Posted 4:46 p.m. March 15
by Alex Kingsbury
U-WIRE (DC BUREAU)
(U-WIRE) MANCHESTER, England – British television and radio institution Alistair Cooke submits to the BBC a weekly “Letter from America,” offering commentary on the weeks events in the United States. In said style I would like to offer the U-WIRE audience, you oh, faithful reader, a Letter from Across the Pond whilst studying abroad in Manchester, England.
On leave from the George Washington University in Washington, D.C., I am studying History and English here at the University of Manchester. As a result of my stay here I feel compelled to offer a sketch of the city for those prospective matriculates.
The city of Manchester is a historically rough urban working class city, based around the industry that fuelled it and tied to their country as the engine of Britain’s economic and industrial revolution. While maintaining that rough interior, the city has undergone a profound revitalization in the past few years with a youthful and ambitious population. Coffee shops and wine bars have replaced the dive pubs and faded shopping centers. Though the regional Manchester United soccer team usually dominate the headlines with the Kennedyesque panache of all-England captain David Beckham and his Posh Spice wife Victoria, Manchester City Football Club, Man City, or simply “City” to those who know them best, have had a remarkable season. The city is also the cite of the 2002 Commonwealth Games, which promise to be a memorable experience for those lucky enough to have snagged tickets.
The crowd frequenting the pubs, which fill the city, is a wide range of characters, including the elderly “pensioner” crowd who remember “the war” (clearly not that misadventure in the Falklands). These old gents and ladies dot the pubs, telling stories of the old days (before David Beckham) and rough streets. In the Footage and Firkin.’ a converted picture theatre turned-club, the college crowd danced on tables to the sounds of Kylie and Brittany and the Supremes. Pints are cheap here and the pool games and karaoke nights are lively. Frequenting such imbibing emporiums are the usual Man City suspects. First the university crowd, a standard lot of Arts and Science students looking to “pull” and pound pints.
Most nights are club nights so that the conversation-killing din of the Footage is a quiet night. Vodka and Redbull (a caffeine rich power drink) nights are the standard fare with a night out lasting well into the dawn hours if not the weekend outright. Second on the list is the Manchester “lads.” These come in many forms, from the college lot out on the town after exams or a particularly heavy Wednesday, to the working lads of the city playing pool and smoking at the back of the late night bus. The accents and the drinking are hard with these blokes and late night party sessions can end in tears. Not long ago I was awakened by a friend covered in blood after having been in a bottle fight in a club. While the city is not dangerous, it is still very rough. As weapons are rare and guns nearly non-existent, the fights can turn to knuckles quickly.
It is not difficult to see a young and rebellious John Lennon walking these albeit rougher streets before turning his leather jacket for the suit of Beatles Lennon. Though Liverpool, home to Lennon, is an hour train ride, it shares a deep historical connection with its sister city. They both have the same industrial and port heritage and the people are similar in temper and devotion. While the Liverpool Football Club was not up to Man United’s standards this year, the two teams share an at times violent but healthy rivalry.
I went to the Footage with the cast and crew of the university’s newspaper.We landed in the Firkin’ after a night “gone to the dogs” at the dog track, an unmissable experience for an offbeat tourist stop. The city’s track was described to me before hand as a place that was built after the war and hadn’t lost its character. It didn’t disappoint and the 50 pence bets paid for the taxi ride back to town. Other nightspots include the student union bars which are filled with students from the city’s many universities. Though few are open late, they serve cheap beer and pool and a chance to see your professors grading papers in the corner over a pint. Movies are also popular, though not what one would expect. The movies are far out of date by American standards and cost a fraction for much much more. The theatres also play European films that might fall under American entertainment radar.
A great city to study or work in or cheer for or visit, Manchester is a vital and young city that is earning its reputation as the cultural center of Northern England. I close this sketch of Manchester with a glimpse at the city’s center. After an IRA bomb leveled much of the city center in the past decade, the High Street is now a thriving market place of shops and shopping centers and the center of the mercantile district. Dotting the side streets and under railroad bridges around the city center are the pubs and clubs, tucked into old warehouses, in former factories, barges, alleyways and thoroughfares are the hubs of city life. As the docks of Liverpool have been reclaimed by technology and tourism the warehouses, train yards, and industrial center have changed to galleries and student dorms, accommodating the students that dominate the city.
