Glad I'm not some racist homophobe from Peterborough or someplace like that!
Gritty city wins the boho crown
Helen Carter
Sunday May 25 2003
The Observer
Manchester is the most bohemian place in the UK, according to research by a
leading think tank.
Demos has discovered that the world's first industrial city has shed its
outdated gritty image to become top of the Boho Britain index. It used three
indices to reach its conclusion - the combination of its gay-friendliness,
ethnic diversity, and the number of patent applications per head of
population.
Manchester has an international reputation for its gay village, around Canal
Street, made famous by Channel 4's Queer as Folk. The city will host
Europride later this year, which is expected to attract more than one
million visitors to the festival in August.
The regeneration of Manchester, since the city centre was virtually rebuilt
following the IRA bomb seven years ago, has contributed to a surge in
creativity. Last year's successful Commonwealth Games has also brought a new
confidence to the city.
Manchester is also rich in architecture, with its neo-gothic town hall and
university buildings and its old warehouses, some of which have been
converted into loft apartments.
It has a large and thriving student population with three universities - the
University of Manchester, Umist, and Manchester Metropolitan University.
Next year, Umist and the University of Manchester will merge to create a
"super university".
On the edge of the city, Rusholme's neon-lit "curry mile" is like the Las
Vegas of the north-west. More than 10,000 people a week eat there.
According to the Boho Britain creative index, the next most creative cities
in the UK are Leicester and London.
Richard Florida, who is professor of economic development at Carnegie Mellon
University, used the three indicators to measure creativity in his research
for Demos. San Francisco was ranked top of a similar exercise carried out on
US cities.
He said: "Creative, innovative and entrepreneurial activities tend to
flourish in the same kinds of places that attract gays and others outside
the norm. When people with varied backgrounds and attitudes collide,
economic growth is likely.
"Most centres of technology-based business growth also have high
concentrations of gay couples. What I have found is that straight men and
women also look for a visible gay community as an indication that a city is
likely to be an exciting place to live."
Manchester is also leading the number of patent applications - another
indicator of creativity.
Peter Mearns, marketing director of the Northwest Development Agency, said:
"Creative industries are hugely important to the regional economy and are
already worth £1.7bn. Only 100,000 people are working to generate that
wealth, but it is a very good example of how Manchester is leading the
region."
Jon Ladd, chief executive of the British Urban Regeneration Association,
said: "The change that has occurred in Manchester over the last 20 years has
been astounding. The perception that it is a dour place is very wrong."
The creative arts scene in Manchester is also booming. Visitor figures at
the Manchester art gallery, which re-opened a year ago after refurbishment,
have been much higher than anticipated. Almost 400,000 people have visited
it in the last 12 months, against an estimated 250,000 visitors.
Luke Bainbridge, editor of City Life magazine in Manchester, points to the
emergence of popular music as a key factor.
"Manchester is a second-tier city like Chicago and Detroit," he said. "It is
easy to forget in this jungle of chrome and glass and wooden floors what a
depressing place this used to be in the 1970s."
He said that the ethnic diversity of the city had led to the development of
Northern Soul in the mid-1960s and 70s, and to the development of acid house
in the 1980s when people in London were refusing to play it.
Star cities
Britain's 10 most bohemian cities are:
1 Manchester
2= Leicester and London
4 Nottingham
5 Bristol
6 Brighton and Hove
7 Birmingham
8 Coventry
9 Cardiff
10 Edinburgh
Copyright Guardian Newspapers Limited
