55 Fun Facts About Manchester

Manchester grew from a Roman fort founded around AD 79 under what Latin name?

Mamucium stood on a sandstone bluff above the River Medlock; most of it was levelled in the Industrial Revolution for a canal and railway viaducts, and a rebuilt stretch of wall and gateway now marks the site.

What are the people of Manchester called?

Mancunians take their name from a Latin form of the city's name rather than the English one; the same word survives in the Mancunian Way, the elevated motorway that skirts the city centre.

Which physicist discovered the atomic nucleus while a professor at the University of Manchester?

Ernest Rutherford took Manchester's physics chair in 1907; when his assistants fired alpha particles at gold foil and a few bounced back, he concluded in 1911 that an atom's mass sits in a tiny central core.

Which neighbour lies directly across the River Irwell from Manchester city centre?

Salford long outranked its neighbour: it was the seat of the Salford Hundred, the medieval district that included Manchester, and won its own borough charter about 1230.

Where in Manchester did cavalry charge a reform rally in August 1819?

St Peter's Square and the streets around it were St Peter's Field in 1819, where yeomanry rode into a crowd of about 60,000; Parliament answered the outcry with the Six Acts, which curbed reform meetings.

Which pair studied together in a Manchester library in 1845?

Engels and Marx spent the summer of 1845 reading economics at a window-alcove desk that is still there; Engels, sent by his father to work at the family firm's mill nearby, had just written The Condition of the Working Class in England.

The world's first intercity passenger railway, opened in 1830, linked Manchester with which city?

Liverpool was the other end of the line; at the grand opening on 15 September 1830 its MP, William Huskisson, stepped down onto the track during a stop and was fatally struck by a passing locomotive.

Manchester Central Library, opened in 1934, takes its circular form from which Roman building?

The Pantheon in Rome inspired E. Vincent Harris's round plan and columned portico; the reading room's dome bounces voices around like a whispering gallery, an echo the library has tried to tame with carpet and a canopy.

Which Manchester-born campaigner founded the Women's Social and Political Union in 1903?

Emmeline Pankhurst founded the Women's Social and Political Union at her home, 62 Nelson Street; its motto, 'Deeds, not words', soon meant heckling politicians, smashing windows and hunger strikes in prison.

The Manchester Ship Canal, opened in 1894, made the city a seaport by reaching which river's estuary?

The Mersey estuary at Eastham is where the 36-mile canal begins; Manchester's merchants built it to escape the dock dues and railway charges they paid to bring goods in from the coast.

Which Manchester building, where trading ended in 1968, now houses a theatre-in-the-round?

The Royal Exchange held its last trading day on 31 December 1968; since 1976 a seven-sided steel theatre has sat in its great hall, hung from the dome's pillars because the old floor could not bear its weight.

Which scientist formulated his atomic theory while teaching in Manchester in 1803?

John Dalton also studied his own colour blindness, still sometimes called Daltonism; when he died in 1844, some 40,000 people are said to have filed past his coffin in Manchester.

The world's first stored-program computer ran at the University of Manchester in 1948 under which nickname?

Baby was built only to test a new kind of memory, the Williams tube; after its first program ran on 21 June 1948, it spent 52 minutes finding the highest factor of 262,144.

Which wonder material was first isolated at the University of Manchester in 2004?

Graphene, a single layer of carbon atoms, was first isolated at the University of Manchester in 2004 by Andre Geim and Konstantin Novoselov, who peeled flakes from graphite with sticky tape and won the 2010 Nobel Prize in Physics.

Which national newspaper was founded in Manchester in 1821?

The Guardian began as The Manchester Guardian, founded by John Edward Taylor; its editor moved to London in 1964, though profits from the Manchester Evening News long kept it afloat.

Which architect of London's Natural History Museum designed Manchester Town Hall, completed in 1877?

Alfred Waterhouse's Gothic design was not thought the best-looking entry, but it won the competition because it made the most of an awkward triangular site.

Who opened Manchester Town Hall in 1877 after Queen Victoria refused to attend?

Mayor Abel Heywood, a radical publisher once jailed for refusing to pay the stamp duty on his cheap newspapers, did the honours himself; the tower's hour bell is named Great Abel after him.

Manchester's John Rylands Library was founded by Enriqueta Rylands in memory of whom?

Her husband, the textile magnate John Rylands, died in 1888; she spent the next decade on his memorial, buying Earl Spencer's collection of some 40,000 books in 1892 to fill its shelves.

The John Rylands Library holds Papyrus P52, believed to be the earliest surviving fragment of what?

The New Testament: P52 is a scrap of John's Gospel about 9 cm tall, bought in Egypt in 1920; it sat unpublished in the library until Colin Roberts identified it and printed it in 1935.

The Manchester Arena bombing of 22 May 2017 followed a concert by which singer?

Ariana Grande's concert had just ended when a suicide bomber struck the arena foyer, killing 22 people; thirteen days later she returned to the city to headline the One Love Manchester benefit.

Manchester hosted which major multi-sport event in 2002 after two failed Olympic bids?

The Commonwealth Games ran from 25 July to 4 August 2002; their athletics stadium was then converted for football and became Manchester City's home the following year.

Manchester United, though founded in the city, have played since 1910 in which neighbouring borough?

Trafford is home to Old Trafford, United's ground since February 1910; after wartime bombing wrecked it, the club played its home games at rivals City's Maine Road until 1949.

Which Daniel Libeskind museum, shaped as a shattered globe, opened beside the Ship Canal in 2002?

Imperial War Museum North is built from three interlocking shards of that globe; its sloping floors and leaning walls are deliberate, meant to unsettle and disorientate visitors.

Which nightclub, opened by Factory Records and New Order, was the heart of 'Madchester'?

The Haçienda opened in 1982 in a former yacht builder's warehouse; propped up by New Order's record sales, it lost money for years, closed in 1997 and was replaced by flats that kept its name.

Which Manchester band, formed in 1982, released the albums Meat Is Murder and The Queen Is Dead?

The Smiths began when guitarist Johnny Marr turned up on Morrissey's doorstep in 1982 to propose a band; their records came out on the independent Rough Trade label until they split in 1987.

Which band formed in Manchester in 1991 and went on to define Britpop?

Oasis grew out of a band called the Rain: Liam Gallagher joined as singer and renamed it, then his brother Noel came aboard on condition that he took charge and wrote the songs.

Which ITV franchise, maker of Coronation Street, began broadcasting from Manchester in 1956?

Granada Television's founder Sidney Bernstein gave several reasons for his choice of region; one was a pair of maps, of population and of rainfall, which he said showed 'an ideal place for television'.

Which tram network, opened in 1992, made Manchester the first UK city with modern street-running light rail?

Metrolink ran its first trams from Victoria to Bury on 6 April 1992 and onto city streets three weeks later, 43 years after Manchester had scrapped its original tramway in 1949.

Which retired British Airways airliner has been displayed at Manchester Airport's Runway Visitor Park since 2003?

Concorde G-BOAC, flagship of the British Airways fleet, made its last flight of all into Manchester on 31 October 2003 and now sits in a purpose-built hangar beside the runway.

Before its 1960 rebuilding, Manchester Piccadilly station was known by which name?

London Road was rebuilt in the 1860s as a station split down the middle, because the two railway companies sharing it had fallen out; even under British Railways it was still run as two separate stations.

Which Manchester tower overtook Beetham Tower in 2018 as the UK's tallest outside London?

Deansgate Square South, at 201 metres, passed Beetham Tower in November 2018 and ended its twelve-year reign; the same architects, SimpsonHaugh, designed both, so the firm beat its own record.

Which national museum moved into Manchester's Urbis building in 2012?

The National Football Museum moved from Preston's Deepdale to the Urbis building by Manchester Victoria station and opened there on 6 July 2012; its collection includes the 1966 World Cup final ball.

Which 1999 drama was set around Manchester's Canal Street?

Queer as Folk, written by Russell T Davies, followed three gay men around the city's gay village; an American remake moved the story to Pittsburgh and ran for five seasons.

Which orchestra has been based in Manchester since its founding in 1858?

The Hallé grew from an orchestra the pianist Charles Hallé assembled for Manchester's 1857 Art Treasures Exhibition; when the show closed he kept it going and launched his own concerts in January 1858.

The first Trades Union Congress met in 1868 at which Manchester venue?

The Mechanics' Institute on what is now Princess Street hosted the first congress from 2 to 6 June 1868, after Manchester's trades council called the founding meeting; the building still stands.

German bombers hit Manchester hardest on two nights in 1940, raids remembered by which holiday's name?

Christmas gave the raids of 22 to 24 December 1940 their name, the Christmas Blitz; hundreds died, and a bomb wrecked the cathedral's Lady Chapel in damage that took almost 20 years to repair.

Charles Worsley, Manchester's first MP, took the Commons mace away in 1653 on whose orders?

Oliver Cromwell called the mace a 'bauble' as he turned out the Rump Parliament by force; the soldiers who cleared the chamber were Worsley's, and he took the mace into his own keeping.

Weavers from where settled in 14th-century Manchester and are credited with founding its textile trade?

Flanders was where Edward III looked when he invited foreign weavers to England in 1337; a Town Hall mural shows his queen, Philippa, greeting those said to have settled in Manchester.

Which benefactor's will founded Manchester's 1653 library, the oldest public library in the English-speaking world?

Humphrey Chetham left money for a school for poor boys and a library for scholars; his trustees bought the old priests' college beside the church in 1653, and the library has been in use ever since.

Charles Phelps Taft gave Manchester a statue of which American to honour Lancashire's stand during the cotton famine?

Abraham Lincoln wrote to the working people of Manchester in January 1863, thanking them for backing the Union although the war had starved their mills of cotton; Taft's gift arrived in 1919.

The Whitworth Art Gallery, known for textiles and modern art, won which award in 2015?

Museum of the Year went to the Whitworth months after it reopened from a £15 million rebuild that doubled its exhibition space and opened the galleries onto the park behind them.

Manchester's Bridgewater Hall, opened in 1996, replaced which building as the city's main classical venue?

The Free Trade Hall is where a heckler shouted 'Judas!' at Bob Dylan in 1966 for going electric; after the orchestra moved out it was rebuilt behind its old façade as a hotel, which opened in 2004.

Which hills east of Manchester catch wet Atlantic air, giving the city its rainy reputation?

The Pennines bank up wet Atlantic air over the city, bringing frequent drizzle and cloud; yet the yearly total, about 800 mm, is not notably high for western Britain.

Which carmaker grew from a 1904 meeting at Manchester's Midland Hotel?

Rolls-Royce began when the car dealer Charles Rolls met the Manchester engineer Henry Royce at the Midland Hotel on 4 May 1904 and soon agreed to sell every car Royce could build.

Which manager rebuilt Manchester United after the 1958 Munich air disaster and won the European Cup in 1968?

Matt Busby was himself given the last rites twice after the crash, which killed 23 people including eight of his players; ten years later his rebuilt side were champions of Europe.

Which institution merged with the Victoria University of Manchester in 2004?

UMIST had been tied to its neighbour since 1905, when it became the university's Faculty of Technology; it won full independence only in 1994, ten years before the two merged for good.

Which Anti-Corn Law League leader campaigned for Manchester's 1838 charter?

Richard Cobden threw himself into the campaign for an elected council in a town whose officers were still chosen at the lord of the manor's medieval court; he then sat among its first aldermen.

Which north Manchester park, bought by the city in 1902, is one of the largest municipal parks in Europe?

Heaton Park was the Earl of Wilton's estate until the council bought it; in May 1982 Pope John Paul II celebrated an open-air Mass there, an event marked by a monument in the park.

Which band of brothers left Chorlton, Manchester, for Australia in 1958?

The Bee Gees first sang on stage between films at Manchester cinemas; after early chart success in Australia they came back to England in 1967 and soon had their first international hit.

Which television presenter co-founded Factory Records, the label of Joy Division and New Order?

Tony Wilson's label let its bands keep their music ('the musicians own everything, the company owns nothing'), so when Factory went bankrupt in 1992 it had no back catalogue to sell.

Which novel did Charlotte Brontë begin in 1846 while lodging in Manchester?

Jane Eyre was begun in a Manchester lodging house in August 1846 while Charlotte Brontë's father recovered from a cataract operation; her first novel had come back rejected on the day of the surgery.

Which author of The Secret Garden was born in Manchester in 1849?

Frances Hodgson Burnett left Manchester at 15 when her widowed mother took the family to Tennessee in 1865; there she began selling stories to magazines to help pay the bills.

Which 1962 dystopian novel was written by Manchester-born author Anthony Burgess?

A Clockwork Orange lost its final chapter in America, where the publisher cut Alex's change of heart; Stanley Kubrick's film follows that darker ending.

Which BBC music show debuted from a converted Manchester chapel on New Year's Day 1964?

Top of the Pops was meant to run for only a few programmes and lasted 42 years; the first came from a former chapel in Rusholme, with Dusty Springfield and the Rolling Stones on the bill.

Which sport's British national team has been based in Manchester since its Olympic-standard arena opened there in 1994?

Cycling's national team moved into Britain's only indoor Olympic-standard track when it opened; some critics called it a white elephant, but its riders won seven track golds at both the 2008 and 2012 Olympics.