Original: modern

Original: modern

Manchester is a radical city that has never been afraid to experiment and push boundaries, a hotbed for the provocative – in art, scientific, social and cultural ideas. What Athens was to ancient Greece and Florence to the Italian Renaissance, so Manchester defined the urban, industrial age. It was the original, modern city.

As the birthplace of the industrial revolution, Manchester has been at the forefront of many social movements, bringing major issues to the world’s attention, rightfully claiming to be a city of firsts. So many of the ideas that continue to shape our world first found their voice in Manchester – Vegetarianism, the passenger railway station, the computer, the public lending library, the labour movement, the trade union movement, the Suffragettes, the cooperative movement and England’s professional football league were all created in Manchester.