"Manchester's New Epoch" a Manchester Travel Page by MDH

Manchester was once one the centers of the Industrial Revolution which brought the British Empire to new-found heights in the late 18th and 19th centuries. But after the Second World War, with the collapse of the Empire and the closing of the very same factories which had propelled Manchester to fame, the city entered a brave new jittery post-industrial world. But that didn't slow down the city. In the 1970s and '80s, Manchester became a frontline for popular British culture, giving birth to gloomy musical milestones like Joy Division and the Smiths. Then in the '80s "Madchester" spawned the Rave Revolution with the E-fueled Hacienda club, New Order, the Happy Mondays and the Stone Roses. In more recent times, essential Brit-pop band Oasis made the city its base of operations and central to the band's roots.

Today, Manchester is home to a world-class football (soccer) team that is one of the U.K.'s most well-known franchises, and a thriving city center of shopping districts, pubs, musuems and clubs that has done away with the city's industrial image, while at the same time, reminding visitors of its not-so-distant past