Mapping Manchester (UK)

December 16, 2009 7:19 AM

Chris Perkins and Martin Dodge of the Department of Geography, University of Manchester, UK have been scouring archives for maps of Manchester, and have assembled the results in an "intellectually driven" exhibition, Mapping Manchester, at the Rylands Library, Deansgate.

-- Lots of background information, sample maps and links at the project page.
-- Check out oddities like The Drink Map (JPG).
-- Online exhibition pages at the Rylands Library site.
-- Exhibition e-catalogue (PDF)
-- Maps and plans from the History of the Manchester Ship Canal.

And, I learned that denizens of Manchester are called Mancunians. And that the word for a term like Mancunian is "demonym". AKA "gentilic."

posted by beagle (8 comments total)

The Drink Map (1889) seems a fine concept, well-designed to augment the sum of human happiness, but it's slightly undermined when you look at it and see that the rule of thumb "walk about fifteen yards in any direction" would infallibly bring you to a source of drink in most parts of the city.
posted by Phanx at 8:01 AM on December 16, 2009

Nice!

I was a little confused by the symbol for a sweets license in the Drink Map. I was imagining a license for selling mint humbugs and soor plums -- but the key explains this is actually a term for "British wines" (something like sherry, I guess?).
posted by the cat's pyjamas at 8:12 AM on December 16, 2009

Ooo.
posted by strixus at 8:20 AM on December 16, 2009

So next meetup in 1889 then? Where did I put that DeLorean...

Anyway, I'm off to somewhere very close to one of those dots right now for the office party.
posted by Electric Dragon at 8:29 AM on December 16, 2009

This is ace! really homesick now. And miss the Corn Exchange (in pdf) - anyone else remember the comics and junk and tiedye and !gun stalls. But now we have "the Triangle". the terrorists most definitely won on that one.

also: the John Rylands library is gorgeous and I want to live there, its well worth a visit if you're in town.
and: the noble cause argued on that Drinks Map has, as a quick shuddering glance down Piccadilly when the pubs chuck out will prove, been pretty comprehensively lost.
posted by runincircles at 10:08 AM on December 16, 2009

I can't find Weatherfield at all.
posted by paddbear at 10:24 AM on December 16, 2009

Oh, that's interesting. I knew the Victoria Park gates were in Rusholme, but I hadn't clocked that what is now "Rusholme" was then "Victoria Park" - one of the world's first gated communities.
posted by alasdair at 12:15 PM on December 16, 2009

Paddbear, the maps are changed to hide Weatherfield, just as if it was a secret military installation. It's either to keep people out, or to keep people in...
posted by BinaryApe at 3:49 PM on December 16, 2009