manchester

Manchester is regarded as England's second most important city, even though the second most populous is Birmingham, Manchester surpasses it in Media, Sport and Leisure. Manchester is often used to refer to the county of Greater Manchester and some other places in the North West of England. Manchester is circled by the M60 Orbital motorway and stands on the River Irwell and near the River Mersey. The people of Manchester are known as Mancunians. Greater Manchester contains the Ten Metropoliatin Boroughs of: Bolton, Bury, Trafford, Tameside, City of Manchester, City of Salford, Stockport, Wigan, Oldham and Rochdale. Approximately 2,800,000 people live in this Metropolitain area, It is one of four highly populated Urban Counties in the UK along with Greater London, West Yorkshire and the Birmingham/Wolverhampton/Coventry Metropolitan area. The city is is famous for it's television programmes like Coronation Street, A Question of Sport and Stars in Their Eyes witch are mainly produced by the biggest BBC(North West)and ITV(Granada) bases outside London. It is well known for its football teams: Manchester United and Manchester City(the area has the most professional soccer teams per square mile anywhere in the world). Manchester is renowned across Europe for its shopping (Manchester contains The Trafford Centre Europe's 2nd biggest indoor mall) The only city to house two Selfridges. It also contains a Harvey Nichols, The largest Next store in the UK, The flagship Marks and Spencer Store and the UK's second biggest Topshop/Topman. along with Manchester City Centre and The Trafford Centre, other satellite towns across the county have sufficient shopping facilities like Bury and Stockport. Manchester is known for its Music, with bands like The Happy Mondays, Oasis, Elbow, Simply Red, M People, Take That, Joy Division, New Order and The Stone Roses originating from the city. The Manchester Evening News Arena was voted International Arena of the Year beating New York's Madison Square Garden for the 2nd year in a row.