Is Manchester the best city n the country?

[nwgull]

I live in Manchester and love it. Although I live in a nice suburb, and won't deny that their are plenty of deprived parts, although probably no more than most cities. City centre is excellent, and the northern quarter is really taking off and becoming the trendy place to go.

Wouldn't go so far as to say that it's better than London, but certainly cheaper to buy a nice house here!

 

[User removed 4]

In all seriousness, for someone like myself , who whilst clubbing in the 80's and 90's preferred a more "commercial " type venue , northern cities like manchester knocked spots off london for nightlife.

 

[Seagull Steve]

I think that there is good and bad in every city. Personally I prefer Brighton and London to Manchester (been there many times) Some of the shitty parts of Brighton are paradise when compared to Moss side. A lot of people say that there are too many weirdo's in Manchester, but lets face it we have more than our fair share in Brighton. But I suppose you would have to live in a place to really know what it's like.

 

[mikeyjh]

You almost have to take London out of the equation, as others have said it's our only world city and is a pretty special place - Outside of London, you have too look at the big cities like, Manc, Liverpool, Leeds, Bristol, Birmingham, Bradford etc - Of them, Manchester is by far and away the best IMO, it's got history, culture, sport in abundance, whatever your in to there's something for you. You've even got the Peak district on your doorstep.....

 

[Simster]

Manchester, like most of our cities, is a quality place. Steeped in culture, lively, and by and large has a good vibe. Maybe I'm easily pleased, but I'd say the same thing about most of our bigger cities that I've spent any length of time in. In my experience, the people slating these cities tend to be gobshites who don't know these places at all.

Back to Manchester, and most people from Manchester (and Birmingham for that matter) who have spent time in London as well as their own cities will tell you that you can get pretty much anything in Manc/Brum that you can in London. Granted, they are smaller but that isn't everything.

And the worst thing about Manchester is that it rains ALL THE TIME.

 

[Lord Bracknell]

Just about any city with self-confidence is OK by me. Manchester certainly has it.

 

[Common as Mook]

The Smiths
Joy Division
Happy Mondays
10cc
New Order
The Fall
The Bee Gees
Oasis
The Hollies
The Stone Roses
808 State
The Chameleons

Granted Simply Red and Take That are embarrassing shite, but the music scene here is great.

And without David Bowie, none of that would have happened.

 

[User removed 4]

Just about any city with self-confidence is OK by me. Manchester certainly has it.

They ALL with the exception being Liverpool, have an inferiority complex over london, only recently terry christian was in the paper talking bollocks about " as the old saying goes, what manchester does today, london does tomorrow", course it does tel, dream on.

 

[JonathanLivingstonSeagull]

why not?

I think the 'ghost town' comment above me somewhere is kind of accurate. You have a lot of kind of dead-space. Ironic that the seeming life of the city is in part due to it being more crammed. Brighton is superior because it is all happening within walking distance. It is small yes but because of that it is more densely populated by both people and art/music venues etc. London is London, an international cosmopolitan etc. Manchester is fine and there is stuff going on but it is in small pockets of resistance either surrounded by suburbia or general run-downity or menace. Brum I visit occasionally... I guess that is OK but it is still suffering from the spread out shitness of Manchester in all honesty.

So London outperforms naturally. Brighton because it is a weird town/village/city hybrid which has been attracting people for progressive reasons for years.

The original poster said a pro was Manchester being home to the industrial revolution! Ha! Bollocks! Historically maybe, and it has left a certain kind of grandness of architecture... But it still is subject to those windy corners which I would want to see filled before I really enjoyed the city. Though I was never saying it was bad, it is OK with various merits, but not the best. I don't think the OP really expected many to say it was!

I notice a token scouser inevitably started pointing to music from scouseland and not really addressing the question beyond that. Two things about that really - why do people want credit for things they haven't done, and for the geography in which they were born?

Like the less pleasant areas of town as seen when I was a postman - all these polyester mix George Cross flags flying from dirt-lined windows, the ones with The Sun emblazoned cheaply across the front... Wow, nationality. National pride... always present in the lower strata. I wanted to shake them, 'you only like England in the same way a monkey likes a tree! And if that analogy were to hold it would be a banana tree, but instead of banana when you unpeeled the skin, it would be full of shit. Enjoy, courtesy of centuries of government indifference. That's national pride.

Same goes for city fluffers. Although Brighton is good the good news on how and why it so great is so redundant by now it makes me want to shoot myself in the face whenever anyone is provoked into that boring f***ing monologue.

 

[JonathanLivingstonSeagull]

Just about any city with self-confidence is OK by me. Manchester certainly has it.

By the same token... I agree with this entirely. Manchester indeed has it, if you know where to look. My beef being there are places when you can see it is full of insecurity, balding, and feels threatened by local street psychos while it is trying to innocently visit a prostitute.

 

[Stu1]

I spend most of my life here (in Manchester) and f***ing hate the sole less thick bastards who live here, constantly trying to prove how good a city it is, it's shite I hate it and as soon as I get a job somewhere else I'll never come back.
Leeds and Newcastle have much nicer people and are places that are happy with themselves as places

Order for me is
London
Brighton
Leeds
Newcastle
Manchester
Liverpool

 

[xenophon]

How anyone can ask "Is Manchester the best city in the country?" on a forum all about Brighton & Hove (and the Albion) is beyond me. It's not even the best city in the North West.

 

[nwgull]

I spend most of my life here (in Manchester) and f***ing hate the sole less thick bastards who live here

Maybe they should buy some new shoes.

 

[Bold Seagull]

Maybe they should buy some new shoes.

 

[Bold Seagull]

How anyone can ask "Is Manchester the best city in the country?" on a forum all about Brighton & Hove (and the Albion) is beyond me. It's not even the best city in the North West.

This is a forum all about Brighton & Hove....you learn something new everyday.

 

[Pogue Mahone]

What about pink Floyd?!

And to the other poster who added more Manc bands, the verve are from Wigan.

Yes, quite right, The Verve are from Wigan.
And Pink Floyd are from Cambridge.

 

[Green Cross Code Man]

Pink Floyd are from both London and Cambridge!

 

[Mancgull]

Lived in Manchester for 12 years now. The City centre is very nice. This was helped a lot by the IRA bomb which perversely took out a lot of the old shitty centre in one go. Now replaced by some great shopping areas, trendy bars and clubs. All cities have their bad areas and Manchester certainly has these with Moss Side, Ordsall etc. It's now almost certainly the UK's 2nd city behind London but in front of Birmingham. The people have a swagger about them, seen as cockiness by many. You could sum it up as being a Manc.
However, you can't beat your home town. I like Manchester but love Brighton.

 

[Theatre of Trees]

The Smiths
Joy Division
Happy Mondays
10cc
New Order
The Fall
The Bee Gees
Oasis
The Hollies
The Stone Roses
808 State
The Chameleons

Granted Simply Red and Take That are embarrassing shite, but the music scene here is great.

Not forgetting MC Tunes, used to try not to laugh as him and his possee swaggered up and down the main road in Rusholme complete with pitbull with half a tree trunk in his mouth.

 

[house your seagull]