Conversely, other visitors were entranced with the sheer energy of Manchester. For novelist and soon-to-be Prime Minister Benjamin Disraeli, Manchester in the 1840s was “the most wonderful city of modern times…as great a human exploit as Athens.” Count Alexis de Toqueville saw that the city was brutalizing but noted its achievement: “It is here that the human spirit becomes perfect.” Numerous people eulogized its sheer size and wealth. In 1810 the New Hampshire town of Derryfield renamed itself Manchester because the town fathers envisioned just such another city.

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Manchester’s dichotomies live on today. Though the days of cotton have past, many of the monumental buildings financed by the wealth it generated remain. They include old mills and giant warehouses, municipal buildings and art galleries, museums and town squares. The human energies that once made Manchester into what historian Asa Briggs termed the “shock city” of its age also survive. “Manchester goods”—the term widely used for its cotton goods—no longer reach every corner of the globe, but its soccer team Manchester United is the most famous in the world, and the richest of any sports team anywhere. Its old rival Manchester City is also a premier team. Further, Manchester is home to Sale Sharks, the current English Rugby Union champions, as well as Old Trafford Cricket Ground, a venue for international test matches.

Manchester’s music is equally famed. In 1858 the Hallé Orchestra was the first permanent professional orchestra established in Britain, and today many critics regard it as the best of Britain’s symphony orchestras.

Certainly no orchestra could have a better performance space than the Bridge­water Hall. Built in 1996, it rises from the bank of the Manchester and Salford Junction Canal like the prow of a ship. The new Metrolink trams rumble just outside, and trains speed into nearby Oxford Street station, so the hall was cunningly constructed using earthquake proofing technology to prevent vibrations and noise. Indeed, the Bridgewater is a miracle of modern architecture. Beautiful and comfortable, it has astounding acoustics that make listening to even the most familiar piece of music a new auditory experience. The Manchester Camerata, one of the UK’s leading chamber orchestras, also makes the Bridgewater its home venue, and the Manchester-based BBC Philharmonic often plays there as well.

The Hallé was founded by Charles Hallé, a German immigrant who deplored Manchester folks’ preference for singing rather than listening to instrumental music. The love of song has never been lost. Since the 1960s, Manchester has given birth to one popular music group after another—the Hollies in the ’60s, Joy Division and New Order in the ’70s, and the Smiths, Simply Red, the Stone Roses and Happy Mondays in the ’80s.

The bands played in clubs such as the famed Hacienda, located in what had once been cotton warehouses or old mills. The clubs attracted hordes of fans, and “clubbing” became and remains a favorite night out in the city that pop music lovers call “Mad-chester.” Clubs come and go; bands fold and reform. Doves and Elbow have been favorites of the new century, and with more than 20 different record labels in the city, dozens of venues, including Manchester Academy at the University on Oxford Road, and a literally uncountable number of clubs, Manchester has become a place of pilgrimage for pop music lovers.

One reason why a lot of bands got started in Manchester is because the city was full of buildings left empty in the 20th century when industry fell victim to cheaper foreign competitors. Disused buildings became inexpensive venues for clubs and recording studios. Some became experimental theaters or art galleries; some have been used as restaurants or converted into stylish condominiums and offices. In this way the buildings that the cotton business produced have become the soil in which Manchester’s vigorous entertainment scene has grown.

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