Manchester Arena

 

The arena was constructed as part of the city’s unsuccessful bid for the 2000 Summer Olympics . Construction cost £52 million of which £35.5m was provided by government grants and £2.5m from the European Regional Development Fund. Although built as an American style sports arena it has been more successful hosting large music events.

The arena opened in July 1995, sponsored by NYNEX CableComms as the NYNEX Arena, and was renamed the Manchester Evening News Arena in July 1998. In December 2011, the Manchester Evening News ended its thirteen-year sponsorship, and the arena was renamed the Manchester Arena in January 2012. In July 2013, in a multi-million-pound sponsorship deal by mobile phone company Phones 4u, the arena was renamed to the Phones 4u Arena,but this deal ended when Phones 4u closed, renaming the arena back to Manchester Arena, effective 14 January 2015.

On the opening night, 15,000 spectators watched Jayne Torvill and Christopher Dean perform; the crowd was a record for an ice event. Attendance records were set in 1997 when 17,425 people watched Manchester Storm play Sheffield Steelers, a record for an ice hockey match in Europe. When 14,151 people watched Manchester Giants play London Leopards, it set a British record for attendance at a basketball match.

The venue attracts over a million customers each year for concerts and family shows, making it one of the world’s busiest indoor arenas, and was named “International Venue Of The Year” in 2002 in the ‘Pollstar’ awards, and was nominated in the same category in 2002, 2003, 2004, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2008 and 2009. The arena was named “Busiest Arena Venue In The World”, based on ticket sales for concerts in 2003, 2004, 2005, 2006 and 2007 ahead of other indoor arenas including the Madison Sq Garden and Wembley Arena.

The arena was the ‘World’s Busiest Arena’ from 2001 until 2007 based on ticket sales for concerts, attracting five and a half million customers. It was voted ‘Europe’s Favourite Arena’ at the TPi Awards in 2008 by the touring companies that bring the shows to the venue.

What was your very first show or event you attended?

The Salford Club

 

Salford Lads Club is a recreational club in the Ordsall area of Salford . The club, on the corner of St. Ignatius Walk and Coronation Street, was established in 1903 as a boys’ club but today welcomes both boys and girls and organises activities including football, snooker, table tennis , boxing training, dance, community meetings, exhibitions, kickboxing.

The club was opened on 30 January 1904 by Robert Baden Powell, who later founded the scout movement. Former members include actor Albert Finney, footballers Steve Fleet , Eddie Colman and Brian Doyle, Allan Clarke , lead singer of 1960s pop group The Hollies, and Gaham Nash, guitarist, songwriter and singer with The Hollies who went on to form Crosby Stills and Nash.

The building gained listed status in 2003 as its tiled interior is virtually unchanged with original fittings and includes a boxing ring, snooker rooms and a gym with a viewing balcony. English heritage said: “The building is thought to be the most complete example of this rare form of social provision to survive in England.” In 2007, the Manchester Evening News reported that the building, which was used for the sleeve of The Smiths? album The Queen Is dead, came third in a nationwide hunt to find the most iconic buildings in the country.

Hands up who’s had a pic outside the famous Salford Lads Club

The Enigma Code Breaker

 

This statue of Alan Turing was unveiled on 23 June 2001 in Sackville Park close to the University of Manchester building on Whitworth Street and Canal Street.

Turing was a mathematician who worked at Bletchley Park during World War II with the code breakers who deciphered German naval codes including uncovering the settings for the Enigma machine. He is regarded as the father of modern computer science and it was at Manchester University in 1948 that he worked on the Manchester Mark 1, one of the world’s earliest true computers.

Turing was gay in a time when homosexuality was regarded as a criminal offence. Despite his outstanding war record and his academic achievements he was outed as a homosexual and subsequently arrested and prosecuted. This ended his career and soon after in 1954 he was found dead by his cleaner. The statue depicts Turing holding an apple because it is thought that he committed suicide by lacing an apple with cyanide.

After his death, Turing finally received the recognition he deserved. In Manchester a road was named the Alan Turing Way and a bridge on that road called the Alan Turing Bridge. In addition to this statue the new physics building at the University of Manchester has been named the Alan Turing Building.

The First City of the Industrial Revolution

 

Manchester invented the modern world, for this was the first city of the industrial revolution and its inhabitants have given society some of its greatest creations.

Listed below are just a few things Manchester is famous for and made history…

Britain’s 1st Canal – The Bridgewater 1761

Atomic Theory – 1803

Vegetarianism – 1809

First passenger railway – 1830

First submarine – 1878

Competitive Football – 1888

Rolls Royce – 1904

Splitting of the atom – 1917

First programmable computer – 1948

Graphene – 2004

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