Atlantica - 01.02.2006, Page 36

The reaction was universal.
They leaned in closer, glanced to see if anyone was listen-
ing, and, as if describing a very private ailment to the doctor,
whispered: “It all started with the bomb, actually.”
On June 15, 1996, a car bomb planted by the IRA exploded
in a downtown shopping quarter of Manchester, just as the
Saturday crowds were reaching their peak. By incredible for-
tune, no one was killed, but 200 were injured and the surround-
ing area was destroyed.
Showing true British grit, Mancunians – as residents of
Manchester call themselves – got on with the job at hand:
repairing their damaged city. But they did more than that. The
bomb became a catalyst for the complete regeneration of a city
which had been regarded for generations as not much more
than a grungy industrial town with a famous football team.
The city’s facelift has been taking place for a decade and is
now old news in the UK, but the revamped Manchester hasn’t
yet made its debut on the world stage. As recently as 1997,
Lonely Planet wrote, “... to love [Manchester] requires a mas-
sive act of selective vision.… The question for the traveler is
– why try?”
The Mancunian Candidate
Fast forward to 2006, where the city’s flashy new buildings and trendy cafes emanate
an energy that was previously lacking. Upscale designer boutiques dot the shopping
district, and a new football stadium and swimming complex are a permanent nod to
the city’s turn playing host to the 2002 Commonwealth Games. Manchester is virtually
unrecognizable from the old days, until you stay long enough to see what has never
changed: its residents remain as jovial and cheerfully stoic as always.
I sat in The Ox pub enjoying a pint with Sarah, a born-and-bred Mancunian who
was showing me the ropes of a Manchester night out. “Manchester is like a city of
villages,” she explained. “I’ll go out for a walk, and after five minutes, I stumble across
someone I know.”
For a city stuck in the epicenter of one of the most densely populated areas of Britain,
that’s impressive. While only 400,000 live in the city itself, the Greater Manchester area
is home to over 2 million. But I believed what my new friend said – that Manchester
had a decidedly more intimate feel than its size would suggest.
In the city center, grand old Victorian buildings like the City Hall mingle with new
structures like the Urbis. Dedicated to “the celebration of urban living”, this museum
opened in 2002. A great glass elevator which could have sprung from Roald Dahl’s
imagination shuttled me to the top of the building and the start of an interactive trip
through the fascinating history of urban living around the world. Like the majority of
Manchester’s museums, admission was free.
Derelict warehouses along Manchester’s many canals have been replaced by trendy
34 AT L A N T I CA
Manchester Emerges as Northern England’s Proudest City (Sorry, Liverpudlians).
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