History
Further information: History of Manchester
Manchester had been governed as a borough in the 13th and 14th centuries, but its borough status was
not supported by a royal charter. An inquiry in 1359 ruled that it was only a market town, not a borough.
It was then governed by manorial courts and the parish vestry until the 18th century.[4]
Old Town Hall, King Street: Completed 1825 for the Police
Commissioners, subsequently served as council's headquarters until 1877
In 1792 a body of improvement commissioners known as the 'Manchester Police Commissioners' was
established to provide services in the rapidly growing town. In 1838 the town was incorporated as a
municipal borough, after which it was governed by a body formally called the 'mayor, aldermen and
burgesses of the borough of Manchester', generally known as the corporation or town council. The
police commissioners were disbanded in 1843 and their functions passed to the corporation. [5][6]
Manchester was granted city status in 1853, only the second such grant since the Reformation. After that
the corporation was also known as the city council.[4] When elected county councils were established in
1889, Manchester was considered large enough to provide its own county-level services, and so it
became a county borough, independent from the new Lancashire County Council, whilst remaining part
of the geographical county of Lancashire.[6]
The city boundaries have been enlarged many times. Notable expansions were in 1885 (Bradford,
Harpurhey and Rusholme), 1890 (Blackley, Crumpsall, part of Droylsden, Kirkmanshulme, Moston,
Newton Heath, Openshaw, and West Gorton), 1903 (Heaton), 1904 (Burnage, Chorlton cum Hardy,
Didsbury, and Moss Side), 1909 (Gorton, and Levenshulme), 1931 (Wythenshawe: Baguley, Northenden,
and Northen Etchells), and Ringway in 1974. The mayor was granted the title of lord mayor in 1893.[7]
Henry Price (1867–1944) was appointed as the first City Architect of Manchester in 1902.[8] He was
succeeded in 1932 by George Noel Hill (1893–1985).[9]
The county borough was abolished in 1974 under the Local Government Act 1972, being replaced by a
metropolitan district of Manchester, covering the area of the old county borough plus the parish of
Ringway. The new district was one of ten metropolitan districts within the new metropolitan county of
Greater Manchester.[10] Manchester's borough and city statuses and its lord mayoralty passed to the new
district and its council.[11][12]
In 1980, Manchester was the first council to declare itself a nuclear-free zone. In 1984 it formed an equal
opportunities unit as part of its opposition to Section 28.[13]
From 1974 until 1986 the council was a lower-tier authority, with upper-tier functions provided by the
Greater Manchester County Council. The county council was abolished in 1986 and its functions passed
to Greater Manchester's ten borough councils, including Manchester City Council, with some services
provided through joint committees.[14]
Since 2011 the council has been a member of the Greater Manchester Combined Authority, which has
been led by the directly elected Mayor of Greater Manchester since 2017. The combined authority
provides strategic leadership and co-ordination for certain functions across Greater Manchester, notably
regarding transport and town planning, but Manchester City Council continues to be responsible for
most local government functions.[15][16]
