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The DNA of Manchester

If you are familiar with Manchester already, you may have heard it being described as the “shock city” of the Industrial Revolution and it also fits the description of an “instant city”. It was the industrialisation of the textile manufacturing and finishing that transformed Manchester under an intense and dramatic process of urbanisation. Put simply, the scale of innovation that took place in this region in the 18th and 19th centuries revolutionised the world. Mills, warehouses and factories processed more cotton than anywhere else and through its pioneering inventions in transport, industrial techniques and factory layouts. It became a global symbol of industrial success. Why Manchester? We wondered. Why did this place become the world’s first industrial city? How has Manchester evolved through its experiences of severe de-industrialisation and though its recovery in the 21st Century?
 

Listen to The DNA of Manchester here:

Contributors 

We are hugely grateful to the esteemed experts who joined us to understand The DNA of Manchester in these episodes. Thank you to Jessica Bowles, Victoria Braddock, Christine Cort OBE, Mike Emmerich, Brian Groom, Sir Richard Leese, John McGrath, Peter Saville CBE, Sukhbir Singh, Keisha Thompson FRSA, Esme Ward and Maya Wolfe-Robinson. If you'd like to find out more, you can read our full interviews with them by clicking below:

Jessica Bowles

Bruntwood

Brian Groom

Author

Sukhbir Singh

Feed My City

Victoria Braddock

Marketing Manchester

Sir Richard Leese

Greater Manchester Health and Social Care Partnership

Keisha Thompson

The Guardian

Christine Cort

CC&Friends

John McGrath

Manchester International Festival

Esme Ward

Manchester Museum

Mike Emmerich

MetroDynamics

Peter Saville CBE

Peter Saville Studio

Maya Wolfe-Robinson

The Guardian

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