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Travel The Week In News
Travel Guide:
AUGUST 11, 2016 | The Jewish Home
gan in the early 1600s when it became a hotspot for the wool trade and exported cloth to London and mainland Europe. The town’s infrastructure was revamped, and the rise of the cotton industry transformed both Manchester and the wider Lancashire region. The 1760s onward marked the beginning of the Industrial Revolution in Manchester. Canals were built to easily ferry raw resources and link the city with other economic centers like Liverpool. Cotton caught on in the 1780s and was augmented by the invention of the steam mill in the early 1800s. The world’s first modern railway, linking Manchester and Liverpool, opened in 1830. Yet despite the city’s booming industry and population, it was still governed like a village by a manorial court. That changed in 1838, when Manchester was officially incorporated and
Manchester Aaron Feigenbaum One of England’s largest cities, Manchester is brimming with history and culture. Once a gritty industrial center, Manchester has been completely transformed in the past few decades into a vibrant metropolis full of engaging contemporary art galleries and museums, swanky living spaces, and increasingly sophisticated architecture. Manchester is the powerhouse of northern England but has a space on the international stage thanks to its massively popular Manchester United Football Club and rock bands like Oasis and The Smiths. Some of Manchester’s best attractions are its renowned concert venue, Bridgewater
Control Center at the York Cold War Bunker
Manchester Jewish Museum
Hall; the Imperial War Museum North; and the Museum of Science and Industry. Overall, Manchester is a living reminder of the English Industrial Revolution, one of the world’s most economically and technologically significant periods in history. However, it’s also a cosmopolitan, modern city that thrives on creativity and innovation. If you don’t mind the rain and are interested in visiting one of England’s most dynamic cities, then Manchester is the place for you. History Manchester started its life as a fort on the far edges of the Roman Empire. From a collection of wooden buildings and ditches in the 1st century AD sprang a bustling town of tradesmen and craftsmen several centuries later. Eventually, the only legacy of Roman occupation was the village’s name: Mamucium (“Place of the Breastlike Hill”). Manchester’s development languished for several centuries more until the late 13th century when the Norman barony made the village its home base and established Manchester as one of the region’s largest noble landholdings. Manchester’s rise to prominence be-
John Rylands Library
National Football Museum
was granted an elected local government. During the late 1800s, cotton’s importance waned as commerce, finance, and machine manufacturing dominated Manchester’s economy. The city became a major producer of steam engines, trains, weapons, and much more. Manchester was linked to the world via the Ship Canal, which opened in 1894. Prominent American companies such as Westinghouse and Ford, as well as local companies like Rolls-Royce, set up shop in Manchester and employed tens of thousands of local workers. At the same time Manchester became well-known for its intellectual and cultural life, especially in music, education, and leading the charge for political reform. Important public institutions such as the city’s libraries and university were established in Manchester during the Victorian era along with the beginnings of the modern Labor Party. Yet, the chaos of the Industrial Revolution left a sordid legacy of slums – something that wasn’t addressed until the city’s makeover in the 1960s. With its towering buildings and modernist cultural institutions, the Manchester of to-
day is vastly different than the one of half a century ago. Manchester is now known for its music, sports, student life, and richly diverse population. Attractions Museum of Science and Industry: This museum celebrates the incredible innovation and progress that happened during the Industrial Revolution and beyond. Located on the site of one of the world’s first passenger railway stations, the Museum of Science and Industry has interactive displays that present visitors with unique educational experiences. The museum’s permanent collection includes an original British Spitfire plane from WWII, the steam locomotive prototype Novelty from 1829, and a replica of the Manchester Small-Scale Experiment Machine from 1948 – one of the earliest computers ever developed. One of the most famous pieces in the aircraft collection is an original Avro Shackleton, which was
Jorvik Viking City Center
The Shambles, York
used during WWII for protecting British merchant ships against German U-boats. The “Making of Manchester” gallery tells the story of innovation and entrepreneurship in the city dating from Roman times to Ernest Rutherford’s splitting of the atom at the University of Manchester. The museum has a large collection of vintage industrial machines such as steam engines, hydraulic pumps, and weaving machines. On certain dates visitors can ride on the passenger trains located on the museum grounds. Kids will love the Experiment! section where they can do things like create a mini-tornado, measure their reactions against the speed of light, and see how the power of gears allows them to lift a car. Check out the flight simulator or the museum’s 4-D theatre, complete with moving seats, wind, and water sprays. Current special exhibits include exploring the weird properties of graphene and building a pop bottle microscope. Entry is free. John Rylands Library: A library might not be at the top of most travelers’ itinerary, but this one deserves a visit thanks to its stunning Victorian Gothic architecture and one of the largest spe-
cial collections in the U.K. Items in the collection include medieval illustrated manuscripts, some of the earliest pieces of European printing and the personal papers of figures such as Victorian novelist Elizabeth Gaskell and scientist John Dalton. But the most impressive artifacts are located in the Jewish Collection, which includes the masterfully illustrated 14th century Rylands Haggadah, the earliest known Italian illustrated megillah (1618), and the correspondence of Zionist leader Chaim Weizmann. Manchester Museum: Located at the University of Manchester, this museum showcases the best of the world’s natural and cultural history. The vast collections cover everything from archaeology to biology to botany. There are tons of artifacts from ancient civilizations such as Egypt, Rome, and Greece as well as thousands of fossils and an extensive archery collection from around the world. Virtually every culture is represented through artifacts from Japanese ivory carvings to Pacific Islander paddles. Inside the Vivarium, you’ll find many rare and exotic species of reptiles and amphibians from around the world. Additionally, the museum has one of the world’s largest insect collections. Manchester Art Gallery: One of the U.K.’s largest art institutions, the Manchester Art Gallery houses over 25,000 objects of art spanning millennia. The oldest item in the collection is an Egyptian jar dating back to 1100 BCE. From sculptures to paintings to armor and clothes, there’s pretty much no art form that’s off limits here. Perhaps one of their most notable sections is the one dedicated to the Dutch Golden Age of art, a period in the 17th century when Dutch artists were responsible for many innovations in landscape, seascape, and still life painting. The museum is also famous for its collection of Victorian paintings and interior decorations, as well as displaying works by Pierre Valette, a French painter who made many iconic landscape paintings of Manchester in the early 1900s. Some of the museum’s many current exhibits include the beautiful seascape paintings of Hondartza Fraga and an assortment of modern Japanese design. Manchester Jewish Museum: Located in the former Spanish and Portuguese Synagogue, this beautiful Victorian/Moorish building tells the story of Manchester’s Jewish population and its many contributions to the city’s economy, culture, and politics. Manchester’s Jewish community originated with traders in the late 18th century with many more Jewish merchants arriving from Germany, Holland, and the Mediterranean in the next few decades. Manchester established itself as a place of tolerance by allowing in Jewish refugees from Russia and the Austro-Hungarian Empire, as well as from Nazi Germany and the Middle East. Some of the museum’s most important pieces from this highly diverse community include two Torah scrolls hidden during the Nazi occupation of Prague. The museum also has oral histories and an extensive research library containing hundreds of books, photos, pamphlet, and newspapers relating to Ju-