Description

Manchester is a city with an unparalleled industrial heritage. It gave the world technological innovation as well as manufacturing strength. The city's wealth came from textile manufacture during the Industrial Revolution. The great majority of cotton spinning took place in the towns of south Lancashire and north Cheshire, and Manchester was for a time the most productive center of cotton processing in the world, earning it the sobriquet "Cottonopolis". Manchester's population grew at an astonishing rate in the early 19th century as people flocked there for work from Scotland, Wales, Ireland, and other parts of England. The firms that made machines for the cotton trade diversified into general manufacture, the chemical industry expanded into other areas, financial service industries such as banking and insurance began to flourish and its transport and distribution infrastructure expanded in order to sustain booming trade and a growing population. Manchester At Work explores the life of the city and its people, from pre-industrial beginnings through to the present day. In a fascinating series of contemporary photographs and illustrations it takes us through the dramatic rise and fall of the textile industry and the town's role as a major inland port, the trauma of high unemployment between the wars, postwar industrial decline and late 20th century regeneration. and into the 21st century, showing how this erstwhile "Second City of Empire" has rediscovered its swagger and successfully transformed itself into a thriving post-industrial center of arts, culture, and commerce.