Qualla: Manchester https://qualla.com/manchester en-us © 2026 Bendyline Mon, 20 Jul 2026 10:21:23 GMT Qualla serial false Qualla support@bendyline.com yes https://qualla.com/_res/siteimages/rsslogo.png Qualla: Manchester https://qualla.com/manchester Manchester: Introduction https://qualla.com/manchester/ 'And on the sixth day, God created Manchester.' The mosaic is in the city centre, the joke is half-serious, and the attitude is everything you need to understand about the place. Manchester is a city that does not wait for anyone's permission. It built the first industrial economy on the planet, then the first passenger railway, then the cooperative movement, then the trade union congress, then the world's first stored-program computer, then the modern football club, then a music scene that staged its own revolution at the Hacienda. It is now reinventing itself again as the media and tech capital of northern England. The cotton mills are now Michelin-starred restaurants. The warehouses are now apartments. The energy hasn't moved.

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]]> Fri, 29 May 2026 00:00:00 GMT https://qualla.com/_m/g/c/w/2/manchester-wk/gcw2-manchester-intro.mp3 0:06 1 full Manchester: The Belly and Guts of the Nation https://qualla.com/manchester/ George Orwell's phrase has stuck because it was correct. The Roman fort of Mamucium was founded around AD 79 on a sandstone bluff where the Medlock joined the Irwell, and a town grew very slowly around it. A priests' college (now Chetham's Library) and a church (now the Cathedral...

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]]> Fri, 29 May 2026 00:00:00 GMT https://qualla.com/_m/g/c/w/2/manchester-wk/gcw2-manchester-the-belly-and-guts-of-the-nation.mp3 0:06 2 full Manchester: Lincoln in the Square https://qualla.com/manchester/ On Brazennose Street, across Albert Square from the town hall, stands a statue of Abraham Lincoln. It commemorates a moment in 1862 when the cotton workers of Lancashire, knowing perfectly well that their wages depended on raw cotton from the American South, refused to back Brita...

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]]> Fri, 29 May 2026 00:00:00 GMT https://qualla.com/_m/g/c/w/2/manchester-wk/gcw2-manchester-lincoln-in-the-square.mp3 0:06 3 full Manchester: Cottonopolis to Computer https://qualla.com/manchester/ Trafford Park, just west of the centre, became the first industrial estate in the world. Ford built its first European car plant here. Avro built Lancaster bombers here. The Manchester Ship Canal, finished in 1894, let oceangoing ships sail to the city's own docks 35 miles inland...

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]]> Fri, 29 May 2026 00:00:00 GMT https://qualla.com/_m/g/c/w/2/manchester-wk/gcw2-manchester-cottonopolis-to-computer.mp3 0:06 4 full Manchester: Madchester https://qualla.com/manchester/ The other thing Manchester does is sound. Joy Division turned the city's industrial gloom into a sound. The Stone Roses turned it into euphoria. The Smiths turned it into wit. The Happy Mondays turned it into chaos and the Hacienda, Factory Records' nightclub on Whitworth Street,...

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]]> Fri, 29 May 2026 00:00:00 GMT https://qualla.com/_m/g/c/w/2/manchester-wk/gcw2-manchester-madchester.mp3 0:06 5 full Manchester: Two Bombs and a Recovery https://qualla.com/manchester/ On 15 June 1996, the IRA detonated a 1,500-kg truck bomb on Corporation Street. Phone warnings had been given; the city centre was evacuated; nobody died, but 200 were injured and a quarter of the retail core was destroyed. Manchester rebuilt aggressively. New squares appeared, n...

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]]> Fri, 29 May 2026 00:00:00 GMT https://qualla.com/_m/g/c/w/2/manchester-wk/gcw2-manchester-two-bombs-and-a-recovery.mp3 0:06 6 full Manchester: A City That Talks Back https://qualla.com/manchester/ Walk into a pub in Stretford or a chip shop in Cheetham Hill, and somebody will start a conversation. Manchester is famously friendly, famously gay-welcoming - Canal Street has hosted one of Europe's oldest LGBTQ communities since long before that was fashionable - and famously d...

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]]> Fri, 29 May 2026 00:00:00 GMT https://qualla.com/_m/g/c/w/2/manchester-wk/gcw2-manchester-a-city-that-talks-back.mp3 0:06 7 full