Manchester Central Convention Complex or Manchester Central, is an arena, exhibition and conference centre built in and around the former Manchester Central railway station in Manchester, England. Designed by Sir John Fowler, the building was originally opened as a railway station in July 1880 by the Cheshire Lines Committee and was the northern terminus for services to London St Pancras.
The structure is known for its distinctive arched roof, which has a 64 metre span - the second-largest roof span in the United Kingdom. . The Great Northern Warehouse and Midland Hotel opened in 1898 and 1903 as a railway warehouse and hotel respectively. After 89 years as a railway terminus, the station closed to passengers in May 1969 following the Beeching cuts, but was not demolished due to its Grade II* listed building status which was granted in 1963.
The structure subsequently became derelict and was not renovated as an exhibition centre until 1982. Formerly known as the G-MEX Centre, Manchester Central was Manchester's primary music concert venue from 1986 to 1995, before the construction of the Manchester Arena. The venue was refitted in 2008 to host conferences, exhibitions and is Manchester's secondary large concert venue.
Read more about Manchester Central Convention Complex: Notable Events, Transport
Famous quotes containing the words manchester, central, convention and/or complex:
“The [nineteenth-century] young men who were Puritans in politics were anti-Puritans in literature. They were willing to die for the independence of Poland or the Manchester Fenians; and they relaxed their tension by voluptuous reading in Swinburne.”
—Rebecca West (1892–1983)
“The Federal Constitution has stood the test of more than a hundred years in supplying the powers that have been needed to make the Central Government as strong as it ought to be, and with this movement toward uniform legislation and agreements between the States I do not see why the Constitution may not serve our people always.”
—William Howard Taft (1857–1930)
“By convention there is color, by convention sweetness, by
convention bitterness, but in reality there are atoms and space.”
—Democritus (c. 460–400 B.C.)
“What we do is as American as lynch mobs. America has always been a complex place.”
—Jerry Garcia (1942–1995)