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Manchester Town Hall

Manchester Town Hall is a VictorianNeo-gothic municipal building in Manchester, England. It is the ceremonial headquarters of Manchester City Council and houses a number of local government departments. The building faces Albert Square to the north and St Peter's Square to the south, with Manchester Cenotaph facing its southern entrance.

Designed by architect Alfred Waterhouse, the town hall was completed in 1877. The building contains offices and grand ceremonial rooms such as the Great Hall which is decorated with Ford Madox Brown's imposing Manchester Murals illustrating the history of the city. The entrance and Sculpture Hall contain busts and statues of influential figures including DaltonJoule and Barbirolli. The exterior is dominated by the clock tower which rises to 280 feet (85 m) and houses Great Abel, the clock bell.

In 1938, a detached Town Hall Extension was completed and is connected by two covered bridges over Lloyd Street. The town hall was designated as a Grade I listed building on 25 February 1952.

Old Town Hall

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Manchester's original civic administration was housed in the Police Office in King Street. It was replaced by the first Town Hall, to accommodate the growing local government and its civic assembly rooms. The Town Hall, also located in King Street at the corner of Cross Street, was designed by Francis Goodwin and constructed between 1822 and 1825, much of it by David Bellhouse. The building was designed with a screen of Ionic columns across a recessed centre, in a classicising manner strongly influenced by John Soane. The building was 134 feet (41 m) long and 76 feet (23 m) deep, the ground floor housed committee rooms and offices for the Chief Constable, Surveyor, Treasurer, other officers and clerks. The first floor held the Assembly Rooms. The building and land cost £39,587.

As the size and wealth of the city grew, largely as a result of the textile industry, its administration outstripped the existing facilities, and a new building was proposed. The King Street building was subsequently occupied by a lending library and then Lloyds Bank. The facade was removed to Heaton Park in 1912, when a bank, 53 King Street was erected on the site

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Canal Street (Manchester)

Clock tower

The 280 feet (85 m) tall bell tower, the sixth tallest building in Manchester, houses a carillon of 23 bells: 12 are hung for full circle change ringing and were manufactured by John Taylor Bellfounders.[34] The clock bell, Great Abel, named after Abel Heywood, weighs 8 tons 2.5 cwt and 4 of 12 ringing bells are used for the Westminster Clock Chime. Its clock, made by Gillett and Bland (predecessor of Gillett and Johnston), was originally wound using hydraulic power supplied by Manchester Hydraulic Power.[35] The clock bell first rang on New Year's Day 1879, but cracked,[36][37] was replaced in 1882, and then recast with all the bells in 1937.[38] Its clock face bears the inscription Teach us to number our Days, from Psalm 90:12. The clock bell is inscribed with the initials AH for Abel Heywood and the line Ring out the false, ring in the true from Tennyson's "Ring Out, Wild Bells".[39]

As of 2017, Change-Ringing is not currently permitted on the bells, due to the necessity of a restoration to the building

MCFC CHAMPTIONS

MANCHESTER MEGA CITY .THERE ARE MANY ATTRACTIONS AROUND THIS MEGA CITY FOR YOU,YOUR FRIENDS AND VISITORS TO CHECKOUT AND ENJOY. WHY NOT START WITH  A VISIT/TOUR OF MANCHESTER CITY FOOLBALL CLUB 'THE ETIHAD STADIUM COMPLEX'. AS A CITY FAN SINCE 1972 I REGARD MY SELF AS ONE OF THE DIEHARD ARMY SUPPORTING A FANTASTIC FOOLBALL CLUB.

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Canal Street is a street in Manchester city centre in North West England and the centre of Manchester's gay village. The pedestrianised street, which runs along the west side of the Rochdale Canal, is lined with gay bars and restaurants. At night time, and in daytime in the warmer months, the street is filled with visitors, often including LGBT tourists from all over the world. The northern end of the street meets Minshull Street and the southern meets Princess Street; part of the street looks across the Rochdale Canal into Sackville Gardens.

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ITV Granada

MOST MANCUNIONS ARE HOOKED ON 1TV/GRANADA GROWING UP IN THE CITY AND HAVING TO WATCH PROGRAMMES PRODUCED AND BROADCAST BY GRANADA. NOW AN INTERGAL PART OF OUT NORTHWEST LIVES.

Granada Television was the name of the ITV franchisee for the North West of England from 1968 onwards. From 1956 to 1968 it broadcast to both the north west and Yorkshire but only on weekdays - ABC provided the weekend service. Granada later bought several other regional ITV stations and in 2004 merged with Carlton Communications to form ITVplc.

Granada was particularly noted by critics for the distinctive northern character of many of its network programmes and the high quality of its drama and documentaries. The name Granada survives on-screen today in the name of ITV’s regional news service for the north west.

However the channel itself is branded as ITV while network programmes produced in the area use the ITV Studios brand.

In Granada’s heyday as an independent company, prior to merging with Carlton Communications to form ITV plc, it was the largest Independent Television producer in the UK, accounting for 25% of the total broadcasting output of the ITV network.

Granada Television was founded by Sidney Bernstein at Granada Studios on Quay Street in Manchester and is the only surviving franchisee of the original four Independent Television Authority franchisees from 1954. It covers Cheshire, Greater Manchester, Lancashire, Merseyside, and parts of Derbyshire, Cumbria and North Yorkshire. In 2009, the Isle of Man was transferred to Granada from Border.

Broadcasting by Granada Television began on 3 May 1956 under the North of England weekday franchise, the fifth franchise to go to air. It was marked by a distinctive northern identity, and used a stylised letter "G" logo forming an arrow pointing north, often with the tagline "Granada: from the North".[1] Granada plc merged with Carlton Communications to form ITV plc in 2004 after a duopoly had developed over the previous decade. The Granada name, as with those of the other former regional licence holders, has completely disappeared except for the regional news bulletins and weeknightly regional news magazine; ITV Broadcasting Limited operates the service with national ITV branding and continuity.

britain longest running soap opera

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coronation street

Between 9 December 1960 and 3 March 1961, Coronation Street was broadcast twice weekly, on Wednesday and Friday. During this period, the Friday episode was broadcast live, with the Wednesday episode being pre-recorded 15 minutes later. When the programme went fully networked on 6 March 1961, broadcast days changed to Monday and Wednesday. The last regular episode to be show…

a production by granada tv

"Episode 1", the first episode of the British television soap opera Coronation Street, was broadcast live on ITV on 9 December 1960, and was broadcast in black-and-white. Episode 2 was video taped shortly after the airing.

William Patrick Roache OBE (born 25 April 1932) is an English actor. He is best known for playing Ken Barlow in the ITV soap opera Coronation Street since it was first broadcast on 9 December 1960. He is listed in the Guinness World Records as the longest-serving television star in a continuous role

BBC Manchester

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BBC Manchester (often known as BBC Salford) is the British Broadcasting Corporation regional headquarters for the North West, the largest BBC region in the UK. BBC Manchester is a department of the BBC North Group division.[1] The BBC considers the Manchester department as one of its three main national bases alongside London and Bristol, and has had a presence in the city since launching the 2ZY radio station in 1922. The BBC had its first studio outside London in 1954 when the Corporation leased the Dickenson Road Studios. In 1967, the decision was taken to build a purpose-built BBC building in Manchester on Oxford Road which opened in 1976.

Manchester's television industry struggled during the early 2000s when Granada Television reduced operations in Manchester with the newly formed ITV opting to move operations to London which meant New Broadcasting House and Granada Studios were underused.[2] BBC Television Centre in London, Granada Studios and New Broadcasting House in Manchester were all coming to the end of their operational span and the BBC decided to transfer more departments north, preferably to Manchester where they have been based for 90 years. The move would aim to boost the ailing Manchester media industry, lower operational costs compared to London and represent the north of England more proportionally

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STEP INTO A PEICE OF HISTORY

VISIT THE MANCHESTER ART GALLERY

Manchester Art Gallery, formerly Manchester City Art Gallery, is a publicly owned art museum on Mosley Street in Manchester city centre. The main gallery premises were built for a learned society in 1823 and today its collection occupies three connected buildings, two of which were designed by Sir Charles Barry. Both Barry's buildings are listed. The building that links them was designed by Hopkins Architects following an architectural design competition managed by RIBA Competitions. It opened in 2002 following a major renovation and expansion project undertaken by the art gallery.

Manchester Art Gallery is free to enter and open seven days a week. It houses many works of local and international significance and has a collection of more than 25,000 objects. More than half a million people visited the museum in the period of a year, according to figures released in April 2014.

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WHO RUN'S THE CITY

THE MAYOR

ANDY BURNHAM

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Andrew Murray Burnham (born 7 January 1970) is a British Labour Party politician who has served as Mayor of Greater Manchester since 2017. He served in Gordon Brown’s Cabinet as Chief Secretary to the Treasury from 2007 to 2008, Culture Secretary from 2008 to 2009 and Health Secretary from 2009 to 2010. Burnham served as Shadow Home Secretary from 2015 to 2016 and was the Member of Parliament (MP) for Leigh from 2001 to 2017. North of England.[2][3][4][5][6]

Born in the Old Roan area of AintreeLancashire, Burnham was educated at comprehensive schools and graduated with a degree in English from Fitzwilliam College, Cambridge. He worked as a researcher for Tessa Jowell from 1994 to 1997, then worked for the NHS Confederation in 1997 and as an administrator for the Football Task Force in 1998. He was a special adviser to Culture Secretary Chris Smith from 1998 to 2001. After the retirement of Lawrence Cunliffe, the Labour MP for Leigh, Burnham was elected to succeed him in 2001.

He was a member of the Health Select Committee from 2001 until 2003, then serving as Parliamentary Private Secretary (PPS) to Home Secretary David Blunkett until 2004, when he became PPS to Education Secretary Ruth Kelly. He was promoted by Tony Blair to serve in his Government after the 2005 election as a Parliamentary Under Secretary of State in the Home Office. In 2006, Burnham was reshuffled to become Minister of State for Health. When Gordon Brown became Prime Minister in 2007, Burnham was promoted to Chief Secretary to the Treasury, a position he held until 2008, when he became Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport. In 2009, he was promoted again to become Secretary of State for Health. In that role, he opposed further privatisation of National Health Service services and launched an independent inquiry into the Stafford Hospital scandal.Following the Labour Party's defeat in the 2010 general election, Burnham was a candidate in the 2010 Labour leadership election, coming fourth out of five candidates. The contest was won by Ed Miliband. Burnham served as Shadow Secretary of State for Health until late 2010, when he was moved by Miliband to become Shadow Secretary of State for Education. He held that role for a year, then returning to the role of Shadow Health Secretary.

 

Following the 2015 general election, in which Labour lost to the Conservative Party, Miliband resigned as leader. Burnham launched his campaign to succeed Miliband in the resulting September 2015 leadership election. He finished a distant second behind Jeremy Corbyn.[7] Following the defeat, he accepted a role in Corbyn's Shadow Cabinet as Shadow Home Secretary. In May 2016 Burnham announced his candidacy to become Labour's candidate for the Greater Manchester Mayoralty and was selected in August 2016.[8] He resigned as Shadow Home Secretary in October 2016 and was replaced by Diane Abbott. The mayoral election was held in May 2017 and the announcement of the June 2017 general election during the Mayoral campaign led him to stand down as an MP

Leader of Manchester City Council

Bev Craig is a Labour councillor in Burnage, Manchester, England, and Leader of Manchester City Council.[1][2]

Craig was elected Leader of Manchester City Council by the ruling Labour group of councillors in October 2021, and officially succeeded Richard Leese at a full meeting of the council on his retirement on 1 December 2021.[3]

Biography

Craig is originally from Belfast and is the city council’s first female and LGBT leader. She grew up on a council estate just outside Belfast and moved to Manchester from Northern Ireland in 2003. She told the BBC: "I grew up in social housing and my family still rely on it. I know the value of [what] the safety net of a good quality home can give you when times are tough." and that she wanted "to reach a point where me being a woman and being gay is entirely uninteresting and unremarkable".[4]

She graduated from Manchester University in 2007 with a degree in politics and modern history and later gaining a postgraduate in Local Government Management from Warwick Business School and a MA in public policy and governance from UoM, both whilst working full time. She has held a range of jobs across local government, higher education and working for the trade union UNISON.

Before she was appointed as deputy leader of the council in May 2021, she spent four years as executive member for adult services, health, wellbeing and inclusion. She was also deputy chair of Manchester Health and Care Commissioning and co-chair of the Manchester Local Care Organisation.

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 Bev Craig

Councillor Bev Craig has today, Wednesday 1 December become the new Leader of Manchester City Council.She takes over the role from Sir Richard Leese who has held it for more than 25 years, since May 1996. She was appointed in today’s full Council meeting as Sir Richard formally stepped down. 

“It’s a real honour to become leader of the Council for our fantastic city.

“Manchester has been transformed over the last 25 years from a struggling post-industrial city with a declining population to a thriving and confident city – The fastest growing in the UK and somewhere that people and businesses are clamouring to be. I’d like to put on record my thanks to Richard for his remarkable contribution over more than a quarter of a century.

“As leader I’ll be looking forward to the city’s exciting new chapter, as we continue building a truly exciting world class city which puts our people first and where all of our residents can share in its success. The giant strides which we have taken give us a platform from which we can ramp up our efforts to tackle the deep-rooted inequalities within the city which have been exacerbated by the Covid-19 pandemic.

“Recovering from the pandemic is in the forefront of all of our minds and will sit alongside my priorities of creating a fairer and inclusive city, thriving and clean neighbourhoods, building the homes we need, and leading the way on climate action by being a zero carbon city by 2038.

"I want this to be an open and listening council which is receptive to ideas and works closely with communities to realise our common goals.”

 COLOURFUL CITY

Delivering a multi cultural cosmopolitan 

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BEST NIGHT CLUBS IN THE                        CITY

CURRY MILE

CARIBBEAN CARNIVAL OF MANCHESTER

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  MARDIGRA         FEVER

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Celebrating south Asian culture

the mela

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Joanne Roney: Manchester City Council’s new chief executive

Manchester City Council’s new chief executive has an impressive track record, and big plans for the city. By Louisa Clarence-Smith. Portrait by Simon Vine

Roney was an apprentice at 16 with Birmingham City Council's housing department. She later went on to become Director of Housing for Kirklees Metropolitan Borough Council, West Yorkshire. She then worked for 10 years as Sheffield City Council's Executive Director of housing and community care where she was involved in the regeneration of Park Hill estate by Urban Splash.[5] While working her way through the ranks she studied part-time at Birmingham University and gained an MBA in public sector management.[4]

Roney became Chief executive for Wakefield Metropolitan District Council in July 2008.[6]

In 2009, the Anglo Irish Bank, which was funding half of the £200 million need for Trinity Walk shopping centre, Wakefield, collapsed and the developer, Modus, went into administration.[7]

Roney devised a rescue package of new finance and in 2010, the scheme was sold to a consortium (Sovereign Land, AREA Property Partners, and Shepherd Construction).[8] She helped the council to create its own housing company, Bridge Homes, in joint partnership with WDH construction in 2014.[8] Roney also oversaw the construction and opening of the Hepworth Wakefield Gallery.[9]

Roney took up her position as chief executive of Manchester City Council in April 2017

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Manchester City Council’s new chief executive has an impressive track record, and big plans for the city. By Louisa Clarence-Smith. Portrait by Simon Vine

Joanne Roney can’t sleep. It’s 2009 and the collapsing Anglo Irish Bank has pulled its funding for the half-built £200m Trinity Walk shopping centre in Wakefield. “We were very nearly left with a deep hole in the ground,” she recalls. “The bank had collapsed and was talking about selling the site for scrap metal.”

With the developer Modus in administration, the council chief executive put together a rescue package of new finance and in 2010, the scheme was sold to a consortium of Sovereign Land, AREA Property Partners and Shepherd Construction. The shopping centre opened in 2011.

“I absolutely did everything to get Trinity away,” she says. “It was so important.”

Wakefield may have a population of around half that of Manchester, but Sir Howard Bernstein’s successor has an impressive track record of getting large schemes off the ground. When housebuilders weren’t coming to Wakefield, Roney created the council’s own housing company, Bridge Homes, in joint partnership with developer WDH in 2014.

“It came about because we were not getting very good commercial offers on some of our sites,” she says. “This is a competitive market. Wakefield was probably not seen as the best place for investment in terms of the return and the offers we were getting. And there were some developments I didn’t think were commercially good enough. So we decided we would create our own company. We wanted to show the market that there was a market in Wakefield.” The company’s first site comprised 24 detached homes, all of which were sold off-plan, with profits invested in future housing developments.

I want to be rooted in Manchester. I really need to be able to feel the city and know the city

Anyone who fears the next Manchester City Council chief executive won’t understand housing and regeneration can think again. Born and bred on a council estate in Birmingham, Roney joined the local council’s housing team as an apprentice at 16, studying at night school to earn her MBA in public sector management from Birmingham City University. During her nine-year tenure as executive director of housing and community care at Sheffield City Council (1999-2008), she was instrumental in saving Park Hill estate by negotiating a deal with Urban Splash. 

The self-described “housing professional” will have a loaded in-tray when she takes up office in Manchester Town Hall in April, not least, getting to know Greater Manchester’s first metro mayor and ensuring the success of Manchester’s health devolution. Will housing and regeneration take a back seat?

“Manchester has been very clear that what they’ve been looking for in their recruitment of their new chief exec is someone who can say, ‘Look, we know the city is doing incredibly well, has massive plans for regeneration, and is a very exciting place to be’. 

“The challenge now is, are we maximising the benefit of all of that for our residents and how do we make the most of fitting together those two agendas? So I think, health is a dimension of that as is housing, so is skills, so is training, so is transport.”

She warns at the start of the interview that she is not ready to “wax lyrical” about the intricacies of the Manchester housing market. But she is spending her weekends looking for a home to rent in the city centre for herself and her dearly loved rescue cat Tiger, so she can get to know it better.

“I want to rent first because this is a job to spend a lot of my time on and I want to be rooted in Manchester. I really need to be able to feel the city and know the city.” Once she is settled, she plans to sell her home on the outskirts of Sheffield and buy something in the city.

If she is not prepared to be too specific, she does have strong views on what should be in the government’s housing white paper – the long-awaited document outlining a “radical” shake-up of housing policy under prime minister Theresa May’s administration.

“Flexibility of housing policy and housing funding,” for Greater Manchester should be priorities, she says. “Housing investment alongside other investment and flexibility of approach is very much what I’ve pushed for all through my career. It would be great to see that in Manchester.”

Starter homes have a role in “some places”, but a neat “one-size-fits-all policy for housing doesn’t always work with local housing markets,” she says. On homes for sale versus build-to-rent in the city centre, she thinks both have their place and it’s “all about balance”.

One controversial scheme she is likely to have to advise the council on is Gary Neville’s St Michael’s towers, which have received more than 2,000 objections in a petition but have been defended by council leader Sir Richard Leese. Does she think the developer should rethink the plans in the face of so much opposition?

I’ve always been struck by Manchester’s relentless ambition really

“I think I’d need to see what the objections are about really. As always with these things, what’s the ultimate outcome trying to achieve here? I’ve worked in housing all my life. Of course, you have to balance these environmental and social impacts, with a need to do more housing. Because the truth is, we need more housing. Manchester’s population is growing, it’s anticipated to grow by 600,000 in the next five-10 years. So there needs to be some form of housing, always keeping an eye on what’s being delivered and what the market is really saying is important.”

A key part of Roney’s role will be driving forward the devolution agenda as part of the Greater Manchester Combined Authority. Would she like to see greater devolution? “I’ve always been struck by Manchester’s relentless ambition, so whatever is on the table now in terms of a devolution agreement with the mayor, I’m sure is just a starting point,” she says.

“Quite rightly, local government needs to evidence that it delivers for government. It has to deliver, not just ask for more money or freedom and flexibilities to devolve power. We need to deliver and then ask for more.”

As lead executive for skills funding at the West Yorkshire Combined Authority and a member of the Leeds City Region Local Enterprise Partnership, she knows what it’s like to negotiate with other council chief executives. But if an Amazon or a Google wanted to set up a new European HQ in the North of England, would she fight tooth and nail to make sure they came to Manchester? Roney smiles: “In some instances, we might all have to compete and show our best offer and the choice will be made.”

But she insists she is behind the Northern Powerhouse agenda. “It’s not the success of Manchester at all costs to other areas. That’s not a long-term strategy, is it? So the principle has to be that we want to see everywhere benefit and grow.”

The role Roney is stepping into will look rather different from the one left by Bernstein. With an elected mayor in place, the council chief executives will be reporting to the combined authority. “I think we will all work through who does what, where,” Roney says. “I think the public sector now is operating in a very different way to perhaps how people realise. We’re much more collaborative and collegiate and collective and getting the ambitions delivered, with maximum benefits for residents.”

During his 18 years at the top of Manchester council, Bernstein became known as much for his achievements as for his personal style. What will Roney’s leadership style be? She laughs and says I should ask someone else who has worked with her. Industry reports are positive. 

Mark Latham, regeneration director at Urban Splash, who remembers her involvement in Park Hill, says: “She and her team understood partnerships and the drivers that commercial organisations have but also getting the right thing for the city, so I see her appointment as fantastically positive.”

A survey of Roney’s Wakefield office suggests Star Wars memorabilia could replace the Manchester City totems that adorn Bernstein’s town hall lair. A sign hanging on a door of her office is revealing: “I’m not bossy, I just have better ideas.”

Roney will be at MIPIM Cannes, but says she will be keeping a low profile until her tenure officially begins. I ask her if she is looking forward to the Manchester pavilion, which will position the city on the Riviera for the first time, in between Paris and London. She is, but says she might be spending more time on the low-key West Yorkshire stand. As I get up to leave, Roney adds, “Maybe with a woman in charge, we could have a Northern Powerhouse pavilion next time.”  She might be a Brummie, but she has plenty of Northern grit.

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