I used to be, very.
The history of our city is fairly short, but excellent. It has the history and importance of a major world city. We aren’t an ancient city. Though there was activity, a Roman fort and settlements here from around 75CE, and we have areas that were named in the Domesday Book; we weren’t actively important through the Roman or medieval period and our oldest building only dates to the 1300s (Baguley Hall). Although, I often wonder if that’s just because of the effects of the Harrying of the North, with that genocide killing so many and maybe wiping out history from the region?
But certainly from the start of the Industrial Revolution up to probably the latter part of the first decade of this century, Manchester is of magnificent importance, not just to this region or country, but to the world. That is something I’ve always been proud of.
Great names like: Richard Arkwright, John Dalton, William Cowherd, Charles Mackintosh, Sir Joseph Whitworth, Sir Robert Peel, James Prescott Joule, James Braid, John Benjamin Dancer, George Garrett, Emmeline Pankhurst, Charles Rolls and Frederick Royce, Sir Alliott Verdon Roe, Annie Elizabeth Fredericka Horniman, Ernest Rutherford, John Alcock and Arthur Brown, Sheena Simon, Alan Turing, Elizabeth Gaskell, Pierre Adolph Valette, L. S. Lowry, Anthony Burgess, Pep Guardiola…
Britain’s first free public library (Chetham’s), the first artificial waterway independent of natural rivers (Bridgewater), the Atomic Theory, modern Vegetarianism, the first intercity railway in the world (Manchester to Liverpool), Precision Engineering, invention of microphotography and microfilms, the first International Art Exhibition, the Football League founded at Royal Hotel in 1888, the only swing aqueduct in the world, the Ship Canal, the first purpose built industrial estate (Trafford Park, still Europe’s biggest IE), universal suffrage, splitting the atom, the first British plane, the first non-stop trans-Atlantic flight, the world's first scheduled airline service (Manchester to Southport), the first computer with a stored programme and memory (‘Baby'), the largest football crowd outside Wembley in English football history, the Centurions, Fourmidables, treble winners and winners of four league titles in a row…
Architecture like John Dalton Library, Victoria Baths, Sunlight House, Kimpton Clocktower Hotel, Mcr Town Hall, Central Library, Midland Hotel, Mcr Monestry, St Mary's RC Church, Royal Exchange, London Road Fire Station, Shambles Square, Strangeways, Portico Library, Mcr Athenaeum, Mcr Art Gallery, Mcr Cathedral, Hotel Gotham, all the buildings at the top end of King Steet, the Royal Infirmary, St Mary’s hospital, Chorton-on-Medlock Town Hall, The Whitworth Art Gallery, Whitworth Hall, University of Manchester, Elizabeth Gaskell’s house, Church of the Holy Name of Jesus, Grosvenor House/Manchester School of Art, the Toast Rack, Urbis, Civil Justice Centre, One Angel Sqaure…
We had a thriving music scene through the 1970s, 80s, ’90s and ’00s. We had a great band culture: The Buzzcocks, Magazine, Joy Division, A Certain Ratio, The Fall, The Smiths, New Order, James, Happy Mondays, The Charlatans (kind of), A Guy Called Gerald, 808 State, New FADs, The High, The Stone Roses, The Future Sound of London, The Chemical Brothers, Lamb, Oasis, [The] Verve, Rae & Christian, Finley Quaye, Aim, Doves, The Seahorses, Ian Brown, Mr Scruff, Badly Drawn Boy, Elbow, Jim Noir up to the first album from The Courtneeners and then Oasis splitting up.
Live music venues and clubs throughout all those decades: Twisted Wheel, Rotters, Fagins, Stringfellows, Placemate 7, Pips, Legend, The Gallery, The Playpen, Berlin, Free Trade Hall, The Haçienda, Konspiracy, Paradise Factory, Boardwalk, Planet K, the Phoenix, Jabez Clegg, One Cental, Ampersand, North, Club V, Music Box, Sankeys Soap/Sankeys, Brick House, Fifth Ave, South… We rocketed the house+techno scene into a huge phenomenon, and we had our own scene as well which was appropriated by the whole of the British Isles and beyond: the style, the attitude, the clothes, the music and the football teams.
Yeah United were the most popular club in the country, and then the most successful, we can’t deny their contribution to this city really even though they’re in Trafford. But even when City were at our lowest as a club, we were probably the coolest club in the country because everyone wanted a part of Manchester due to the Manchester cultural scene after the Second Summer of Love/‘Madchester’ era, then later especially due to Oasis. City were seen as a more genuine Mancunian club than United. Plus we stuck by our club at our lowest in a way not seen by any other set of fans other than Sunderland (another great set of fans), and that was respected massively.
Manchester was popular on the tele n’all: Coro, Cracker, Frank Sidebottom, the Mrs Merton Show, The Royle Family, Early Doors, Clocking Off, Life on Mars, Shameless, Cold Feet, Dinnerladies, Cutting It, Burn It, Ideal and many more… and in film: Control, 24 Hour Party People, Spike Island, There’s Only One Jimmy Grimble, The Keeper…
However, I don’t feel as proud as I used to. All the good things above seem to be worse, have been forgotten about, aren’t important to new generations or have disappeared from the city.
Who are our pioneering citizens these days? Where have all the bands disappeared to (the band scenes in Australia and USA are still booming but it’s gone from Britain in general these days)? Where’s the music scene? Where are all the live music venues and clubs? Why do people keep moving into the city centre and then complaining about music venues nearby and getting them closed down (cunts!)? What’s happened to Mcr TV and films?
The only thing still culturally great or better than before is City! Oh, and Brian Cox does great documentaries.
I used to love going into Town. Now though, depsite some nice enough tall towers being built and changing the skyline for the better (they’re mostly alright, some of the tallest are cool but living spaces in them are too small for the expense and far too many are buy-to-let, a lot of the low and mid rise ones are architecturally bland, boring and add nothing to the architectural quality of the city and there is nowhere near enough infrastructure and amenities required to serve a proper community in Town) - at street level, Town feels like it’s turning into more of a shithole with every passing year.
Awful graffiti and tagging everywhere (I’d mind less if it was good, but it’s substandard shite!), litter, the amount of empty and boarded up shops/units, that disgrace to the city that is ‘Cottagers Cove’, people out protesting some shite every week getting in everyone’s way when it’s got the square root of fuck all to do with everyday people of this city and the protests rarely (if ever) have anything to do with this city, plus open drug dealing and taking, obnoxious spiceheads mithering and harassing people, fights, muggings, thieving and general dilapidation around Piccadilly Gardens-Market Street-High Street area are all an embarrassment and just shouts to the rest of the world ‘SHITHOLE!’.
And outside the city centre, there are places where the residents do not give a fuck about how they represent their houses. Areas are uncared for, overgrown and filthy from peoples’ own doing - no blaming the government or council for this one - mostly it’s the people themselves who seem to have become utter slobs when it comes to their own houses.
Fly tipping everywhere down ginnels, mattresses, sofas, fridges just out around the streets… current generations of this city do not care about this city anywhere near enough.
It feels like with every new shiny tower that goes up, the streetscape gets worse.
Manchester looks great from this perspective:
(scip the first thirty seconds if you want, haha)
Yet looks abysmal from this perspective (and he’s only looking at boarded up shops, you could do a 30min video on all the graffiti and tagging around Town alone):
(and I won’t post any videos of some of the people who walk around Manchester and go down that ‘Cottagers Cove’ but, as I said, it’s a disgrace!)
Despite the investment we get compared to them, Newcastle and Liverpool city centres are much nicer and cleaner than Manchester at street level. Even Leeds which is quite a bland city centre is much cleaner.
And while the lower end food scene in Mcr is booming, I feel we lag behind Birmingham for better quality restaurants.
Manchester roads and pavements are awful, the traffic is terrible (it’s busy everywhere all day every day), public transport is filthy, slow and overcrowded. Everywhere you go everywhere feels busy, Manchester feels overcrowded to be honest.
Then the accent; I used to really like our accent, definitely one of the cooler sounding accents on this island, but it’s changing for the worse amongst younger people these days and is turning into an affront to the ears. Lads talk like they’ve got a speech impediment or worse, it’s bizarre.
And it is very noticeable that people aren’t as friendly as they used to be in Manchester. Mancunians these days don’t do enough smiling and saying hello to each other. There’s nowhere near the craic in pubs that there used to be (you know, that welcoming banter with people, even those they’ve never seen before?), people avoid eye contact rather than engage with people, there’s nowhere near enough ‘please’/‘thank you’/‘excuse me’/‘pardon’, customer service in shops and pubs is too bland and ignorant too often with no engagement, there’s nowhere near enough opening doors for each other or getting up for people on public transport. However, I have noticed that in - mentioning these two cities again - Newcastle and Liverpool they still have that Northern friendliness.
So, I wouldn’t say I’m as proud to be a Mancunian as I once was or maybe should be.
Benjamin Disreli said of Manchester; ‘what Manchester does today, the rest of the world does tomorrow’, but where’s the creativity, where’s the innovation, wheres the invention, where’s the music, where’s the bands, where’s the fashion, where’s the originality?
He also said, ‘Have you seen Manchester? It’s as great a human exploit as Athens’… nah, there’s no way he’d say that these days!
In summary, yes and no! Sorry for the long post, I suppose I just care a lot about this city and get frustrated that not enough people are the same.
