Cottonopolis

Cottonopolis during the early 19th century

Cottonopolis denotes a metropolis of cotton and cotton mills. It was inspired by Manchester, in England, and its status as the international centre of the cotton and textile processing industries during the 19th century^[1]. More recently is has become a sobriquet applied solely to the city of Manchester.^[2]

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.^[3] 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 production. 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.^{[citation needed]} Ancoats was part of a planned expansion of Manchester and became the first industrial suburb centred on steam power. There were mills whose architectural innovations included fireproofing by use of iron and stone.^{[citation needed]}

The number of cotton mills in Manchester peaked at 108 in 1853.^[4] Although the number of mills in Manchester subsequently declined, cotton mills were opened in Bury, Oldham (at its zenith the most productive cotton spinning town in the world^[5][6]), Rochdale, Bolton (known for a time as "Cotton Town"^{[citation needed]}) and farther afield around Blackburn, Darwen, Rawtenstall, Todmorden and Burnley.

Following the downturn of 1883, city industrialists embarked upon the monumental and hugely expensive task of constructing the Manchester Ship Canal 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, the site of the last cotton mill built in Manchester in 1924.^{[citation needed]}

Warehousing

In the final half of the 1800s Manchester's reputation as the finance and commerce centre was boosted by the unprecedented number of warehouses 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 although by 1850 warehouses had spread to Portland Street and later to Whitworth Street. Richard Cobden's construction in Mosley Street was the first palazzo warehouse, followed by the elaborate Watts Warehouse of 1854. The packing warehouses: Asia House, India House 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.^{[citation needed]}. This area was a core component of the listing of Manchester and Salford on a tentative list of UNESCO World Heritage Sites [1] 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 Exchange Hall. The first of Cotton Exchange was built by 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 between 1914-21. The building was badly damaged in World War II 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 and rebuilt once more at a cost of £32 million.^[7]

Footnotes on banking

From the late 1820s, Manchester was rapidly developing into an important city. The Act of Parliament of 1829 decreed separate Police Commissioners from Salford. The 1832 Reform Act created two Members of Parliament, the 1835 Municipal Reform Act allowed the election of magistrates, borough councillors and aldermen. Manchester was granted Municipal Borough 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 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 and banking centre.

Legacy

Maple Mill in Oldham, Greater Manchester.

Some (but by no means all) of Cottonopolis's textile mills exist to this day, such as Maple Mill in Oldham. Many 18th and 19th century cotton mills, canals, supporting bridges and infrastructure exist today.

Cottonopolis in popular culture

... [Manchester] this famous great factory town. Dark and smoky from the coal vapours, it resembles a huge forge or workshop. Work, profit and greed seem to be the only thoughts here. The clatter of the cotton mills and the looms can be heard everywhere ...

—Johanna Schopenhauer , Sammtliche Schriften, Frankfurt, (1830)

A thick black smoke covers the city. The sun appears like a disc without any rays. In this semi-daylight 300,000 people work ceaselessly. 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 ..

—Alexis de Tocqueville , Oeuvres Completes, (1835)

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.

—W. Cooke Taylor , (1842)

Extracts from "Spinning the Web"^[8]

Used as a basis of a BBC Radio 4 drama: http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b00zmdmx

See also

• Textile manufacture during the Industrial Revolution
• Spinning (textiles)

References

1. ^ Lowe, J (1854). "A Manchester warehouse". Household Words 9: pp 268–72.  Cited by Williams, Mike; D A Farnie (1992). Cotton mills in Greater Manchester. Preston: Carnegie. p. 20. ISBN 0-948789-69-7. 
2. ^ Manchester Cottonopolis, Spinning the Web, Manchester City Council. URL accessed December 7, 2006.
3. ^ "Digging up Cottonopolis" (HTTP). BBC News. http://www.bbc.co.uk/manchester/content/articles/2006/01/31/310106_dig_mill_feature.shtml. Retrieved 2007-04-14. 
4. ^ "City Centre" (HTTP). Spinning the Web. Manchester City Council. http://www.spinningtheweb.org.uk/m_display.php?irn=5&sub=cottonopolis&theme=places&crumb=City+Centre. Retrieved 2007-04-12. 
5. ^ Gurr & Hunt (1998). The Cotton Mills of Oldham, Oldham Education & Leisure. Pg 4. ISBN 0-902809-46-6
6. ^ NW Cotton Towns Learning Journey www.spinningtheweb.org.uk. URL accessed October 27, 2006.
7. ^ "Theatre History". Royal Exchange Theatre. http://www.royalexchange.co.uk/info.asp?parent=4&id=163. Retrieved 2007-09-20. 
8. ^ On Cottonopolis..., Spinning the Web, Manchester City Council. URL accessed December 7, 2006.

External links

• History of Cotton Spinning
• Richard Arkwright's Mill
• Mills and buildings of Manchester
• History of Cotton

Coordinates: 53°28′45″N 2°14′41″W / 53.47930°N 2.24480°W / 53.47930; -2.24480