Verve, andJay Kay, the singer and mastermind of the acid jazz bandJamiroquai.
In 1965, on theU.S.Billboard Hot 100, a unique hat-trick of consecutivenumber 1s took place in the spring, all from Mancunian pop groups.Freddie and the Dreamers spent two weeks at the top with "I'm Telling You Now" (April 10–24),Wayne Fontana and the Mindbenders one week with "Game of Love" (24 April-1 May), and finallyHerman's Hermits with "Mrs Brown, You've Got a Lovely Daughter", a further three weeks (1–22 May), a total of six weeks, an achievement never matched even in the UKTop 50.
Manchester's main pop music venue is theManchester Arena, situated next toManchester Victoria railway station. It seats over 21,000 and is the largest indoor arena inEurope.[58] In 2001, the arena was votedInternational Arena of the Year.[58] Other major venues include theManchester Apollo and theManchester Academy. Smaller venues are theBand on the Wall, the Bierkeller, the Roadhouse,[59] the Night and Day Café[60] the Ruby Lounge[61] and the Deaf Institute.[62]
The famous American anti-war hippiemusical from the late 1960s,Hair, includes a song entitled "Manchester, England" though the mention of the city in the song's title is somewhat irrelevant and merely used as punctuation in the song's lyrics.
Méric Casaubon published some of the papers left by DrJohn Dee, for a time Warden of the Collegite Church, in 1659, together with a long introduction critical of their author, asA True & Faithful Relation of What passed for many Yeers between Dr. John Dee (A Mathematician of Great Fame in Q. Eliz. and King James their Reignes) and some spirits.[63] As the first public revelation of Dee's spiritual conferences, the book was extremely popular and sold quickly. Dee's Diary was published in 1842 by the Chetham Society.
An account of Manchester written by a native of the town, Richard Hollingworth (1607–56), and entitledMancuniensis: or, A history of the towne of Manchester, and what is most memorable concerning it was edited and published by William Willis in 1839.
The poetJohn Byrom was born in the town in 1691. His writings are mainly in Latin but he is chiefly remembered for his Christmas hymn "Christians, Awake".[64] He is also the author of a diary and of an idyll "Colin and Phoebe".[65]
In 1719 the first newspaper published in Manchester, theManchester Weekly Journal, began publication and in the same year the first book to be published there was a volume of mathematical lectures by John Jackson.[66]
TheManchester Literary and Philosophical Society was founded as alearned society in Manchester in 1781.[67] Its activities have been much more significant in the sciences than in the arts, including literature. Its members have includedPeter Mark Roget (author of the thesaurus),Ernest Rutherford andJoseph Whitworth.[68] The first formal meeting of the society took place on 14 March 1781.
James Thyer, librarian ofChetham's Library, edited theRemains ofSamuel Butler, the author ofHudibras which had until Thyer published them in 1759 been unpublished. James Ogden was the author of two epic poems:The British Lion Rouz'd (1762) andThe Revolution: an Epic Poem in Twelve Books (1790). Richard Wroe, Warden of the Collegiate Church, who was nicknamed "Silver-tongued Wroe" because of his fine preaching published in 1782 a treatise onThe Beauty of Unity. Another local clergyman, Thomas Seddon, had published in 1779 a set of lampoons entitledCharacteristic Strictures upon a Series of (Imaginary) Portraits.".[69]
Samuel Bamford, born at Middleton in 1788, was a weaver and poet and also active in radical politics in the Manchester district. He is also notable for his autobiography,Passages in the Life of a Radical. The writerThomas De Quincey was born at Manchester and in early life moved toGreenheys. He attendedManchester Grammar School and is best known for hisConfessions of an English Opium Eater.William Harrison Ainsworth (born in 1805) also went to Manchester Grammar School. He wrote many historical novels some of which relate to the history ofLancashire, includingThe Manchester Rebels which tells the story of six soldiers from the grammar school who fought in the Jacobite cause in 1745.[64]
Three members of the Wilson family of Manchester in the early 19th century gained a considerable reputation as poets. Between 1842 and 1866 four editions of their poetical works were published (asThe Songs of the Wilsons). Michael Wilson (1763–1840) was a printer and furniture broker who favoured "Jacobinism" in politics. Among his seven sons were Thomas Wilson (died 1852) and Alexander Wilson (1804–46) who like their father wrote poetry. Thomas was imprisoned for smuggling gold, while Alexander (also a self-taught painter) was responsible for compiling the collected verse of the three Wilsons. He died suddenly and his grave at Cheetham Hill has an epitaph composed by Elijah Ridings.[70]
In the 19th century, Manchester figured in novels that discussed the changes that industrialisation had brought to Britain. These includedMary Barton: a tale of Manchester life (1848) byElizabeth Gaskell[71] The factual studyThe Condition of the Working Class in England in 1844 was written byFriedrich Engels while living and working in Manchester and drew largely on his observations on the life of the working people of Manchester and Salford.
Charles Dickens is reputed to have set his novelHard Times in the city, and while it is partly modelled on Preston, it shows the influence of his friend Elizabeth Gaskell.[72]
John Howard Nodal was president (1873–79) of the Manchester Literary Club, and started its annual volumes of 'Papers' which he edited from 1874–79. For the glossary committee of the Literary Club he wrote in 1873 a paper on the 'Dialect and Archaisms of Lancashire,' and, in conjunction with George Milner, compiled a 'Glossary of the Lancashire Dialect' (2 parts, 1875–82). TheTransactions of the Manchester Literary Club began in 1874 and the title was soon changed to thePapers of the Manchester Literary Club which continued to be published until 1991. The founder members of the club included the dialect poets Richard Rome Bealey (1828–87),Ben Brierley andEdwin Waugh. Other dialect poets who were members were James Dawson, Junior. (1840–1906) and Joseph Ramsbottom (1831–1901).[73]
Charlotte Brontë began writingJane Eyre in Manchester in 1846. Bronte started writing at the Salutation Lodge (now a public house) on the fringe of the city centre on Higher Chatham Street in Hulme - a few blocks away from Oxford Road.[74] Brontë was in Manchester to take her father,Patrick, for a cataracts operation and a blue plaque adorns the building where Bronte began writing the novel.[75]
The novel,The Manchester Man, byMrs. G. Linnaeus Banks, was first serialised inCassell's Magazine before being published in three volumes in 1876, and became the author's most lasting achievement. It is considered to be an important social and historical novel, charting the rise of Jabez Clegg, the eponymous "Manchester Man", from the time of theNapoleonic Wars to the firstReform Act. His personal fortunes, from the near tragic snatch of his crib from theRiver Irk, create a tale of romance and melodrama, his life from apprentice to master and from poverty to wealth, mirroring the growth and prosperity of the city. This is achieved in a politico-historical setting, with vivid accounts of thePeterloo Massacre orManchester Massacre of 1819 and the Corn-Law riots (theAnti-Corn Law League was formed in Manchester in 1838). In 1896, the year before she died, a well-illustrated edition ofThe Manchester Man was published with forty-six plates and three maps. The book is still read throughout the world (following republication in 1991 and again in 1998), and its heroes, Jabez Clegg and Joshua Brooks, are commemorated locally in the names of Manchesterpublic houses.[76]jEdward Abbott Parry (born in London in 1863) was ajudge anddramatist who lived in Manchester as judge ofManchesterCounty Court 1894–1911.[77] and became Judge ofLambeth County Court in 1911. He wrote several plays and books for children.[78]
Poets' Corner was a name given to the Sun Inn in Long Millgate which was a meeting place for poets and other writers. The Sun Inn was reputed in 1877 to be over 250 years old; at that time it was used as a store for rope and twine.[79]
Howard Spring, a Welsh novelist born in 1889, spent a period of his life as a journalist in Manchester and set his first novel,Shabby Tiger (1934) there (one of the main characters is the glamorous and ambitious Rachel Rosing). He followed it by a sequel,Rachel Rosing.
Louis Golding (born in Manchester in 1895 into aUkrainian-Jewish family) was educated at Manchester Grammar School andQueen's College, Oxford. He used his Manchester background (as 'Doomington') and Jewish themes in his novels, the first of which was published while he was still an undergraduate (his student time was interrupted by service inWorld War I).
The Manchester novelistMaurice Procter (born 1906) was an early author ofpolice procedural novels. Procter'sHell Is a City (1954) is set in a fictionalised Manchester, laterfilmed in the city with lead roles forDonald Pleasence andStanley Baker.[80]
Anthony Burgess (born 1917), author ofA Clockwork Orange, was born and educated in Manchester.Little Wilson and Big God, the first volume of his autobiography, includes a detailed account of his early life in the city between 1917 and 1940.
Howard Jacobson, born inPrestwich in 1942, an area with a strong Jewish community, has written about post-war Manchester inThe Mighty Walzer (1999) andKalooki Nights (2006).
The German writerW. G. Sebald (born 1944) lived in Manchester when he first settled in England, and the city features prominently in his novelThe Emigrants.
TheScottishcrime writerVal McDermid (born 1955) lived in the city for many years and set her Lindsay Gordon and Kate Brannigan series in Manchester.
Jeff Noon (born inDroylsden in 1957) set his early novels, includingVurt, in a future dystopian Manchester.
Nicholas Blincoe set his first three novels in Manchester, includingAcid Casuals (1995), based around theHaçienda nightclub andManchester Slingback (1998), focusing on theGay Village. Carl Hart's druggy lovestoryThe Obvious Game (2006) is set amongst the straight and gay night life of Manchester in the early 1990s. Wilfred Hopkins, under the pseudonymBilly Hopkins, has writtenOur Kid and other works.[citation needed]
Carcanet Press began publishing poetry collections and novels in the early 1970s under the editorship ofMichael Schmidt[81] Schmidt was one of the first directors of theManchester Metropolitan University Writers' School, whose staff currently includesSimon Armitage andCarol Ann Duffy. This school and the University of Manchester's Centre for New Writing are two of the top creative writing schools in the country.[citation needed] Since 2006 there has been a Manchester Literature Festival.
Since 2000,Manchester Cathedral has sponsored the International Religious Poetry Competition. Judges have includedMichael Schmidt,Michael Symmons Roberts and Linda Chase. In 2010 the cathedral re-established its Young Poets' Competition, a national competition open to all schools and all children from Key Stage 1-5. On 23 January 2010, the cathedral announced the appointment of its first Poet-in-Residence, Rachel Mann.[82] On 21 October 2010, the cathedral hosted the inaugural Manchester Sermon. Developed in collaboration with the Manchester Literature Festival, the event was aimed at revitalizing the sermon as a literary form. The inaugural sermon was delivered by the internationally known novelistJeanette Winterson.
Carol Ann Duffy, the UK'sPoet Laureate as of July 2013, is a resident of Manchester and read her work "The Crown" at Queen Elizabeth II's 60th coronation anniversary ceremony.[83]
Writing circles in Manchester include Manchester Speculative Fiction, Monday Night Group, Muslim Writers North and Manchester Women Writers.[84]
Manchester was awardedCity of Literature status in 2017.[85]
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The first theatre in Manchester was the Theatre Royal, established in 1775. The town soon became one of the stock company centres with a group of resident actors who supported the travelling "stars". Great actors and actresses who appeared on the Manchester stage included the Kembles and the Keans, Macready,Henry Irving and SirJohnston Forbes-Robertson. In the latter half of the 19th century the Prince's Theatre in Oxford Street was the scene of a series of public-spirited dramatic enterprises, including those remarkable Shakespearean revivals organised successively by John Knowles and Charles Calvert. Several other theatres, especially the Gaiety and the Queen's, had in the meantime begun to provide entertainment of varying quality for the growing theatrical public. These included a further series of Shakespearean revivals given at the Queen's Theatre by Messrs. Flanagan and Louis Calvert. The Independent Theatre staged some of the plays ofHenrik Ibsen for the first time in England outside London. The first British repertory theatre was opened at theGaiety Theatre in Peter Street in 1908 byAnnie E.F. Horniman with great success. Productions were of a high standard and the plays included works by Ibsen, Synge,W. B. Yeats,George Bernard Shaw, Verhaeren,Gerhart Hauptmann, Sudermann and Euripides, as well as some of the English classical dramatists. Among dramatists of the early 20th century mention should be made ofStanley Houghton whose dramas were performed on the Gaiety stage.[86]
The "Manchester School" is a term applied to a number ofplaywrights from Manchester who were active in the early 20th century. The leading figures in the group wereHarold Brighouse, Stanley Houghton andAllan Monkhouse. They were championed by Annie Horniman, owner of the Gaiety Theatre.[87]
Manchester is noted for its excellent theatres. Larger venues include theManchester Opera House, Quay Street, a commercial theatre promoting large scale touring shows which often plays host to touringWest End shows, thePalace Theatre, Oxford Street, and theRoyal Exchange Theatre, a small producing theatre in Manchester's former Cotton Exchange. TheLibrary Theatre was a small producing theatre situated in the basement of the city'sCentral Library, and theLowry Centre is a large touring venue in Salford.
Smaller sites include the Green Room which focuses on fringe productions, theContact Theatre, a theatre on the university campus for young people with a bold contemporary design, and the King's Arms Theatre, the theatre and music venue at Bloom Street, Salford. TheDancehouse is a theatre dedicated to dance productions. The city is also home to two highly regarded drama schools[citation needed]; theManchester Metropolitan University School of Theatre and the Arden School of Theatre. Unlike Arden, the former is accredited by the NCDT (National Council for Drama Training) and is a member of the Conference of Drama Schools. In addition theRoyal Northern College of Music (RNCM) has four theatre spaces especially noted for opera and classical music productions.Manchester Theatres provides a guide to the theatres in the city and its environs.
Sports in the city of Manchester are an important part of the city's culture, with SportCity being a dedicated district in east Manchester for sports such as football, athletics and cycling.
Manchester City andManchester United are popularPremier League clubs in Manchester, however United are technically outside of theCity of Manchester boundaries in Stretford in the borough ofTrafford.
Although Manchester does not technically fall within the Lancashire county boundaries since 1974,Lancashire County Cricket Club is still based in the area and formed in 1865 replacingManchester Cricket Club.
Manchester has competed twice to host theOlympic Games, being beaten into fourth place byAtlanta in 1996 and coming third toSydney in 2000. Instead, it was decided Manchester would host the2002 Commonwealth Games with many first class sporting facilities being built for the games, including theCity of Manchester Stadium, theManchester Velodrome, theNational Squash Centre and theManchester Aquatics Centre. The 2002 games were considered a success, surpassing all expectations[88][89] and demonstrated Manchester as a reinvigorated city for the 21st century[90] whilst giving London impetus to bid for the 2012 Olympic Games.[91]
In 1588 a local magistrate complained that the town had an "excessive number of ale houses". In 1974 Manchester and Salford city centres were described as having over 200pubs, the majority of which were of Victorian origin. However many of the Victorian era pubs had disappeared by the 1970s; for example Deansgate contained 38 as early as 1825 while in 1974 these had been reduced to merely four. Of very early pubs the Seven Stars in Withy Grove had disappeared while the Wellington Inn and Sinclair's Oyster House had been removed from their original sites. In 1841 the police engaged in a clean up operation and it was said that over a third of the pub landlords were convicted for failing to keep order in their premises. A local variant of the pub is the Yates's Wine Lodge which provides a good range of wines in spartan surroundings. Internally pubs consisted traditionally of a vault (public bar), snug and lounge. By the 1970s there was a tendency for these to be converted into a single large room. In the 1974 survey the following games were noted as being played: bar billiards (only one pub), pin ball (ten pubs), pool ("an increasingly popular game") and table football (13 pubs). Almost all the pubs were thentied houses and only 20 were free houses.[92]
The following old pubs are mentioned and illustrated in Thomas Ashworth'sSketches of Old Manchester and Salford (1877): the Wellington Inn, Market Place; the Vintner's Arms, Smithy Door; the Seven Stars, Withy Grove; the Rover's Return, Shudehill; and the Bull's Head, Greengate, Salford. The historic "Rover's Return" in Withy Grove, which occupied a 14th-century building, at some period became a licensed house but ceased to be so in 1924. The building stood until 1958 when the City Council had it demolished.[93]
There has long been a thrivingnightclub culture in Manchester. BroadcasterJimmy Savile is credited as becoming the first modernDJ by using twin turntables for continuous play after he obtained two domestic record decks welded together. He first used this device to play to the public in 1946, at a nightclub calledthe Ritz onWhitworth Street West (which had opened in 1927). Tony Prince is credited as becoming the world's first full-time club DJ in 1964 when Savile, who was then a Mecca manager in Manchester, told him thatTop Rank considered him to be the first person to be on their payroll as a pure DJ.
Manyteenagers of the 1960s developed a love forNorthern Soul, which had as two of its epicentres theWigan Casino and Manchester'sTwisted Wheel Club, and is credited as being instrumental in the development of the Motown Sound.
Rob Gretton, manager ofNew Order (the band formed from the remaining members ofJoy Division after singerIan Curtis's suicide) andFactory Records bossTony Wilson opened Fac 51the Haçienda on Whitworth Street West in 1982. It quickly became the focus ofelectronic music and the start of theMadchester sound. Combiningacid house and theIbiza party scene, the Haçienda can be thought of as a partial incubator for theSummer of Love in 1988. The club was also portrayed in the 2002 film24 Hour Party People.
One of the oldest and most diverse venues is theBand on the Wall, a live music venue in theNorthern Quarter district of the city. This venue was built around 1862 as the flagship pub of a local brewery; it was originally called the George & Dragon. It got its nickname in the late 1920s or early 1930s from the stage high on the back wall. In 1975 it was taken on by jazz musician Steve Morris and his business partner Frank Cusick, and renamed the Band on the Wall.
Research fromTickX showed that Manchester has the most events per capita in theUnited Kingdom at 79 events per thousand people, 20 more than the next highest,Brighton.[94]
As well as many sporting venues Manchester has many venues for performances and conventions:
Manchester has claimed to have the UK's largest gay population outside London.[95]Gay Village, centred on theCanal Street area, is home to numerous shops, restaurants, bars and clubs. On the last weekend in August it hosts the Manchester Pride Festival (previously known asMardi Gras and Gayfest).
Manchester's gay culture was brought to mainstream attention on television seriesQueer as Folk andCoronation Street, which are set in the Village. It is also the birthplace of several gay rights organisations including theCampaign for Homosexual Equality,Queer Youth Alliance,the Lesbian & Gay Foundation.[96] 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. In the 1990sManchester City Council gave support to the establishment of a gay centre and employed four lesbians and gay men to help implement their equal opportunity policy. Their work continued in spite ofSection 28 and the City Council actively supported the Mardi Gras and other gay events.
The year round gay and lesbian heritage trail exhibits Manchester's gay history. In 2003, Manchester played host city to the annualEuropride festival.[97][98] The Lesbian & Gay Foundation, Britain's biggest gay charity, is based on Richmond Street in the city centre.Manchester Metropolitan University has been named the most gay friendly university in the UK.[99]