Portal:Greater Manchester/Selected article/5

Manchester is a city and metropolitan borough of Greater Manchester, England. Manchester was granted city status in 1853. It has a population of, and lies at the centre of the Greater Manchester Urban Area, which has a population of 2,240,230, the United Kingdom's third largest conurbation. Manchester has the second largest urban zone in the UK and the fourteenth most populous in Europe. l Forming part of the English Core Cities Group, often described as the second city of the UK, and the "Capital of the North", Manchester today is a centre of the arts, the media, higher education and commerce. In a poll of British business leaders published in 2006, Manchester was regarded as the best place in the UK to locate a business. A report commissioned by Manchester Partnership, published in 2007, showed Manchester to be the "fastest-growing city" economically.

Manchester was the world's first industrialised city and played a central role during the Industrial Revolution. Manchester City Centre is now on a tentative list of UNESCO World Heritage Sites, mainly due to the network of canals and mills constructed during its 19th-century development. More...