High Quality Content by WIKIPEDIA articles! Manchester is one of the principal cities of the United Kingdom, gaining city status in 1853, thus becoming the first new city in over 300 years since Bristol in 1542. Often regarded as the first industrialised city, Manchester was a city built by the Industrial Revolution and had little pre-medieval history to speak of. In 1717, Manchester was merely a market town of 10,000 people, but by 1911 its population had burgeoned to 2.3 million.