"Concilio et Labore", loosely translated to Wisdom and Effort, is the motto of the City of Manchester. Thanks to the city's history, it's got a few nicknames of its own. Most notably, Madchester, thanks to the music scene that happened between the late 80s and the early 90s.
While most people who have the slightest knowledge of football will associate the city with Manchester United (and City), there is plenty of other defining things that make Manchester the city it is. It was just a pity that I didn't have much time to explore it. Hopefully, that might change in the near future!
Seen here in the album cover is the Manchester Town Hall. Featuring an 85m clock tower, the Town Hall has a Gothic Revival architectural style that is regarded as one of the best interpretations in the world.
Came into Manchester with the sole purpose of heading to Stretford, Greater Manchester to see the biggest football club stadium in the UK (second in terms of size only to Wembley, the national stadium). Old Trafford has its own special feature album, so here's a handful of highlights from the extremely rushed day in Manchester.
The new 173 feet (52.7m) Wheel of Manchester standing tall at Piccadilly Gardens in the Manchester City Centre.
This new wheel was only installed in 2013, in time for the New Year celebrations. It is smaller than its previous incarnation which was 60m high and at Exchange Square.
The Singapore Flyer (the world's 2nd largest ferris wheel after the 31st March 2014 opening of the Las Vegas High Roller) stands at 541 feet (165m). That's 3 times higher! Just putting it into perspective...
The National Football Museum was established in 2001 to preserve important football artefacts. It only moved to Manchester in 2012. Prior to that, it was housed in Deepdale, Preston, Lancashire. It was moved to Manchester due to funding issues.
Now housed in the Urbis exhibition centre, the National Football Museum is probably one museum I can spend days in and never get bored of it.
So it will come as a huge surprise that I didn't even get to step inside due to time constraint. More reasons for me to return to Manchester again then!
With the Manchester Cathedral, which (along with the Manchester Town Hall) is among the 47 Grade 1 listed buildings in Greater Manchester.
Grade 1 buildings are regarded as "buildings of exceptional interest" whereby it could be architecturally, culturally or historically significant to the metropolitan county of Greater Manchester.
UNITED! MAN UNITED!
Making the most of whatever time there was left in Manchester before the train back to London Euston.
Here's the Royal Exchange Theatre that is housed within the Royal Exchange complex. In the past, the Royal Exchange was used only for trading of cotton and textiles. Today, it is still used for commodities exchange, though not solely on textiles.
Many successful actors and actresses had previously made a name for themselves at the Royal Exchange Theatre before going into film and television. Notable ones include multi-Academy Award winner Kate Winslet, Michael Sheen and the most recent Spiderman, Andrew Garfield.
Much like a lot of other cities in Europe, Manchester was undergoing some serious renovation and maintenance works. Thankfully, the Manchester Central Library had just completed a 4-year renovation project and was reopened earlier in March 2014. This meant that I could see it in full without annoying barricades.
Pretty sure your first glance at it would trigger an immediate association to the Pantheon in Rome, Italy. The columned portico is a dead giveaway. Even the Rotunda looks similar. Although it has to be said that it seems a little rounder than the Pantheon.
That was all for Manchester and it certainly left me wanting more. I absolutely have to come back again, that I'm sure because I've not even seen enough of it.
There's the penultimate chapter and for the grand finale... it's time to head to Sir Matt Busby Way!
No comments:
Post a Comment