Cottonopolis

There are nearly a hundred such buildings in Manchester; –not so large, perhaps, for this is the largest; but all in their degree worthy of Cottonopolis.Early cotton mills powered by water were built in Lancashire and its neighbouring counties.

Although initially inefficient, the arrival of steam power signified the beginning of the mechanisation that was to enhance the burgeoning textile industries in Manchester into the world's first centre of mass production.

[10] In the previous decade, three-quarters of the textiles manufactured were exported by foreign companies based in the Port of Manchester.

[5] By the end of the 19th century Lancashire had four million people and more than 25% of the total population was employed by the industry sector, mainly in textile activities.

The first of Manchester's exchanges was built in the market place by Sir Oswald Mosley in 1727 for chapmen to transact business.

Thomas Harrison built an exchange in the Greek Revival style between 1806 and 1809[15] After it opened, membership was required and trading was not restricted to textiles.

[17] The Royal Exchange was lavishly re-built by architects Bradshaw Gass & Hope in 1914–21 and at the time had the largest trading room in the world.

The exchange had a membership of up to 11,000 cotton merchants who met every Tuesday and Friday to trade their wares beneath the 38.5-metre high central glass dome.

These dominant buildings were the stately homes of the cotton industry and the backbone of Cottonopolis, providing not just the storage facilities but they displayed the finished goods.

Their owners spawned equally ornate bank and office buildings providing loans for the production of cotton and associated industries.

A thousand noises rise amidst this unending damp and dark labyrinth ... the footsteps of a busy crowd, the crunching wheels of machines, the shriek of steam from the boilers, the regular beat of looms, the heavy rumble of carts, these are the only noises from which you can never escape in these dark half-lit streets ..I remember my earliest view of Manchester.

I saw the forest of chimneys pouring forth volumes of steam and smoke, forming an inky canopy which seemed to embrace and involve the whole place.Extracts from "Spinning the Web",[21] used as the basis of a BBC Radio 4 drama.