SECOND CITY OF THE UNITED KINGDOM

Identifying the 'second city of the United Kingdom' is a subject of some disagreement.
A country's second city is the city that is thought to be the second-most important, usually after the capital or first city (London, in this case), according to some criteria such as population size, economic or commercial importance, political importance or some cultural sense. There is no official mechanism by which second city status is conferred on a city, rather, it is a description which is unofficial carrying no authority, and arguments often take place between citizens and civic leaders of rival cities making conflicting claims.
While Birmingham has generally been described as the second city of the United Kingdom since around the First World War,^[1] some recent polls about the second city concluded with Manchester receiving the most votes for both second city and third city.
Other cities, including some in Scotland and Ireland, such as Glasgow and Dublin, and others in England, have also at times been considered to be the second city, either historically or due to their economic importance.

Contents

Other candidates for the title

Birmingham or Manchester?

City boundaries

Local government

Polls and media references

Ministerial opinion

Cultural factors

Second city of England

References

Other candidates for the title

Since the formation of the UK, Bristol^[2], Edinburgh, Glasgow, and Liverpool^[3] have all also been seen as the second city, and indeed Glasgow was often described as the second city of the entire British Empire in the late 19th and early 20th centuries.^[4] All three cities were prominent because of their economic importance, especially the central role which they played in overseas trade, and are still some of the largest cities in the country.
Dublin was the second most populous city at the time of the formation of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland in 1801, though it lost that position later in the 19th century as other cities grew through industrialisation.^[5] Dublin, and the rest of the Republic of Ireland, ceased to be a part of the UK in the 1920s.
Edinburgh also has a claim on the title of "second city"^[6] by virtue of its status as the capital city of Scotland. In addition, it was until recently the second busiest tourist destination after London,^[7] (with Glasgow having recently overtaken it) and since devolution has become the most important city after London in governmental terms, housing the Scottish Parliament. It is a growing financial centre^[8] and houses, amongst other financial and insurance companies, Royal Bank of Scotland and HBOS, two of the UK's big five banks.

Birmingham or Manchester?

City boundaries

Based on population within official city boundaries the City of Birmingham, the most populous metropolitan local authority in the UK, is substantially larger than the City of Manchester, which is the ninth largest in the UK (see List of United Kingdom cities by population). However, most sources do not use formal city boundaries as the sole criterion for population comparison; for instance, the City of London, with a population of only 7,185 (2001 census), is very small, though London as a whole is the most populous city within city limits in the European Union^[9] with an official population of 7.6 million (as of 2006)^[10] and has a metropolitan area population of between 12 and 14 million people.^[11][12]
The surrounding conurbations and the areas that can be considered informally part of each city are hard to define. However after the 1974 re-organisation of local government and the creation of the Metropolitan county, the City of Birmingham was included with the City of Coventry and five other "Metropolitan boroughs" (one, Wolverhampton gained city status in 2000) into a new administrative county called the West Midlands county. The City of Manchester joined with the neighbouring City of Salford and eight other "Metropolitan Boroughs" within the County of Greater Manchester.
The City of Birmingham has a population of 1,001,200 (2005 estimate). It forms part of the larger West Midlands conurbation, which has a population of 2,284,093 (2001 census) and also includes the city of Wolverhampton, the towns of the Black Country, and other towns such as Solihull. The City of Manchester has a population of 441,200 (2005 estimate), while the Greater Manchester Urban Area is home to 2,240,230 people (2001 census) and also includes the city of Salford, and towns like Bolton, Bury, Oldham, Rochdale, and Stockport. The population of Metropolitan counties such as the West Midlands and Greater Manchester also vary slightly from both the "urban areas" and other population statistics criteria like the "Travel to Work Area (TTWA)".

Local government

Birmingham City Council (BCC) is the largest local authority in Europe and is notable for having the largest wards by population in the whole of the UK (each ward has approximately 18,000 voters). BCC is also the UK's largest landlord, with the BCC Housing Department managing over 70,000 council homes.^[13], though it often performs poorly and was only awarded a 2 star rating^[14] in the Comprehensive Performance Assessment (CPA) of the Audit Commission, with housing repair rated poor^[15], whereas Manchester City Council (MCC) received 3 stars in the same audit, with mostly good service^[16].

Polls and media references

As mentioned above, Birmingham is historically the second city of the United Kingdom, but two recent polls have concluded with Manchester receiving the most votes.
In a recent survey commissioned by the BBC^[17] investigating the subject of the "'Second city' of England", 48% of 1,000 people claimed that Manchester deserves the distinction with 40% choosing Birmingham. The BBC further report that Manchester is close to being the second city of the UK.^[18]
In a similar survey conducted by Ipsos MORI North (based in Manchester), commissioned by "Destination Manchester" (Manchester City's PR and Tourism department,^[19]) Manchester had the highest response for the third city as well as the second city. Interestingly only 85% of respondents put London as first City.^[20]
Manchester, however, is both reported by international news media as the UK's second city,^[21][22][23] and alternatively as the UK's third city. Queen closes 'stunning' games

• Manchester United "target" of bomb attack AFP

• Church of England locks horns with Sony AFP

• Church of England locks horns with Sony

• Three held in UK terror probe SA Whereas Birmingham is almost always reported as the UK's second city in similar international news media.^{[24][25][26][27]}

Ministerial opinion

There has been a variety of Ministerial opinion on the subject for some time, opinions include:

★ David Miliband the current Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs and Member of Parliament for the constituency of South Shields, Tyne and Wear "However, if you look at Birmingham, I think a lot of people would say that it's a city, Britain's second city..." ^[28]

★ Sir Digby Jones (born and raised in Birmingham), Minister of State at the Department for Business, Enterprise and Regulatory Reform and the Foreign Office (former Director-General of the Confederation of British Industry (CBI) said "Birmingham is naturally the second most important city in Britain after London because of where she is and how important she is as part of that crossroads,".^[17]

★ John Prescott (born in Wales and raised in Merseyside), former Deputy Prime Minister and current Member of Parliament for the constituency of Hull East was also quoted as saying "Manchester - our second city", but this was later played down by his department, claiming they were made in a "light-hearted context". Prescott ranks Manchester as second city

★ Graham Stringer (born, raised and currently representing Manchester), MP for Manchester Blackley responded with "Manchester has always been the second city after the capital, in many ways it is the first. Birmingham has never really been in the competition."

★ Sandra White (born, raised and representing Glasgow) a Scottish National Party MSP for Glasgow, claimed "Glasgow was always seen as the second city in the Empire, and Glasgow is still the second British city. Manchester is probably the second city in England after London."

Cultural factors

It is perhaps even more difficult to make a distinction based on cultural factors, as all major UK cities play an important role in the cultural make-up of the country: in addition to Birmingham and Manchester, Liverpool (European Capital of Culture for 2008), Leeds, Sheffield, Newcastle and others all boast internationally recognised sporting, music and performing arts scenes. In Scotland, meanwhile, Edinburgh has played host to the world's largest arts festival for 60 consecutive years, and Glasgow, 1990's European Capital of Culture, and numerous other festivals including Celtic Connections music festival makes it an important centre for culture also.

Second city of England

Prior to the formation of the United Kingdom in 1707, from medieval times until the 18th century Norwich was the second city of England, being a major trading centre, Britain's richest provincial city and capital of Norfolk, at that time the most populous county of England.^[30]

References

1. Birmingham: The Making of the Second City 1850-1939, Hopkins, Eric, , , Tempus Publishing, 2001,
2. Bristol Abolition 200 - Bristol celebrates the abolition of Slavery
3. Liverpool - Visit Manchester: Beyond the City
4. Glasgow City Council History pages - The Second City of the Empire
5. BBC: "A Short History of Ireland" - "The population, which had been 58,000 in 1683, was close to 129,000 by 1772 and 182,000 including the garrison by 1798, making Dublin the second largest city in the British Empire."
6. New York Times, August 6, 1989: "Edinburgh's castle high on the rock has looked down on many a triumph and tragedy in the proud Scots capital, but every year since 1947, Britain's ''Second City'' steals the spotlight from London during the three weeks of the international festival."
7. http://www.edinburgh.gov.uk "Edinburgh is the UK’s second city of tourism after London and acts as a gateway to the rest of Scotland. It generates 22% of UK and 33% of overseas tourism spend in Scotland"]
8. Overview of Scotland's Financial Industry
9. http://www.statistics.gov.uk/cci/nugget.asp?id=384
10. [1]
11. World Gazetteer - World: metropolitan areas
12. Demographia - Southeast England Population by Area from 1891
13. Birmingham City Council: "About the Housing Department"
14. Birmingham City Council audit
15. Birmingham City Council audit, social housing report
16. Manchester City Council audit
17. Manchester tops second city poll
18. Manchester 'close to second city'
19. http://www.destinationmanchester.com/
20. Manchester 'England's second city'
21. Manchester second city
22. Manchester travel article from LA Times
23. Britain's Second City Sandblasts Its Image - New York Times (article on Manchester)
24. What It Was, Was Britball - New York Times
25. Australia news.com.au, "...Britain's second city of Birmingham...", 28 July 2007, retrieved 31 July 2007.
26. BBC News, "Is this the nicest place to live in Britain?...Britain's second city...Birmingham...", 09 July 2003, retrieved 31 July 2007.
27. BBC, "...Britain’s second city, Birmingham...", 15 March 2006, retrieved 01 August 2007.
28. New Labour troubles
29. Manchester tops second city poll
30. Enabling Norwich in the Knowledge Economy