Manchester, England

By Jane Wright

Whenever I mention Manchester, the city in which I have lived for the past 12 years, people look at me knowingly. Everyone has heard of my city, whether it be for its music, Coronation Street or Manchester United football club. Mention Manchester and everyone has an opinion or a story to tell.

Photo By Jane Wright

I arrived here in 1993 to study at one of the city's universities. I was barely 18, from a small village in the Midlands - a place connected to the outside world only by a couple of buses each day and where the nearest cinema was a 45 minute drive away. By the time I left home I was thoroughly sick of the rural life; I admit I chose Manchester only partly for its academic reputation, but mostly because of its social life and cultural benefits. When I finished my studies, I stayed because the city still had much to offer me.

Commonly referred to as the UK's "second city", Manchester is currently thriving. Whatever your pleasure, you can largely indulge it. There is something to occupy you every night of the week...if you can afford it. The city is teeming with restaurants and bars; cinemas, art galleries and theatres abound and there is a constant cycle of visiting bands and comedians to keep us all entertained. With a population of over 422,000, of which over 57,000 are students, there is always plenty to do. Manchester is a place in which you are never, ever by yourself.

Photo By Jane Wright

But therein lies the rub because sometimes I want to be by myself. Just sometimes I would like to be able to walk down the street without being jostled and pushed; to take the bus to work without having my face squashed into the back of a stranger because it is packed so full of commuters and to be able to enjoy a quiet drink in a quiet pub where I don't have to queue for hours to get served or deal with the inevitable antics of those who have had a few too many.

There is also a stark divide in Manchester between the haves and the have-nots. Setting itself up as a rival to London, the city is bent on attracting the rich and the famous. If you are a wealthy footballer or an upwardly-mobile professional with more disposable income than you can possibly know what to do with, then this is the place for you. The city will welcome you with open arms, will love and nurture you as long as you are here and give you everything it possibly can to keep you as a measure of it's own success.

But there is another side to Manchester, a side of unemployment, homelessness and poverty. Recent statistics show the city is suffering in terms of income, employment, health, education and living conditions. And of course, as those factors decline the inevitable social problems - crime, drugs, anti-social behaviour and violence - all increase. These are issues the Mancunian population now deal with on a daily basis, and yet there seem to be few attempts to correct them. To admit they exist would hamper the city's attempts to reel in ever more of the cash-rich "desirables" and students it so desperately craves.

Photo By Jane Wright

I didn't realise it at the time, but the village I left to come to Manchester is truly beautiful. The older I get, and the more the city wears me out, the more I am sure that I am a rural girl at heart. I'm not quite ready to abandon the theatres and the galleries just yet (and besides, I can't quite afford to move house and job at the moment!) but I do find myself increasingly drawn to places of quiet where I can lose myself for a bit and shut out the traffic and the people. It's for this reason that the municipal city parks and the botanical gardens in my area have become so very important to me. Manchester could never be considered a green city but thankfully it has managed to retain a number of parks where city-dwellers are able to go and enjoy a tiny slice of peace and quiet. Wandering down tree-lined avenues or taking a stroll around a large lake covered in ducks, geese and swans, it's easy to forget you are actually bang in the middle of a massive urban sprawl. Down at the botanical gardens you can even lose yourself in dense woodland for a bit, where all you can hear is the wind in the branches and birdsong, and the most trouble you are going to encounter is an overly-friendly muddy dog or two and a couple of slightly cross herons.

Photo By Jane Wright

I have a true love-hate relationship with my city. Manchester has been good to me in many, many ways, but the relentless grind and the worsening social breakdown is so very tiring. I love the cultural indulgences that it can offer me; the theatres, galleries, cinemas and music - all the things that originally drew me here 12 years ago when I was desperate to see a bit of life - but now my very favourite things are the parks and gardens, a tiny but increasingly vital piece of the very thing I originally tried to escape.