On the 2nd of April The Candidate created a blog post and social media campaign which was filled with reasons as to why people love working in and around the massive hub that is Manchester. What they failed to mention was the network science behind why people loved to work in Manchester and why people flock to the city each and every day.
As you can see in the image above, Manchester is surrounded by smaller hubs as well as being almost as large as London, even if it has significantly less public transport. We think the reason why Manchester has become such a huge hub starts way back when there weren’t any proper roads and people transported goods mainly via boat on the river Mersey.
This grew Liverpool into a massive hub, much like London and the river Thames, in the early days of Britain’s birth. However, the roads then started to be developed, improved and implemented, which gave the goods a route to travel further inland to safer, more habitable places. In the image you can plainly see the routes these settlers took to expand.
Along with this being evident in the UK it is also evident in America. If you look at the places in America with the most inhabitants or most business being done, it definitely spreads from the coasts, with the east coast being the major one.
Obviously people say that the North is the place to be due to the fact that “you can have gravy with every meal and not get looked at funny 😉 #GoNorth” @bubblejobs.
However we feel that @add_people are on to something with their tweet “Great idea @thecandidateuk. We reckon #MCR is set to overtake London as the #digital capital of the UK, and the beer is cheaper too! #GoNorth”
Due to the sheer size of Manchester creative presence more and more companies, creative individuals and creative events are coming to spread their knowledge throughout the city. Just think we’ve had to create a whole new city (MediaCityUK) just to accommodate them!
I’d like to leave you on an interesting fact from The Candidates blog: Manchester invented the modern economy and is the original modern city.