Cottonopolis
Encyclopedia
Metropolis
A metropolis is a very large city or urban area which is a significant economic, political and cultural center for a country or region, and an important hub for regional or international connections and communications...
of cotton
Cotton
Cotton is a soft, fluffy staple fiber that grows in a boll, or protective capsule, around the seeds of cotton plants of the genus Gossypium. The fiber is almost pure cellulose. The botanical purpose of cotton fiber is to aid in seed dispersal....
and cotton mill
Cotton mill
A cotton mill is a factory that houses spinning and weaving machinery. Typically built between 1775 and 1930, mills spun cotton which was an important product during the Industrial Revolution....
s. It was inspired by Manchester
Manchester
Manchester is a city and metropolitan borough in Greater Manchester, England. According to the Office for National Statistics, the 2010 mid-year population estimate for Manchester was 498,800. Manchester lies within one of the UK's largest metropolitan areas, the metropolitan county of Greater...
, in England, and its status as the international centre of the cotton and textile
Textile
A textile or cloth is a flexible woven material consisting of a network of natural or artificial fibres often referred to as thread or yarn. Yarn is produced by spinning raw fibres of wool, flax, cotton, or other material to produce long strands...
processing industries during the 19th century. More recently is has become a sobriquet applied solely to the city of Manchester.
Background
Cotton mills powered by water turning machinery were built in Lancashire and neighbouring counties. In 1781 Richard Arkwright opened the world's first steam-driven textile mill on Miller Street, Manchester. The mill was destroyed by bombing during the Second World War but was recently uncovered in an archaeological dig. Although it did not work properly at first, the arrival of steam power signified the beginning of a level of mechanisation that was to further enhance the burgeoning textile industries into the world's first centre of mass productionMass production
Mass production is the production of large amounts of standardized products, including and especially on assembly lines...
. As textile manufacture switched from the home to purpose built large factories, beside fast-flowing streams (for water power), Manchester and the surrounding towns in south and east Lancashire became the largest and most productive cotton spinning centre in the world. Ancoats
Ancoats
Ancoats is an inner city area of Manchester, in North West England, next to the Northern Quarter and the northern part of Manchester's commercial centre....
was part of a planned expansion of Manchester and became the first industrial suburb
Suburb
The word suburb mostly refers to a residential area, either existing as part of a city or as a separate residential community within commuting distance of a city . Some suburbs have a degree of administrative autonomy, and most have lower population density than inner city neighborhoods...
centred on steam power. There were mills whose architectural innovations included fireproofing by use of iron
Iron
Iron is a chemical element with the symbol Fe and atomic number 26. It is a metal in the first transition series. It is the most common element forming the planet Earth as a whole, forming much of Earth's outer and inner core. It is the fourth most common element in the Earth's crust...
and stone
Masonry
Masonry is the building of structures from individual units laid in and bound together by mortar; the term masonry can also refer to the units themselves. The common materials of masonry construction are brick, stone, marble, granite, travertine, limestone; concrete block, glass block, stucco, and...
.
The number of cotton mills in Manchester peaked at 108 in 1853. Although the number of mills in Manchester subsequently declined, cotton mills were opened in Bury
Bury
Bury is a town in Greater Manchester, England. It lies on the River Irwell, east of Bolton, west-southwest of Rochdale, and north-northwest of the city of Manchester...
, Oldham
Oldham
Oldham is a large town in Greater Manchester, England. It lies amid the Pennines on elevated ground between the rivers Irk and Medlock, south-southeast of Rochdale, and northeast of the city of Manchester...
(at its zenith the most productive cotton spinning
Spinning (textiles)
Spinning is a major industry. It is part of the textile manufacturing process where three types of fibre are converted into yarn, then fabric, then textiles. The textiles are then fabricated into clothes or other artifacts. There are three industrial processes available to spin yarn, and a...
town in the world), Rochdale
Rochdale
Rochdale is a large market town in Greater Manchester, England. It lies amongst the foothills of the Pennines on the River Roch, north-northwest of Oldham, and north-northeast of the city of Manchester. Rochdale is surrounded by several smaller settlements which together form the Metropolitan...
, Bolton
Bolton
Bolton is a town in Greater Manchester, in the North West of England. Close to the West Pennine Moors, it is north west of the city of Manchester. Bolton is surrounded by several smaller towns and villages which together form the Metropolitan Borough of Bolton, of which Bolton is the...
(known for a time as "Cotton Town") and farther afield around Blackburn, Darwen
Darwen
Darwen is a market town and civil parish located within Lancashire, England. Along with its northerly neighbour, Blackburn, it forms the Borough of Blackburn with Darwen — a unitary authority area...
, Rawtenstall
Rawtenstall
Rawtenstall is a town at the centre of the Rossendale Valley, in Lancashire, England. It is the seat for the Borough of Rossendale, in which it is located. The town lies 18 miles north of Manchester, 22 miles east of the county town of Preston and 45 miles south east of Lancaster...
, Todmorden
Todmorden
Todmorden is a market town and civil parish, located 17 miles from Manchester, within the Metropolitan Borough of Calderdale, in West Yorkshire, England. It forms part of the Upper Calder Valley and has a total population of 14,941....
and Burnley
Burnley
Burnley is a market town in the Burnley borough of Lancashire, England, with a population of around 73,500. It lies north of Manchester and east of Preston, at the confluence of the River Calder and River Brun....
.
Following the downturn of 1883, city industrialists embarked upon the monumental and hugely expensive task of constructing the Manchester Ship Canal
Manchester Ship Canal
The Manchester Ship Canal is a river navigation 36 miles long in the North West of England. Starting at the Mersey Estuary near Liverpool, it generally follows the original routes of the rivers Mersey and Irwell through the historic counties of Cheshire and Lancashire. Several sets of locks lift...
in an effort to boost trade. This led to new mills being built in the suburbs, such as the vast Victoria Mill at Miles Platting
Miles Platting
Miles Platting is an inner city district of Manchester, England. It is east-northeast of Manchester city centre, along the course of the Rochdale Canal and A62 road...
, the site of the last cotton mill built in Manchester in 1924.
Warehousing
In the final half of the 1800s Manchester's reputation as the finance and commerce centre was boosted by the unprecedented number of warehouseWarehouse
A warehouse is a commercial building for storage of goods. Warehouses are used by manufacturers, importers, exporters, wholesalers, transport businesses, customs, etc. They are usually large plain buildings in industrial areas of cities and towns. They usually have loading docks to load and unload...
s erected in the city centre. In 1806 there were just over 1,000 but by 1815 this had almost doubled to 1,819. Manchester was dubbed "warehouse city". The earliest were built around King Street
King Street, Manchester
King Street is one of the most important thoroughfares of the city of Manchester, England. Once the centre of the north-west banking industry it is now predominantly an affluent shopping area.-History:...
although by 1850 warehouses had spread to Portland Street
Portland Street
Portland Street is a popular street in Kowloon, Hong Kong. The street is known for its business and retailing skyscraper complex Langham Place, numerous restaurants and its famous red-light district.-Geography:...
and later to Whitworth Street
Whitworth Street
Whitworth Street is a street in Manchester, England. It runs between London Road and Oxford Street . West of Oxford Street it becomes Whitworth Street West which then goes as far as Deansgate . It was opened in 1899 and is lined with many large and grand warehouses. It is named after the engineer...
. Richard Cobden
Richard Cobden
Richard Cobden was a British manufacturer and Radical and Liberal statesman, associated with John Bright in the formation of the Anti-Corn Law League as well as with the Cobden-Chevalier Treaty...
's construction in Mosley Street
Mosley Street
Mosley Street is a street in Manchester, [England. It runs between its junction with Piccadilly and Market Street and St. Peter's Square. Beyond St Peter's Square it becomes Lower Mosley Street....
was the first palazzo warehouse, followed by the elaborate Watts Warehouse
Watts Warehouse
Watts Warehouse is a large, ornate Victorian Grade II* listed building which stands on Portland Street in the centre of Manchester, United Kingdom. It opened in 1856 as a textile warehouse for the wholesale drapery business S & J Watts, and at the time it was the largest single-occupancy textile...
of 1854. The packing warehouses: Asia House
Asia House, Manchester
Asia House at No. 82 Princess Street, Manchester, England, is an early-twentieth-century packing and shipping warehouse built between 1906 and 1909 in an Edwardian Baroque style. It is six-storied, with attics and basements, in brown/red sandstone and pink brick...
, India House
India House, Manchester
India House in Whitworth Street, Manchester, England, is a packing and shipping warehouse built in 1906 for Lloyd's Packing Warehouses Limited, which had, by merger, become the dominant commercial packing company in early-twentieth-century Manchester...
and Velvet House along Whitworth Street were some of the tallest buildings of their time.
The square mile of "warehouse city" is cited as the finest example of a Victorian commercial centre in the United Kingdom.. This area was a core component of the listing of Manchester and Salford on a tentative list of UNESCO
UNESCO
The United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization is a specialized agency of the United Nations...
World Heritage Site
World Heritage Site
A UNESCO World Heritage Site is a place that is listed by the UNESCO as of special cultural or physical significance...
s http://whc.unesco.org/en/tentativelists/1316/
These dominant buildings were the stately homes of the cotton industry and the backbone of Cottonopolis, providing not just the storage facilities but also displayed the finished goods. Their owners spurned equally ornate bank and office buildings providing loans for the production of cotton and associated industries.
Cotton Exchange
The crown palace of Cottonopolis was the Manchester Royal ExchangeRoyal Exchange, Manchester
The Royal Exchange is a grade II listed Victorian building in Manchester, England. It is located in the city centre on the land bounded by St Ann’s Square, Exchange Street, Market Street, Cross Street and Old Bank Street...
Hall. The first of Cotton Exchange was built by Sir Oswald Mosley
Sir Oswald Mosley, 2nd Baronet, of Ancoats
Sir Oswald Mosley, 2nd Baronet, of Ancoats was a British politician and writer.-Family:He was the son of Oswald Mosley , son of Sir John Parker Mosley, 1st Baronet, of Ancoats , created 1st Baronet Mosley, of Ancoats, in the Baronetage of Great Britain, on 8 June 1781, and wife Sir Oswald Mosley,...
in 1829. It was subsequently re-built and labelled the largest trading room in the world. The Exchange's vast hall was 29.2 metres high and had an area of 3683 square metres. The Exchange had a membership of up to eleven thousand cotton merchants who met every Tuesday and Friday to trade their wares beneath the 38.5 metre high central glass dome. After a visit in 1851, Queen Victoria granted the Exchange the title the Manchester Royal Exchange. It was lavishly re-built by architects Bradshaw Gass & Hope
Bradshaw Gass & Hope
Bradshaw Gass & Hope is an English firm of architects founded in 1862 by Jonas James Bradshaw . The style "Bradshaw Gass & Hope" was adopted after J. J...
between 1914-21. The building was badly damaged in World War II
World War II
World War II, or the Second World War , was a global conflict lasting from 1939 to 1945, involving most of the world's nations—including all of the great powers—eventually forming two opposing military alliances: the Allies and the Axis...
and ceased operation for cotton trading in 1968. It was renovated and turned into the home of one of the most prolific and highly regarded theatres outside London in 1972. The Exchange was damaged in 1996 by the IRA bomb
1996 Manchester bombing
The 1996 Manchester bombing was an attack carried out by the Provisional Irish Republican Army on 15 June 1996 in Manchester, England. The bomb, placed in a van on Corporation Street in city centre, targeted the city's infrastructure and economy and caused widespread damage, estimated by...
and rebuilt once more at a cost of £32 million.
Footnotes on banking
From the late 1820s, Manchester was rapidly developing into an important city. The Act of ParliamentAct of Parliament
An Act of Parliament is a statute enacted as primary legislation by a national or sub-national parliament. In the Republic of Ireland the term Act of the Oireachtas is used, and in the United States the term Act of Congress is used.In Commonwealth countries, the term is used both in a narrow...
of 1829 decreed separate Police Commissioner
Police commissioner
Commissioner is a senior rank used in many police forces and may be rendered Police Commissioner or Commissioner of Police. In some organizations, the commissioner is a political appointee, and may or may not actually be a professional police officer. In these circumstances, there is often a...
s from Salford. The 1832 Reform Act created two Members of Parliament, the 1835 Municipal Reform Act allowed the election of magistrate
Magistrate
A magistrate is an officer of the state; in modern usage the term usually refers to a judge or prosecutor. This was not always the case; in ancient Rome, a magistratus was one of the highest government officers and possessed both judicial and executive powers. Today, in common law systems, a...
s, borough councillors and aldermen. Manchester was granted Municipal Borough
Municipal borough
Municipal boroughs were a type of local government district which existed in England and Wales between 1835 and 1974, in Northern Ireland from 1840 to 1973 and in the Republic of Ireland from 1840 to 2002...
status in 1838. At the same time growth of the cotton and aligned industries meant vast amounts of money were passing through Manchester, leading to the establishment of many money handling organisations and banking facilities.
In 1772, Arthur Heywood's Bank opened in Manchester, but the money was transferred daily via coach and horses
Carriage
A carriage is a wheeled vehicle for people, usually horse-drawn; litters and sedan chairs are excluded, since they are wheelless vehicles. The carriage is especially designed for private passenger use and for comfort or elegance, though some are also used to transport goods. It may be light,...
to major banks in London, and many were attacked by highwaymen. The first bank to hold its own reserves of notes and coins was the Bank of Manchester which opened on Market Street in 1829. Next was the Manchester & Liverpool District Bank on Spring Gardens in 1832, followed by many others in the same area around Spring Gardens, Fountain Street and King Street which became the Central Business District
Central business district
A central business district is the commercial and often geographic heart of a city. In North America this part of a city is commonly referred to as "downtown" or "city center"...
and banking centre.
Legacy
Maple Mill, Oldham
The Maple Mill was a cotton spinning mill in Hathershaw Moor, Oldham, Greater Manchester, England. It was designed as a double mill by the architect Sydney Stott.The first mill was built in 1904 and the second mill in 1915. In 1968, it was equipped with the first open-end spinning machines in...
in Oldham. Many 18th and 19th century cotton mills, canals, supporting bridges and infrastructure exist today.
Cottonopolis in popular culture
Extracts from "Spinning the Web"Used as a basis of a BBC Radio 4 drama: http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b00zmdmx
See also
- Textile manufacture during the Industrial RevolutionTextile manufacture during the Industrial RevolutionThe industrial revolution changed the nature of work and society. Opinion varies as to the exact date, but it is estimated that the First Industrial Revolution took place between 1750 and 1850, and the second phase or Second Industrial Revolution between 1860 and 1900. The three key drivers in...
- Spinning (textiles)Spinning (textiles)Spinning is a major industry. It is part of the textile manufacturing process where three types of fibre are converted into yarn, then fabric, then textiles. The textiles are then fabricated into clothes or other artifacts. There are three industrial processes available to spin yarn, and a...
- List of city nicknames in the United Kingdom