Manchester

Europe's leading city?

Manchester is emerging as one of Europe's leading city break destinations, offering the visitors a wealth of cultural, leisure and sporting activities. Manchester in the 21st century is a sophisticated metropolis, an international leader in culture and fashion, a world centre for finance and commerce and a sporting mecca.

Delegates and guests attending events in Manchester are in an ideal position to discover what makes the city tick today. Shops, health spas, museums and galleries abound, social programmes can be as individual and quirky as you like.

More Manchester

A story so far

Manchester was born from a hill called Mamucium between York and Chester. Flanked by the Pennines and by marches, it was an ideal site for the wooden fort that the Roman governor Agricola built around AD70. When the Romans left, the area was open to the ravage of Danes, Anglo-Saxons and the Irish for 500 years.

And now ......
Manchester is enjoying one of those seismic periods of change that sometimes grip great cities. And most importantly, people are in the town centre – living there, working there, enjoying themselves there at night. It has been a remarkable change!

From Salford Quays and Castlefields to the Northern Quarter, empty 19th-century warehouses have been converted into loft apartments. The result is the kind of "cool" for which advocates of the "24-hour party city" have long been striving.
Whether you wish to taste the food and drink, sample the sights and museums, dip into the art and the architecture, enjoy the music and the theatre or get involved with the sport you will find something to entertain you. On any given day of the year across this conurbation of two and a half million people there is activity to delight the visitor.

You've reached a place on the move. This is the city that combines the cultured with the brash, the cheap with the expensive. The whole place zings with fascinating tensions and contradictions. It always has. Cities run on accelerated time, venues constantly open and close, so it is advisable to contact your destination ahead of any visit to avoid disappointment.

GENERAL INFORMATION - Statistics
Population: Greater Manchester: 2.5m
Manchester with Salford and Trafford: 873,898
Number of passengers using Manchester Airport per year: 17m
Unemployment in Greater Manchester: 5.1%
Local rail stations in Greater Manchester: 104
Current Metrolink stations: 36
Metrolink stations by 2005: 97 (provisional)
Bus Routes in Greater Manchester: ,br /> 550 Licensed Taxis: (Manchester with Salford and Trafford) 4,785
Professional Football Clubs: 8
Sports Seats in professional stadia: 303,636
Theatre/Cultural Seats: 43,593
Nightclubs: 164
Galleries/Museums: 56
Cinema Screens: 132
Licensed Premises: Central Manchester, 450
Natural/Regional cuisines: 35
Languages spoken: 40
Mill chimneys in city centre: 4
Canal locks in Greater Manchester: 95
Number of major independent breweries: 4 Number of micro breweries: 7
Number of local pop acts since 1960 to sell two million records or more: 22
Professional orchestras: 3
Number of UFO Landing Sites: 1