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Manchester (/ˈmæntʃɪstə(r), -tʃɛs-/ ^ⓘ)^[6][7] is a city and metropolitan borough of Greater Manchester, England, which had an estimated population of 568,996 in 2022.^[4] Greater Manchester is the third-most populous metropolitan area in the United Kingdom, with a population of 2.92 million,^[8] and the largest in Northern England. It is bordered by the Cheshire Plain to the south, the Pennines to the north and east, and the neighbouring city of Salford to the west. The city borders the boroughs of Trafford, Stockport, Tameside, Oldham, Rochdale, Bury and Salford.

The history of Manchester began with the civilian settlement associated with the Roman fort (castra) of Mamucium or Mancunium, established c. AD 79 on a sandstone bluff near the confluence of the rivers Medlock and Irwell. Throughout the Middle Ages, Manchester remained a manorial township but began to expand “at an astonishing rate” around the turn of the 19th century. Manchester’s unplanned urbanisation was brought on by a boom in textile manufacture during the Industrial Revolution^[9] and resulted in it becoming the world’s first industrialised city.^[10] Historically part of Lancashire, areas of Cheshire south of the River Mersey were incorporated into Manchester in the 20th century, including Wythenshawe in 1931. Manchester achieved city status in 1853. The Manchester Ship Canal opened in 1894, creating the Port of Manchester and linking the city to the Irish Sea, 36 miles (58 km) to the west. The city’s fortune declined after the Second World War, owing to deindustrialisation, and the IRA bombing in 1996 led to extensive investment and regeneration.^[11] Following considerable redevelopment, Manchester was the host city for the 2002 Commonwealth Games.

The city is notable for its architecture, culture, musical exports, media links, scientific and engineering output, social impact, sports clubs and transport connections. Manchester Liverpool Road railway station is the world’s oldest surviving inter-city passenger railway station.^[12] At the University of Manchester, Ernest Rutherford first split the atom in 1917; Frederic C. Williams, Tom Kilburn and Geoff Tootill developed the world’s first stored-program computer in 1948; and Andre Geim and Konstantin Novoselov first isolated graphene in 2004.

Manchester is contiguous with the neighbouring city of Salford, separated from it by the River Irwell. The M60 motorway, also known as the Manchester Outer Ring Road, runs around the city and joins the M62 to the north-east and the M602 to the west, as well as the East Lancashire Road and A6.

Toponymy

The name Manchester originates from the Latin name Mamucium or its variant Mancunio and the citizens are still referred to as Mancunians (/mænˈkjuːniən/). These names are generally thought to represent a Latinisation of an original Brittonic name. The generally accepted etymology of this name is that it comes from Brittonic *mamm- (‘breast‘, in reference to a ‘breast-like hill‘).^[13][14] However, more recent work suggests that it could come from *mamma (‘mother’, in reference to a local river goddess). Both usages are preserved in Insular Celtic languages, such as mam meaning ‘breast’ in Irish and ‘mother’ in Welsh.^[15] The suffix -chester is from Old English ceaster (‘Roman fortification’, itself a loanword from Latin castra, ‘fort; fortified town’).^[14][13]

The city is widely known as ‘the capital of the North’.^{[16][17][18][19]}

History

Main article: History of Manchester

For a chronological guide, see Timeline of Manchester history.

Early history

Main article: Mamucium

The Brigantes were the major Celtic tribe in what is now known as Northern England; they had a stronghold in the locality at a sandstone outcrop on which Manchester Cathedral now stands, opposite the bank of the River Irwell.^[20] Their territory extended across the fertile lowland of what is now Salford and Stretford. Following the Roman conquest of Britain in the 1st century, General Agricola ordered the construction of a fort named Mamucium in the year 79 to ensure that Roman interests in Deva Victrix (Chester) and Eboracum (York) were protected from the Brigantes.^[20] Central Manchester has been permanently settled since this time.^[21] A stabilised fragment of foundations of the final version of the Roman fort is visible in Castlefield. The Roman habitation of Manchester probably ended around the 3rd century; its civilian settlement appears to have been abandoned by the mid-3rd century, although the fort may have supported a small garrison until the late 3rd or early 4th century.^[22] After the Roman withdrawal and Saxon conquest, the focus of settlement shifted to the confluence of the Irwell and Irk sometime before the arrival of the Normans after 1066.^[23] Much of the wider area was laid waste in the subsequent Harrying of the North.^[24][25]

In the Domesday Book of 1086, Manchester is recorded as within the hundred of Salford and held as tenant in chief by a Norman named Roger of Poitou,^[26] later being held by the family of Grelley, lord of the manor and residents of Manchester Castle until 1215 before a Manor House was built.^[27] By 1421 Thomas de la Warre founded and constructed a collegiate church for the parish, now Manchester Cathedral; the domestic premises of the college house Chetham’s School of Music and Chetham’s Library.^[23][28] The library, which opened in 1653 and is still open to the public, is the oldest free public reference library in the United Kingdom.^[29]

Manchester is mentioned as having a market in 1282.^[30] Around the 14th century, Manchester received an influx of Flemish weavers, sometimes credited as the foundation of the region’s textile industry.^[31] Manchester became an important centre for the manufacture and trade of woollens and linen, and by about 1540, had expanded to become, in John Leland‘s words, “The fairest, best builded, quickest, and most populous town of all Lancashire”.^[23] The cathedral and Chetham’s buildings are the only significant survivors of Leland’s Manchester.^[24]

During the English Civil War Manchester strongly favoured the Parliamentary interest. Although not long-lasting, Cromwell granted it the right to elect its own MP. Charles Worsley, who sat for the city for only a year, was later appointed Major General for Lancashire, Cheshire and Staffordshire during the Rule of the Major Generals. He was a diligent puritan, turning out ale houses and banning the celebration of Christmas; he died in 1656.^[32]

Significant quantities of cotton began to be used after about 1600, firstly in linen and cotton fustians, but by around 1750 pure cotton fabrics were being produced and cotton had overtaken wool in importance.^[23] The Irwell and Mersey were made navigable by 1736, opening a route from Manchester to the sea docks on the Mersey. The Bridgewater Canal, Britain’s first wholly artificial waterway, was opened in 1761, bringing coal from mines at Worsley to central Manchester. The canal was extended to the Mersey at Runcorn by 1776. The combination of competition and improved efficiency halved the cost of coal and halved the transport cost of raw cotton.^[23][28] Manchester became the dominant marketplace for textiles produced in the surrounding towns.^[23] A commodities exchange, opened in 1729,^[24] and numerous large warehouses, aided commerce. In 1780, Richard Arkwright began construction of Manchester’s first cotton mill.^[24][28] In the early 1800s, John Dalton formulated his atomic theory in Manchester.

Industrial Revolution

Manchester was one of the centres of textile manufacture during the Industrial Revolution. The great majority of cotton spinning took place in the towns of south Lancashire and north Cheshire, and Manchester was for a time the most productive centre of cotton processing.^[33]

Manchester became known as the world’s largest marketplace for cotton goods^[23][34] and was dubbed “Cottonopolis” and “Warehouse City” during the Victorian era.^[33] In Australia, New Zealand and South Africa, the term “manchester” is still used for household linen: sheets, pillow cases, towels, etc.^[35] The industrial revolution brought about huge change in Manchester and was key to the increase in Manchester’s population.

Manchester began expanding “at an astonishing rate” around the turn of the 19th century as people flocked to the city for work from Scotland, Wales, Ireland and other areas of England as part of a process of unplanned urbanisation brought on by the Industrial Revolution.^[36][37][38] It developed a wide range of industries, so that by 1835 “Manchester was without challenge the first and greatest industrial city in the world”.^[34] Engineering firms initially made machines for the cotton trade, but diversified into general manufacture. Similarly, the chemical industry started by producing bleaches and dyes, but expanded into other areas. Commerce was supported by financial service industries such as banking and insurance.

View from Kersal Moor towards Manchester by Sebastian Pether, c. 1820, then still a rural landscape. Note the River Irwell in both paintings.

Manchester from Kersal Moor, by William Wyld in 1857, a view now dominated by chimney stacks as a consequence of the Industrial Revolution

Trade, and feeding the growing population, required a large transport and distribution infrastructure: the canal system was extended, and Manchester became one end of the world’s first intercity passenger railway—the Liverpool and Manchester Railway. Competition between the various forms of transport kept costs down.^[23] In 1878 the GPO (the forerunner of British Telecom) provided its first telephones to a firm in Manchester.^[39]

The Manchester Ship Canal was built between 1888 and 1894, in some sections by canalisation of the Rivers Irwell and Mersey, running 36 miles (58 km)^[40] from Salford to Eastham Locks on the tidal Mersey. This enabled oceangoing ships to sail right into the Port of Manchester. On the canal’s banks, just outside the borough, the world’s first industrial estate was created at Trafford Park.^[23] Large quantities of machinery, including cotton processing plant, were exported around the world.

A centre of capitalism, Manchester was once the scene of bread and labour riots, as well as calls for greater political recognition by the city’s working and non-titled classes. One such gathering ended with the Peterloo massacre of 16 August 1819. The economic school of Manchester Capitalism developed there, and Manchester was the centre of the Anti-Corn Law League from 1838 onward.^[41]

Manchester has a notable place in the history of Marxism and left-wing politics; being the subject of Friedrich Engels‘ work The Condition of the Working Class in England in 1844; Engels spent much of his life in and around Manchester,^[42] and when Karl Marx visited Manchester, they met at Chetham’s Library. The economics books Marx was reading at the time can be seen in the library, as can the window seat where Marx and Engels would meet.^[29] The first Trades Union Congress was held in Manchester (at the Mechanics’ Institute, David Street), from 2 to 6 June 1868. Manchester was an important cradle of the Labour Party and the Suffragette Movement.^[43]

At that time, it seemed a place in which anything could happen—new industrial processes, new ways of thinking (the Manchester School, promoting free trade and laissez-faire), new classes or groups in society, new religious sects, and new forms of labour organisation. It attracted educated visitors from all parts of Britain and Europe. A saying capturing this sense of innovation survives today: “What Manchester does today, the rest of the world does tomorrow.”^[44] Manchester’s golden age was perhaps the last quarter of the 19th century. Many of the great public buildings (including Manchester Town Hall) date from then. The city’s cosmopolitan atmosphere contributed to a vibrant culture, which included the Hallé Orchestra. In 1889, when county councils were created in England, the municipal borough became a county borough with even greater autonomy.^[45]

Although the Industrial Revolution brought wealth to the city, it also brought poverty and squalor to a large part of the population. Historian Simon Schama noted that “Manchester was the very best and the very worst taken to terrifying extremes, a new kind of city in the world; the chimneys of industrial suburbs greeting you with columns of smoke”. An American visitor taken to Manchester’s blackspots saw “wretched, defrauded, oppressed, crushed human nature, lying and bleeding fragments”.^[46]

The number of cotton mills in Manchester itself reached a peak of 108 in 1853.^[33] Thereafter the number began to decline and Manchester was surpassed as the largest centre of cotton spinning by Bolton in the 1850s and Oldham in the 1860s.^[33] However, this period of decline coincided with the rise of the city as the financial centre of the region.^[33] Manchester continued to process cotton, and in 1913, 65% of the world’s cotton was processed in the area.^[23] The First World War interrupted access to the export markets. Cotton processing in other parts of the world increased, often on machines produced in Manchester. Manchester suffered greatly from the Great Depression and the underlying structural changes that began to supplant the old industries, including textile manufacture.

Blitz

Main article: Manchester Blitz

Like most of the UK, the Manchester area was mobilised extensively during the Second World War. For example, casting and machining expertise at Beyer, Peacock & Company‘s locomotive works in Gorton was switched to bomb making; Dunlop’s rubber works in Chorlton-on-Medlock made barrage balloons; and just outside the city in Trafford Park, engineers Metropolitan-Vickers made Avro Manchester and Avro Lancaster bombers and Ford built the Rolls-Royce Merlin engines to power them. Manchester was thus the target of bombing by the Luftwaffe, and by late 1940 air raids were taking place against non-military targets. The biggest took place during the Christmas Blitz on the nights of 22/23 and 24 December 1940, when an estimated 474 tonnes (467 long tons) of high explosives plus over 37,000 incendiary bombs were dropped. A large part of the historic city centre was destroyed, including 165 warehouses, 200 business premises, and 150 offices. 376 were killed and 30,000 houses were damaged.^[47] Manchester Cathedral, Royal Exchange and Free Trade Hall were among the buildings seriously damaged; restoration of the cathedral took 20 years.^[48] In total, 589 civilians were recorded to have died as result of enemy action within the Manchester County Borough.^[49]

Post–Second World War

Cotton processing and trading continued to decline in peacetime, and the exchange closed in 1968.^[23] By 1963 the port of Manchester was the UK’s third largest,^[50] and employed over 3,000 men, but the canal was unable to handle the increasingly large container ships. Traffic declined, and the port closed in 1982.^[51] Heavy industry suffered a downturn from the 1960s and was greatly reduced under the economic policies followed by Margaret Thatcher‘s government after 1979. Manchester lost 150,000 jobs in manufacturing between 1961 and 1983.^[23]

Regeneration began in the late 1980s, with initiatives such as the Metrolink, the Bridgewater Concert Hall, the Manchester Arena, and (in Salford) the rebranding of the port as Salford Quays. Two bids to host the Olympic Games were part of a process to raise the international profile of the city.^[53]

Manchester has a history of attacks attributed to Irish Republicans, including the Manchester Martyrs of 1867, arson in 1920, a series of explosions in 1939, and two bombs in 1992. On Saturday 15 June 1996, the Provisional Irish Republican Army (IRA) carried out the 1996 Manchester bombing, the detonation of a large bomb next to a department store in the city centre. The largest to be detonated on British soil, the bomb injured over 200 people, heavily damaged nearby buildings, and broke windows ¹⁄₂ mile (800 m) away. The cost of the immediate damage was initially estimated at £50 million, but this was quickly revised upwards.^[54] The final insurance payout was over £400 million; many affected businesses never recovered from the loss of trade.^[55]

Since 2000

Spurred by the investment after the 1996 bombing and aided by the XVII Commonwealth Games, the city centre has undergone extensive regeneration.^[53] New and renovated complexes such as The Printworks and Corn Exchange have become popular shopping, eating and entertainment areas. Manchester Arndale is the UK’s largest city-centre shopping centre.^[56]

Large city sections from the 1960s have been demolished, re-developed or modernised with the use of glass and steel. Old mills have been converted into apartments. Hulme has undergone extensive regeneration, with million-pound loft-house apartments being developed. The 47-storey, 554-foot (169 m) Beetham Tower was the tallest UK building outside of London and the highest residential accommodation in Europe when completed in 2006. It was surpassed in 2018 by the 659-foot (201 m) South Tower of the Deansgate Square project, also in Manchester.^[57] In January 2007, the independent Casino Advisory Panel licensed Manchester to build the UK’s only supercasino,^[58] but plans were abandoned in February 2008.^[59]

On 22 May 2017, an Islamist terrorist carried out a bombing at an Ariana Grande concert in the Manchester Arena; the bomb killed 23, including the attacker, and injured over 800.^[60] It was the deadliest terrorist attack and first suicide bombing in Britain since the 7 July 2005 London bombings. It caused worldwide condemnation and changed the UK’s threat level to “critical” for the first time since 2007.^[61]

Birmingham has historically been considered to be England or the UK’s second city, but in the 21st century claims to this unofficial title have also been made for Manchester.^[62][63][64]

Government

Main articles: Politics in Manchester and Manchester City Council

See also: Manchester local elections, List of Lord Mayors of Manchester, and Healthcare in Greater Manchester

The City of Manchester is governed by the Manchester City Council. The Greater Manchester Combined Authority, with a directly elected mayor, has responsibilities for economic strategy and transport, amongst other areas, on a Greater Manchester-wide basis. Manchester has been a member of the English Core Cities Group since its inception in 1995.^[65]

The town of Manchester was granted a charter by Thomas Grelley in 1301 but lost its borough status in a court case of 1359. Until the 19th century local government was largely in the hands of manorial courts, the last of which was dissolved in 1846.^[45]

From a very early time, the township of Manchester lay within the historic or ceremonial county boundaries of Lancashire.^[45] Pevsner wrote “That [neighbouring] Stretford and Salford are not administratively one with Manchester is one of the most curious anomalies of England”.^[31] A stroke of a baron’s pen is said to have divorced Manchester and Salford, though it was not Salford that became separated from Manchester, it was Manchester, with its humbler line of lords, that was separated from Salford.^[66] It was this separation that resulted in Salford becoming the judicial seat of Salfordshire, which included the ancient parish of Manchester. Manchester later formed its own Poor Law Union using the name “Manchester”.^[45] In 1792, Commissioners – usually known as “Police Commissioners” – were established for the social improvement of Manchester. Manchester regained its borough status in 1838 and comprised the townships of Beswick, Cheetham Hill, Chorlton upon Medlock and Hulme.^[45] By 1846, with increasing population and greater industrialisation, the Borough Council had taken over the powers of the “Police Commissioners”. In 1853, Manchester was granted city status.^[45]

In 1885, Bradford, Harpurhey, Rusholme and parts of Moss Side and Withington townships became part of the City of Manchester. In 1889, the city became a county borough, as did many larger Lancashire towns, and therefore not governed by Lancashire County Council.^[45] Between 1890 and 1933, more areas were added to the city, which had been administered by Lancashire County Council, including former villages such as Burnage, Chorlton-cum-Hardy, Didsbury, Fallowfield, Levenshulme, Longsight, and Withington. In 1931, the Cheshire civil parishes of Baguley, Northenden and Northen Etchells from the south of the River Mersey were added.^[45] In 1974, by way of the Local Government Act 1972, the City of Manchester became a metropolitan district of the metropolitan county of Greater Manchester.^[45] That year, Ringway, the village where the Manchester Airport is located, was added to the city.

In November 2014, it was announced that Greater Manchester would receive a new directly elected mayor. The mayor would have fiscal control over health, transport, housing and police in the area.^[67] Andy Burnham was elected as the first mayor of Greater Manchester in 2017.

Geography

See also: Geography of Greater Manchester

Manchester
Climate chart (explanation)
JFMAMJJASOND7272518261103541355716866191164211377201272181093147821048172█ Average max. and min. temperatures in °C█ Precipitation totals in mmSource: Climate-Charts.com
showImperial conversion

At 53°28′0″N 2°14′0″W, 160 miles (260 km) northwest of London, Manchester lies in a bowl-shaped land area bordered to the north and east by the Pennines, an upland chain that runs the length of northern England, and to the south by the Cheshire Plain. Manchester is 35.0 miles (56.3 km) north-east of Liverpool and 35.0 miles (56.3 km) north-west of Sheffield, making the city the halfway point between the two. The city centre is on the east bank of the River Irwell, near its confluences with the Rivers Medlock and Irk, and is relatively low-lying, being between 35 and 42 metres (115 and 138 feet) above sea level.^[68] The River Mersey flows through the south of Manchester. Much of the inner city, especially in the south, is flat, offering extensive views from many highrise buildings in the city of the foothills and moors of the Pennines, which can often be capped with snow in the winter months. Manchester’s geographic features were highly influential in its early development as the world’s first industrial city. These features are its climate, its proximity to a seaport at Liverpool, the availability of waterpower from its rivers, and its nearby coal reserves.^[69]

The name Manchester, though officially applied only to the metropolitan district within Greater Manchester, has been applied to other, wider divisions of land, particularly across much of the Greater Manchester county and urban area. The “Manchester City Zone”, “Manchester post town” and the “Manchester Congestion Charge” are all examples of this.

For purposes of the Office for National Statistics, Manchester forms the most populous settlement within the Greater Manchester Urban Area, the United Kingdom’s second-largest conurbation. There is a mix of high-density urban and suburban locations. The largest open space in the city, at around 260 hectares (642 acres),^[70] is Heaton Park. Manchester is contiguous on all sides with several large settlements, except for a small section along its southern boundary with Cheshire. The M60 and M56 motorways pass through Northenden and Wythenshawe respectively in the south of Manchester. Heavy rail lines enter the city from all directions, the principal destination being Manchester Piccadilly station.

Climate

Manchester experiences a temperate oceanic climate (Köppen: Cfb), like much of the British Isles, with warm summers and cold winters compared to other parts of the UK. Summer daytime temperatures regularly top 20 °C, quite often reaching 25 °C on sunny days during July and August in particular. In more recent years, temperatures have occasionally reached over 30 °C. There is regular but generally light precipitation throughout the year. The city’s average annual rainfall is 806.6 millimetres (31.76 in)^[71] compared to a UK average of 1,125.0 millimetres (44.29 in),^[72] and its mean rain days are 140.4 per annum,^[71] compared to the UK average of 154.4.^[72] Manchester has a relatively high humidity level, and this, along with abundant soft water, was one factor that led to advancement of the textile industry in the area.^[73] Snowfalls are not common in the city because of the urban warming effect but the West Pennine Moors to the north-west, South Pennines to the north-east and Peak District to the east receive more snow, which can close roads leading out of the city.^[74] They include the A62 via Oldham and Standedge,^[75] the A57, Snake Pass, towards Sheffield,^[76] and the Pennine section of the M62.^[77] The lowest temperature ever recorded in Manchester was −17.6 °C (0.3 °F) on 7 January 2010.^[78] The highest temperature recorded in Manchester is 38.0 °C (100.4 °F) on 19 July 2022, during the 2022 European Heatwave.^[79]

Green belt

Further information: North West Green Belt

Manchester lies at the centre of a green belt region extending into the wider surrounding counties. This reduces urban sprawl, prevents towns in the conurbation from further convergence, protects the identity of outlying communities, and preserves nearby countryside. It is achieved by restricting inappropriate development within the designated areas and imposing stricter conditions on permitted building.^[88]

Due to being already highly urban, the city contains limited portions of protected green-belt area within greenfield throughout the borough, with minimal development opportunities,^[89] at Clayton Vale, Heaton Park, Chorlton Water Park along with the Chorlton Ees & Ivy Green nature reserve and the floodplain surrounding the River Mersey, as well as the southern area around Manchester Airport.^[90] The green belt was first drawn up in 1961.^[88]

showvteNeighbouring districts and places

Demographics

Main article: Demographics of Manchester

Historically the population of Manchester began to increase rapidly during the Victorian era, estimated at 354,930 for Manchester and 110,833 for Salford in 1865,^[91] and peaking at 766,311 in 1931. From then the population began to decrease rapidly, due to slum clearance and the increased building of social housing overspill estates by Manchester City Council after the Second World War such as Hattersley and Langley.^[92]

The 2012 mid-year estimate for the population of Manchester was 510,700. This was an increase of 7,900, or 1.6 per cent, since the 2011 estimate. Since 2001, the population has grown by 87,900, or 20.8 per cent, making Manchester the third fastest-growing area in the 2011 census.^[93] The city experienced the greatest percentage population growth outside London, with an increase of 19 per cent to over 500,000.^[94] Manchester’s population is projected to reach 532,200 by 2021, an increase of 5.8 per cent from 2011. This represents a slower rate of growth than the previous decade.^[93]

The Greater Manchester Built-up Area in 2011 had an estimated population of 2,553,400. In 2012 an estimated 2,702,200 people lived in Greater Manchester. An 6,547,000 people were estimated in 2012 to live within 30 miles (50 km) of Manchester and 11,694,000 within 50 miles (80 km).^[93]

Between the beginning of July 2011 and end of June 2012 (mid-year estimate date), births exceeded deaths by 4,800. Migration (internal and international) and other changes accounted for a net increase of 3,100 people between July 2011 and June 2012. Compared with Greater Manchester and with England, Manchester has a younger population, with a particularly large 20–35 age group.^[93]

There were 76,095 undergraduate and postgraduate students at Manchester Metropolitan University, the University of Manchester and Royal Northern College of Music in the 2011/2012 academic year.

Of all households in Manchester, 0.23 per cent were Same-Sex Civil Partnership households, compared with an English national average of 0.16 per cent in 2011.^[95]

The Manchester Larger Urban Zone, a Eurostat measure of the functional city-region approximated to local government districts, had a population of 2,539,100 in 2004.^[96] In addition to Manchester itself, the LUZ includes the remainder of the county of Greater Manchester.^[97] The Manchester LUZ is the second largest within the United Kingdom, behind that of London.

Religion

Religious beliefs, according to the 2021 census^[98]

1. Christian (36.2%)
2. No Religion (32.4%)
3. Muslim (22.3%)
4. Hindu (1.1%)
5. Buddhist (0.6%)
6. Jewish (0.5%)
7. Other (0.5%)
8. Religion Not Stated (5.9%)

Since the 2001 census, the proportion of Christians in Manchester has fallen by 22 per cent from 62.4 per cent to 48.7 per cent in 2011. The proportion of those with no religious affiliation rose by 58.1 per cent from 16 per cent to 25.3 per cent, whilst the proportion of Muslims increased by 73.6 per cent from 9.1 per cent to 15.8 per cent. The size of the Jewish population in Greater Manchester is the largest in Britain outside London.^[99]

Ethnicity

In terms of ethnic composition, the City of Manchester has the highest non-white proportion of any district in Greater Manchester. Statistics from the 2011 census showed that 66.7 per cent of the population was White (59.3 per cent White British, 2.4 per cent White Irish, 0.1 per cent Gypsy or Irish Traveller, 4.9 per cent Other White – although the size of mixed European and British ethnic groups is unclear, there are reportedly over 25,000 people in Greater Manchester of at least partial Italian descent alone, which represents 5.5 per cent of the population of Greater Manchester^[100]). 4.7 per cent were mixed race (1.8 per cent White and Black Caribbean, 0.9 per cent White and Black African, 1.0 per cent White and Asian, 1.0 per cent other mixed), 17.1 per cent Asian (2.3 per cent Indian, 8.5 per cent Pakistani, 1.3 per cent Bangladeshi, 2.7 per cent Chinese, 2.3 per cent other Asian), 8.6 per cent Black (5.1 per cent African, 1.6 per cent other Black), 1.9 per cent Arab and 1.2 per cent of other ethnic heritage.^[101]

Kidd identifies Moss Side, Longsight, Cheetham Hill, Rusholme, as centres of population for ethnic minorities.^[23] Manchester’s Irish Festival, including a St Patrick’s Day parade, is one of Europe’s largest.^[102] There is also a well-established Chinatown in the city with a substantial number of Chinese restaurants and supermarkets. The area also attracts large numbers of Chinese students to the city who, in attending the local universities,^[103] contribute to Manchester having the third-largest Chinese population in Europe.^[104][105]

Ethnicity of Manchester, from 1971 to 2021:

Ethnic group	showYear

Ethnicity of school pupils

Ethnic group	showSchool year[112][113]

Economy

Main article: Economy of Manchester

See also: List of companies based in Greater Manchester

Year	GVA (£ million)	Growth (%)
2002	24,011	3.8%
2003	25,063	4.4%
2004	27,862	11.2%
2005	28,579	2.6%
2006	30,384	6.3%
2007	32,011	5.4%
2008	32,081	0.2%
2009	33,186	3.4%
2010	33,751	1.7%
2011	33,468	0.8%
2012	34,755	3.8%
2013	37,560	9.6%

The Office for National Statistics does not produce economic data for the City of Manchester alone, but includes four other metropolitan boroughs, Salford, Stockport, Tameside, Trafford, in an area named Greater Manchester South, which had a GVA of £34.8 billion. The economy grew relatively strongly between 2002 and 2012, when growth was 2.3 per cent above the national average.^[115] The wider metropolitan economy is the third largest in the United Kingdom. It is ranked as a beta world city by the Globalization and World Cities Research Network.^[116]

As the UK economy continues to recover from its 2008–2010 downturn, Manchester compares favourably according to recent figures. In 2012 it showed the strongest annual growth in business stock (5 per cent) of all core cities.^[117] The city had a relatively sharp increase in the number of business deaths, the largest increase in all the core cities, but this was offset by strong growth in new businesses, resulting in strong net growth.

Manchester’s civic leadership has a reputation for business acumen.^[118] It owns two of the country’s four busiest airports and uses its earnings to fund local projects.^[119] Meanwhile, KPMG‘s competitive alternative report found that in 2012 Manchester had the 9th lowest tax cost of any industrialised city in the world,^[120] and fiscal devolution has come earlier to Manchester than to any other British city: it can keep half the extra taxes it gets from transport investment.^[118]

KPMG’s competitive alternative report also found that Manchester was Europe’s most affordable city featured, ranking slightly better than the Dutch cities of Rotterdam and Amsterdam, which all have a cost-of-living index of less than 95.^[120]

Manchester is a city of contrast, where some of the country’s most deprived and most affluent neighbourhoods can be found.^[121][122] According to 2010 Indices of Multiple Deprivation, Manchester is the 4th most deprived local council in England.^[123] Unemployment throughout 2012–2013 averaged 11.9 per cent, which was above national average, but lower than some of the country’s comparable large cities.^[124] On the other hand, Greater Manchester is home to more multi-millionaires than anywhere outside London, with the City of Manchester taking up most of the tally.^[125] In 2013 Manchester was ranked 6th in the UK for quality of life, according to a rating of the UK’s 12 largest cities.^[126]

Women fare better in Manchester than the rest of the country in comparative pay with men. The per hours-worked gender pay gap is 3.3 per cent compared with 11.1 per cent for Britain.^[127] 37 per cent of the working-age population in Manchester have degree-level qualifications, as opposed to an average of 33 per cent across other core cities,^[127] although its schools under-perform slightly compared with the national average.^[128]

Manchester has the largest UK office market outside London, according to GVA Grimley, with a quarterly office uptake (averaged over 2010–2014) of some 250,000 square feet – equivalent to the quarterly office uptake of Leeds, Liverpool and Newcastle combined and 90,000 square feet more than the nearest rival, Birmingham.^[129] The strong office market in Manchester has been partly attributed to “northshoring” (from offshoring), which entails the relocation or alternative creation of jobs away from the overheated South to areas where office space is possibly cheaper and the workforce market less saturated.^[130]

A view of the Manchester skyline, January 2020

Landmarks

Main article: Architecture of Manchester

See also: List of tallest buildings and structures in Manchester, List of streets and roads in Manchester, Grade I listed buildings in Greater Manchester, Grade II* listed buildings in Greater Manchester, and List of public art in Greater Manchester

Manchester’s buildings display a variety of architectural styles, ranging from Victorian to contemporary architecture. The widespread use of red brick characterises the city, much of the architecture of which harks back to its days as a global centre for the cotton trade.^[28] Just outside the immediate city centre are a large number of former cotton mills, some of which have been left virtually untouched since their closure, while many have been redeveloped as apartment buildings and office space. Manchester Town Hall, in Albert Square, was built in the Gothic revival style.^[131]

Manchester also has a number of skyscrapers built in the 1960s and 1970s, the tallest being the CIS Tower near Manchester Victoria station until the Beetham Tower was completed in 2006. The latter exemplifies a new surge in high-rise building. It includes a Hilton hotel, a restaurant and apartments. The largest skyscraper is now Deansgate Square South Tower, at 201 metres (659 feet).The Green Building, opposite Oxford Road station, is a eco-friendly housing project, while the recently completed One Angel Square, is one of the most sustainable large buildings in the world.^[132]

Heaton Park in the north of the city borough is one of the largest municipal parks in Europe, covering 610 acres (250 ha) of parkland.^[133] The city has 135 parks, gardens, and open spaces.^[134]

Two large squares hold many of Manchester’s public monuments. Albert Square has monuments to Prince Albert, Bishop James Fraser, Oliver Heywood, William Gladstone and John Bright. Piccadilly Gardens has monuments dedicated to Queen Victoria, Robert Peel, James Watt and the Duke of Wellington. The cenotaph in St Peter’s Square is Manchester’s main memorial to its war dead. Designed by Edwin Lutyens, it echoes the original on Whitehall in London. The Alan Turing Memorial in Sackville Park commemorates his role as the father of modern computing. A larger-than-life statue of Abraham Lincoln by George Gray Barnard in the eponymous Lincoln Square (having stood for many years in Platt Fields) was presented to the city by Mr and Mrs Charles Phelps Taft of Cincinnati, Ohio, to mark the part Lancashire played in the cotton famine and American Civil War of 1861–1865.^[135] A Concorde is on display near Manchester Airport.

Manchester has six designated local nature reserves: Chorlton Water Park, Blackley Forest, Clayton Vale and Chorlton Ees, Ivy Green, Boggart Hole Clough and Highfield Country Park.^[136]

Transport

Main article: Transport in Manchester

See also: Transport for Greater Manchester

Rail

Manchester Liverpool Road was the world’s first purpose-built passenger and goods railway station^[137] and served as the Manchester terminus on the Liverpool & Manchester Railway – the world’s first inter-city passenger railway. It is still extant and its buildings form part of the Science & Industry Museum.

Two of the city’s four main line termini did not survive the 1960s: Manchester Central and Manchester Exchange each closed in 1969. In addition, Manchester Mayfield station closed to passenger services in 1960; its buildings and platforms are still extant, next to Piccadilly station, but are due to be redeveloped in the 2020s.

Today, the city is well served by its rail network although it is now working to capacity,^[139] and is at the centre of an extensive county-wide railway network, including the West Coast Main Line, with two mainline stations: Manchester Piccadilly and Manchester Victoria. The Manchester station group – comprising Manchester Piccadilly, Manchester Victoria, Manchester Oxford Road and Deansgate – is the third busiest in the United Kingdom, with 44.9 million passengers recorded in 2017/2018.^[138] The High Speed 2 link to Birmingham and London was also planned, which would have included a 12 km (7 mi) tunnel under Manchester on the final approach into an upgraded Piccadilly station,^[140] however this was cancelled by Prime Minister Rishi Sunak in October 2023.^[141]

Recent improvements in Manchester as part of the Northern Hub in the 2010s have been numerous electrification schemes into and through Manchester, redevelopment of Victoria station and construction of the Ordsall Chord directly linking Victoria and Piccadilly.^[142] Work on two new through platforms at Piccadilly and an extensive upgrade at Oxford Road had not commenced as of 2019. Manchester city centre, specifically the Castlefield Corridor, suffers from constrained rail capacity that frequently leads to delays and cancellations – a 2018 report found that all three major Manchester stations are among the top ten worst stations in the United Kingdom for punctuality, with Oxford Road deemed the worst in the country.^[143]

Metrolink (tram/light rail)

Main article: Manchester Metrolink

Manchester became the first city in the UK to acquire a modern light rail tram system when the Manchester Metrolink opened in 1992. In 2016–2017, 37.8 million passenger journeys were made on the system.^[145] The present system mostly runs on former commuter rail lines converted for light rail use, and crosses the city centre via on-street tram lines.^[146] The network consists of eight lines with 99 stops.^[147] A new line to the Trafford Centre opened in 2020.^[148][149] Manchester city centre is also serviced by over a dozen heavy and light rail-based park and ride sites.^[150]

Bus

The city has one of the most extensive bus networks outside London, with over 50 bus companies operating in the Greater Manchester region radiating from the city. In 2011, 80 per cent of public transport journeys in Greater Manchester were made by bus, amounting to 220 million passenger journeys each year.^[151] After deregulation in 1986, the bus system was taken over by GM Buses, which after privatisation was split into GM Buses North and GM Buses South. Later these were taken over by First Greater Manchester and Stagecoach Manchester. Much of the First Greater Manchester business was sold to Diamond North West and Go North West in 2019.^[152] Go North West operate a three-route zero-fare Manchester Metroshuttle, which carries 2.8 million commuters a year around Manchester’s business districts.^{[151][153][154]} Stagecoach Manchester is the Stagecoach Group‘s largest subsidiary and operates around 690 buses.^[155]

Air

Main article: Manchester Airport

Manchester Airport serves Manchester, Northern England and North Wales. The airport is the third busiest in the United Kingdom, with over double the number of annual passengers of the next busiest non-London airport.^[156] Services cover many destinations in Europe, North America, the Caribbean, Africa, the Middle East, and Asia (with more destinations from Manchester than any other airport in Britain).^[157] A second runway was opened in 2001 and there have been continued terminal improvements. The airport has the highest rating available: “Category 10“, encompassing an elite group of airports able to handle “Code F” aircraft, including the Airbus A380 and Boeing 747-8.^[158] From September 2010 the airport became one of only 17 airports in the world and the only UK airport other than Heathrow Airport and Gatwick Airport to operate the Airbus A380.^[159]

A smaller City Airport Manchester exists 9.3 km (6 mi) to the west of Manchester city centre. It was Manchester’s first municipal airport and became the site of the first air traffic control tower in the UK, and the first municipal airfield in the UK to be licensed by the Air Ministry.^[160] Today, private charter flights and general aviation use City. It also has a flight school,^[161] and both the Greater Manchester Police Air Support Unit and the North West Air Ambulance have helicopters based there.

Canal

An extensive canal network, including the Manchester Ship Canal, was built to carry freight from the Industrial Revolution onward; the canals are still maintained, though now largely repurposed for leisure use.^[162] In 2012, plans were approved to introduce a water taxi service between Manchester city centre and MediaCityUK at Salford Quays.^[163] It ceased to operate in June 2018, citing poor infrastructure.^[164]

Cycling

Further information: Cycling in Greater Manchester

Cycling for transportation and leisure enjoys popularity in Manchester and the city also plays a major role in British cycle racing.^[165][166]

Culture

Main article: Culture of Manchester

See also: List of people from Manchester

Music

See also: Popular music of Manchester, List of music artists and bands from Manchester, and Madchester

Bands that have emerged from the Manchester music scene include Van der Graaf Generator, Oasis, the Smiths, Joy Division and its successor group New Order, Buzzcocks, the Stone Roses, the Fall, the Durutti Column, 10cc, Godley & Creme, the Verve, Elbow, Doves, the Charlatans, M People, the 1975, Simply Red, Take That, Dutch Uncles, Everything Everything, the Courteeners, Pale Waves, and the Outfield. Manchester was credited as the main driving force behind British indie music of the 1980s led by the Smiths, later including the Stone Roses, Happy Mondays, Inspiral Carpets, and James. The later groups came from what became known as the “Madchester” scene that also centred on The Haçienda nightclub developed by the founder of Factory Records, Tony Wilson. Although from southern England, the Chemical Brothers subsequently formed in Manchester.^[167] Former Smiths frontman Morrissey, whose lyrics often refer to Manchester locations and culture, later found international success as a solo artist. Previously, notable Manchester acts of the 1960s include the Hollies, Herman’s Hermits, and Davy Jones of the Monkees (famed in the mid-1960s for their albums and their American TV show), and the earlier Bee Gees, who grew up in Chorlton.^[168] Prominent rap artists from Manchester include Bugzy Malone and Aitch.

Its main pop music venue is Manchester Arena, voted “International Venue of the Year” in 2007.^[169] With over 21,000 seats, it is the largest arena of its type in Europe.^[169] In terms of concertgoers, it is the busiest indoor arena in the world, ahead of Madison Square Garden in New York and The O2 Arena in London, which are second and third busiest.^[170] Other venues include Manchester Apollo, Albert Hall, Victoria Warehouse and the Manchester Academy. Smaller venues include the Band on the Wall, the Night and Day Café,^[171] the Ruby Lounge,^[172] and The Deaf Institute.^[173] Manchester also has the most indie and rock music events outside London.^[174]

Manchester has two symphony orchestras, The Hallé and the BBC Philharmonic, and a chamber orchestra, the Manchester Camerata. In the 1950s, the city was home to a so-called “Manchester School” of classical composers, which was composed of Harrison Birtwistle, Peter Maxwell Davies, David Ellis and Alexander Goehr. Manchester is a centre for musical education: the Royal Northern College of Music and Chetham’s School of Music.^[175] Forerunners of the RNCM were the Northern School of Music (founded 1920) and the Royal Manchester College of Music (founded 1893), which merged in 1973. One of the earliest instructors and classical music pianists/conductors at the RNCM, shortly after its founding, was the Russian-born Arthur Friedheim, (1859–1932), who later had the music library at the famed Peabody Institute conservatory of music in Baltimore, Maryland, named after him. The main classical music venue was the Free Trade Hall on Peter Street until the opening in 1996 of the 2,500 seat Bridgewater Hall.^[176]

Brass band music, a tradition in the north of England, is important to Manchester’s musical heritage;^[177] some of the UK’s leading bands, such as the CWS Manchester Band and the Fairey Band, are from Manchester and surrounding areas, and the Whit Friday brass-band contest takes place annually in the neighbouring areas of Saddleworth and Tameside.

Performing arts

Manchester has a thriving theatre, opera and dance scene, with a number of large performance venues, including Manchester Opera House, which feature large-scale touring shows and West End productions; the Palace Theatre; and the Royal Exchange Theatre in Manchester’s former cotton exchange, which is the largest theatre in the round in the UK.

Smaller venues include the Contact Theatre and Z-arts in Hulme. The Dancehouse on Oxford Road is dedicated to dance productions.^[178] In 2014, HOME, a new custom-built arts complex opened. Housing two theatre spaces, five cinemas and an art exhibition space, it replaced the Cornerhouse and The Library Theatre.^[179]

Since 2007, the city has hosted the Manchester International Festival, a biennial international arts festival with a focus on original work, which has included major new commissions by artists, including Bjork. In 2023, the festival, operated by Factory International, was given a permanent home in Aviva Studios, a purpose-built multi-million pound venue designed by Rem Koolhaas from the Office for Metropolitan Architecture.^[180]

Museums and galleries

Manchester’s museums celebrate Manchester’s Roman history, rich industrial heritage and its role in the Industrial Revolution, the textile industry, the Trade Union movement, women’s suffrage and football. A reconstructed part of the Roman fort of Mamucium is open to the public in Castlefield.

The Science and Industry Museum, housed in the former Liverpool Road railway station, has a large collection of steam locomotives, industrial machinery, aircraft and a replica of the world’s first stored computer program (known as the Manchester Baby).^[181] The Museum of Transport displays a collection of historic buses and trams.^[182] Trafford Park in the neighbouring borough of Trafford is home to Imperial War Museum North.^[183] The Manchester Museum opened to the public in the 1880s, has notable Egyptology and natural history collections.^[184] Other exhibition spaces and museums in Manchester include Islington Mill in Salford, the National Football Museum at Urbis, Castlefield Gallery, the Manchester Costume Gallery at Platt Fields Park, the People’s History Museum and the Manchester Jewish Museum.^[185]

The municipally owned Manchester Art Gallery in Mosley Street houses a permanent collection of European painting and one of Britain’s main collections of Pre-Raphaelite paintings.^[186][187] In the south of the city, the Whitworth Art Gallery displays modern art, sculpture and textiles and was voted Museum of the Year in 2015.^[188] The work of Stretford-born painter L. S. Lowry, known for “matchstick” paintings of industrial Manchester and Salford, can be seen in the City and Whitworth Manchester galleries, and at the Lowry art centre in Salford Quays (in the neighbouring borough of Salford), which devotes a large permanent exhibition to his works.^[189]

Literature

Manchester is a UNESCO City of Literature known for a “radical literary history”.^[190][191] Manchester in the 19th century featured in works highlighting the changes that industrialisation had brought. They include Elizabeth Gaskell‘s novel Mary Barton: A Tale of Manchester Life (1848),^[192] and studies such as The Condition of the Working Class in England in 1844 by Friedrich Engels, while living and working here.^[193] Manchester was the meeting place of Engels and Karl Marx. The two began writing The Communist Manifesto in Chetham’s Library^[194] – founded in 1653 and claiming to be the oldest public library in the English-speaking world. Elsewhere in the city, the John Rylands Library holds an extensive collection of early printing. The Rylands Library Papyrus P52, believed to be the earliest extant New Testament text, is on permanent display there.^[195]

Wikisource has original text related to this article:

‘Manchester’ a poetical illustration by L. E. L.

Letitia Landon‘s poetical illustration Manchester to a vista over the city by G. Pickering in Fisher’s Drawing Room Scrap Book, 1835, records the rapid growth of the city and its cultural importance.^[196]

Charles Dickens is reputed to have set his novel Hard Times in the city, and though partly modelled on Preston, it shows the influence of his friend Mrs Gaskell.^[197] Gaskell penned all her novels but Mary Barton at her home in 84 Plymouth Grove. Often her house played host to influential authors: Dickens, Charlotte Brontë, Harriet Beecher Stowe and Charles Eliot Norton, for example.^[198] It is now open as a literary museum.

Charlotte Brontë began writing her novel Jane Eyre in 1846, while staying at lodgings in Hulme. She was accompanying her father Patrick, who was convalescing in the city after cataract surgery.^[199] She probably envisioned Manchester Cathedral churchyard as the burial place for Jane’s parents and the birthplace of Jane herself.^[200] Also associated with the city is the Victorian poet and novelist Isabella Banks, famed for her 1876 novel The Manchester Man. Anglo-American author Frances Hodgson Burnett was born in the city’s Cheetham Hill district in 1849, and wrote much of her classic children’s novel The Secret Garden while visiting nearby Salford’s Buile Hill Park.^[201]

Anthony Burgess is among the 20th-century writers who made Manchester their home. He wrote here the dystopian satire A Clockwork Orange in 1962.^[202] Dame Carol Ann Duffy, Poet Laureate from 2009 to 2019, moved to the city in 1996 and lives in West Didsbury.^[203]

Nightlife

The night-time economy of Manchester has expanded significantly since about 1993, with investment from breweries in bars, public houses and clubs, along with active support from the local authorities.^[204] The more than 500 licensed premises^[205] in the city centre have a capacity to deal with more than 250,000 visitors,^[206] with 110,000–130,000 people visiting on a typical weekend night,^[205] making Manchester the most popular city for events at 79 per thousand people.^[207] The night-time economy has a value of about £100 million,^[208] and supports 12,000 jobs.^[205]

The Madchester scene of the 1980s, from which groups including the Stone Roses, the Happy Mondays, Inspiral Carpets, 808 State, James and the Charlatans emerged, was based around clubs such as The Haçienda.^[209] The period was the subject of the movie 24 Hour Party People. Many of the big clubs suffered problems with organised crime at that time; Haslam describes one where staff were so completely intimidated that free admission and drinks were demanded (and given) and drugs were openly dealt.^[209] Following a series of drug-related violent incidents, The Haçienda closed in 1997.^[204]

Gay village

Public houses in the Canal Street area have had an LGBTQ+ clientele since at least 1940,^[204] and now form the centre of Manchester’s LGBTQ+ community. Since the opening of new bars and clubs, the area attracts 20,000 visitors each weekend^[204] and has hosted a popular festival, Manchester Pride, each August since 1995.^[210]

Education

See also: List of schools in Manchester

There are three universities in the City of Manchester. The University of Manchester, Manchester Metropolitan University and Royal Northern College of Music. The University of Manchester is the second largest full-time non-collegiate university in the United Kingdom,^[211] created in 2004 by the merger of Victoria University of Manchester, founded in 1904, and UMIST, founded in 1956,^[212] having developed from the Mechanics’ Institute founded, as indicated in the university’s logo, in 1824. The University of Manchester includes the Manchester Business School, which offered the first MBA course in the UK in 1965.^[213]

Manchester Metropolitan University was formed as Manchester Polytechnic on the merger of three colleges in 1970. It gained university status in 1992, and in the same year absorbed Crewe and Alsager College of Higher Education in South Cheshire.^[214] The Cheshire campus permanently closed in 2019.^[215] The University of Law, the largest provider of vocation legal training in Europe, has a campus in the city.^[216]

The three universities are grouped around Oxford Road on the southern side of the city centre, which forms Europe’s largest urban higher-education precinct.^[217] Together they have a combined population of over 80,000 students as of 2022.^[211]

One of Manchester’s notable secondary schools is Manchester Grammar School. Established in 1515,^[218] as a free grammar school next to what is now the cathedral, it moved in 1931 to Old Hall Lane in Fallowfield, south Manchester, to accommodate the growing student body. In the post-war period, it was a direct grant grammar school (i.e. partially state funded), but it reverted to independent status in 1976 after abolition of the direct-grant system.^[219] Its previous premises are now used by Chetham’s School of Music. There are three schools nearby: William Hulme’s Grammar School, Withington Girls’ School and Manchester High School for Girls.

In 2019, the Manchester Local Education Authority was ranked second to last out of Greater Manchester’s ten LEAs and 140th out of 151 in the country LEAs based on the percentage of pupils attaining grades 4 or above in English and mathematics GCSEs (General Certificate of Secondary Education) with 56.2 per cent compared with the national average of 64.9 per cent.^[220] Of the 63 secondary schools in the LEA, four had 80 per cent or more pupils achieving Grade 4 or above in English and maths GCSEs: Manchester High School for Girls, The King David High School, Manchester Islamic High School for Girls, and Kassim Darwish Grammar School for Boys.^[221]

Sport

Main article: Sport in Manchester

Two Premier League football clubs bear the city’s name – Manchester City and Manchester United.^[222] Manchester City’s home is the City of Manchester Stadium in east Manchester, built for the 2002 Commonwealth Games and then reconfigured as a football ground in 2003. Manchester United, despite originating in Manchester, have been based in the neighbouring borough of Trafford since 1910. Their stadium Old Trafford is adjacent to Lancashire County Cricket Club ground, also called Old Trafford. The cricket club has strong association with Manchester due to proximity to the city and Manchester historically being part of Lancashire.^[223]

Sporting facilities built for the 2002 Commonwealth Games include the City of Manchester Stadium, National Squash Centre and Manchester Aquatics Centre.^[224] Manchester has competed twice to host the Olympic Games, beaten by Atlanta for 1996 and Sydney for 2000. The National Cycling Centre includes a velodrome, BMX Arena and Mountainbike trials, and is the home of British Cycling, UCI ProTeam Team Sky and Sky Track Cycling. The Manchester Velodrome, built as a part of the bid for the 2000 games, has become a catalyst for British success in cycling.^[204] The velodrome hosted the UCI Track Cycling World Championships for a record third time in 2008. The National Indoor BMX Arena (2,000 capacity) adjacent to the velodrome opened in 2011. The Manchester Arena hosted the FINA World Swimming Championships in 2008.^[225] Manchester hosted the World Squash Championships in 2008,^[226] the 2010 World Lacrosse Championship,^[227] the 2013 Ashes series, 2013 Rugby League World Cup, 2015 Rugby World Cup and 2019 Cricket World Cup.

Media

Main article: Media in Manchester

See also: List of television programmes set, produced or filmed in Manchester; Films set in Manchester; and List of national radio programmes made in Manchester

Print

The Guardian newspaper was founded in the city in 1821 as The Manchester Guardian. Until 2008, its head office was still in the city, though many of its management functions were moved to London in 1964.^[23][228] For many years most national newspapers had offices in Manchester: The Daily Telegraph, Daily Express, Daily Mail, Daily Mirror, The Sun. At its height, 1,500 journalists were employed, earning the city the nickname “second Fleet Street“. In the 1980s the titles closed their northern offices and centred their operations in London.^[229]

The main regional newspaper in the city is the Manchester Evening News, which was for over 80 years the sister publication of The Manchester Guardian.^[228] The Manchester Evening News has the largest circulation of a UK regional evening newspaper and is distributed free of charge in the city centre on Thursdays and Fridays, but paid for in the suburbs. Despite its title, it is available all day.^[230]

Several local weekly free papers are distributed by the MEN group. The Metro North West is available free at Metrolink stops, rail stations and other busy locations. ^[231]

An attempt to launch a Northern daily newspaper, the North West Times, employing journalists made redundant by other titles, closed in 1988.^[232] Another attempt was made with the North West Enquirer, which hoped to provide a true “regional” newspaper for the North West, much in the same vein as the Yorkshire Post does for Yorkshire or The Northern Echo does for the North East; it folded in October 2006.^[232]

Television

Manchester has been a centre of television broadcasting since the 1950s. A number of television studios have been in operation around the city, and have since relocated to MediaCityUK in neighbouring Salford.

The ITV franchise Granada Television has been based in Manchester since 1954. Now based at MediaCityUK, the company’s former headquarters at Granada Studios on Quay Street with its distinctive illuminated sign were a prominent landmark on the Manchester skyline for several decades.^{[233][234][235]} Granada produces Coronation Street,^[236] local news and programmes for North West England. Although its influence has waned, Granada had been described as “the best commercial television company in the world”.^[237][238]

With the growth in regional television in the 1950s, Manchester became one of the BBC‘s three main centres in England.^[234] In 1954, the BBC opened its first regional BBC Television studio outside London, Dickenson Road Studios, in a converted Methodist chapel in Rusholme. The first edition of Top of the Pops was broadcast here on New Year’s Day 1964.^[239][240] From 1975, BBC programmes including Mastermind,^[241] and Real Story,^[242] were made at New Broadcasting House on Oxford Road. The Cutting It series set in the city’s Northern Quarter and The Street were set in Manchester^[243] as was Life on Mars. Manchester was the regional base for BBC One North West Region programmes before it relocated to MediaCityUK in nearby Salford Quays.^[244][245]

The Manchester television channel, Channel M, owned by the Guardian Media Group operated from 2000, but closed in 2012.^[234][246] Manchester is also covered by two internet television channels: Quays News and Manchester.tv. The city had a new terrestrial channel from January 2014 when YourTV Manchester, which won the OFCOM licence bid in February 2013. It began its first broadcast, but in 2015, That’s Manchester took over to air on 31 May and launched the freeview channel 8 service slot, before moving to channel 7 in April 2016.

Radio

The city has the highest number of local radio stations outside London, including BBC Radio Manchester, Hits Radio Manchester, Capital Manchester and Lancashire, Greatest Hits Radio Manchester & The North West, Heart North West, Smooth North West, Gold, Radio X and NMFM (North Manchester FM).^[247] Student radio stations include Fuse FM at the University of Manchester and MMU Radio at the Manchester Metropolitan University.^[248] A community radio network is coordinated by Radio Regen, with stations covering Ardwick, Longsight and Levenshulme (All FM 96.9) and Wythenshawe (Wythenshawe FM 97.2).^[247] Defunct radio stations include Sunset 102, which became Kiss 102, then Galaxy Manchester, and KFM which became Signal Cheshire (later Imagine FM). These stations and pirate radio played a significant role in the city’s house music culture, the Madchester scene.

Twin cities

Manchester has formal twinning arrangements (or “friendship agreements”) with several places.^[249][250] In addition, the British Council maintains a metropolitan centre in Manchester.^[251]

• Amsterdam, Netherlands^[252] (2007)
• Bilwi, Nicaragua^[252]
• Chemnitz, Germany (1983)^[253]
• Córdoba, Spain^[252]
• Faisalabad, Pakistan (1997)^[252]
• Los Angeles, United States (2009)
• Rehovot, Israel^[252]
• Saint Petersburg, Russia^[252] (1962)
• Wuhan, China (1986)^[254]
• Osaka, Japan^[252]

Manchester is home to the largest group of consuls in the UK outside London. The expansion of international trade links during the Industrial Revolution led to the introduction of the first consuls in the 1820s and since then over 800, from all parts of the world, have been based in Manchester. Manchester hosts consular services for most of the north of England.

Perfume (UK: /ˈpɜːfjuːm/, US: /pərˈfjuːm/ ^ⓘ) is a mixture of fragrant essential oils or aroma compounds (fragrances), fixatives and solvents, usually in liquid form, used to give the human body, animals, food, objects, and living-spaces an agreeable scent.^[1] Perfumes can be defined as substances that emit and diffuse a pleasant and fragrant odor. They consist of manmade mixtures of aromatic chemicals and essential oils. The 1939 Nobel Laureate for Chemistry, Leopold Ružička stated in 1945 that “right from the earliest days of scientific chemistry up to the present time, perfumes have substantially contributed to the development of organic chemistry as regards methods, systematic classification, and theory.”^[2]

Ancient texts and archaeological excavations show the use of perfumes in some of the earliest human civilizations. Modern perfumery began in the late 19th century with the commercial synthesis of aroma compounds such as vanillin or coumarin, which allowed for the composition of perfumes with smells previously unattainable solely from natural aromatics.

History

[edit]

Main article: History of perfume

The word perfume is derived from the Latin perfumare, meaning “to smoke through”.^[3] Perfumery, as the art of making perfumes, began in ancient Mesopotamia, Egypt, the Indus Valley civilization and possibly Ancient China.^[4] It was further refined by the Romans and the Muslims.^{[citation needed]}

One of the world’s first-recorded chemists is considered to be a woman named Tapputi, a perfume maker mentioned in a cuneiform tablet from the 2nd millennium BC in Mesopotamia.^[5] She distilled flowers, oil, and calamus with other aromatics, then filtered and put them back in the still several times.^[6]

On the Indian subcontinent, perfume and perfumery existed in the Indus civilization (3300 BC – 1300 BC).^[7]

In 2003,^[8] archaeologists uncovered what are believed^{[by whom?]} to be the world’s oldest surviving perfumes in Pyrgos, Cyprus. The perfumes dated back more than 4,000 years. They were discovered in an ancient perfumery, a 300-square-meter (3,230 sq ft) factory^[8] housing at least 60 stills, mixing bowls, funnels, and perfume bottles. In ancient times people used herbs and spices, such as almond, coriander, myrtle, conifer resin, and bergamot, as well as flowers.^[9] In May 2018, an ancient perfume “Rodo” (Rose) was recreated for the Greek National Archaeological Museum’s anniversary show “Countless Aspects of Beauty”, allowing visitors to approach antiquity through their olfaction receptors.^[10] Romans and Greek extracted perfumes from diverse sources such as flowers, woods, seeds, roots, saps, gums. A temple to Athena in Elis, near Olympia, was said to have saffron blended into its wall plaster, allowing the interior to remain fragrant for 500 years.^[11]

In the 9th century the Arab chemist Al-Kindi (Alkindus) wrote the Book of the Chemistry of Perfume and Distillations, which contained more than a hundred recipes for fragrant oils, salves, aromatic waters, and substitutes or imitations of costly drugs. The book also described 107 methods and recipes for perfume-making and perfume-making equipment, such as the alembic (which still bears its Arabic name.^[12][13] [from Greek ἄμβιξ, “cup”, “beaker”]^[14][15] described by Synesius in the 4th century^[16]).

The Persian chemist Ibn Sina (also known as Avicenna) introduced the process of extracting oils from flowers by means of distillation, the procedure most commonly used today. He first experimented with the rose. Until his discovery, liquid perfumes consisted of mixtures of oil and crushed herbs or petals, which made a strong blend. Rose water was more delicate, and immediately became popular. Both the raw ingredients and the distillation technology significantly influenced western perfumery and scientific developments, particularly chemistry.

There is a controversy on whether perfumery was completely lost in Western Europe after the fall of the Western Roman Empire. That said, the art of perfumery in Western Europe was reinvigorated after the Islamic invasion of Spain and Southern Italy in 711 and 827. The Islamic controlled cities of Spain (Al-Andalus) became major producers of perfumes that were traded throughout the Old World. Like in the ancient world, Andalusians used fragrance in devotion to God. Perfumes added a layer of cleanliness that was needed for their devotion. Andalusian women were also offered greater freedoms than women in other Muslim controlled regions and were allowed to leave their homes and socialize outside. This freedom allowed courtship to occur outside of the home. As a result, Andalusian women used perfumes for courtship.^[17]

Recipes of perfumes from the monks of Santa Maria Delle Vigne or Santa Maria Novella of Florence, Italy, were recorded from 1221.^[18] In the east, the Hungarians produced around 1370 a perfume made of scented oils blended in an alcohol solution – best known as Hungary Water – at the behest of Queen Elizabeth of Hungary.^[19][20][21] The art of perfumery prospered in Renaissance Italy, and in the 16th century the personal perfumer to Catherine de’ Medici (1519–1589), René the Florentine (Renato il fiorentino), took Italian refinements to France. His laboratory was connected with her apartments by a secret passageway, so that no formulae could be stolen en route. Thanks to Rene, France quickly became one of the European centers of perfume and cosmetics manufacture. Cultivation of flowers for their perfume essence, which had begun in the 14th century, grew into a major industry in the south of France.

Between the 16th and 17th centuries, perfumes were used primarily by the wealthy to mask body odors resulting from infrequent bathing.^[22] In 1693, Italian barber Giovanni Paolo Feminis created a perfume water called Aqua Admirabilis,^[23] today best known as eau de cologne; his nephew Johann Maria Farina (Giovanni Maria Farina) took over the business in 1732.^[24][25]

By the 18th century the Grasse region of France, Sicily, and Calabria (in Italy) were growing aromatic plants to provide the growing perfume industry with raw materials. Even today, Italy and France remain the center of European perfume design and trade.

• Ancient Egyptian perfume vase in shape of an amphoriskos; 664–630 BC; glass: 8 cm × 4 cm (3.1 in × 1.6 in); Metropolitan Museum of Art (New York City)
• Ancient Greek perfume bottle in shape of an athlete binding a victory ribbon around his head; circa 540s BC; Ancient Agora Museum (Athens)
• Etruscan perfume vase, which is inscribed the word “suthina” (“for the tomb”); early 2nd century BC; bronze; height: 16 cm (6.3 in); Louvre
• Late Hellenistic glass gold-band mosaic alabastron (perfume bottle); 1st century BC; glass and gold leaf; Metropolitan Museum of Art
• Roman perfume bottle; 1st century AD; glass; 5.2 cm × 3.8 cm (2.0 in × 1.5 in); Metropolitan Museum of Art
• Partially broken perfume amphora; 2nd century AD; glass; from Ephesus; Ephesus Archaeological Museum (Selçuk, Turkey)
• British Rococo perfume vase; circa 1761; soft-paste porcelain; overall: 43.2 cm × 29.2 cm × 17.8 cm (17.0 in × 11.5 in × 7.0 in); Metropolitan Museum of Art
• British Neoclassical pair of perfume burners; probably circa 1770; derbyshire spar, tortoiseshell, and wood, Carrara marble base, gilded brass mounts, gilded copper liner; 33 cm × 14.3 cm × 14.3 cm (13.0 in × 5.6 in × 5.6 in); Metropolitan Museum of Art
• Art Nouveau perfume bottle; circa 1900; glass with gilt metal cover; overall: 13.4 cm (5.3 in); Cleveland Museum of Art (Cleveland, Ohio, USA)

Dilution classes and terminologies

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Perfume types reflect the concentration of aromatic compounds in a solvent, which in fine fragrance is typically ethanol or a mix of water and ethanol. Various sources differ considerably in the definitions of perfume types. The intensity and longevity of a fragrance is based on the concentration, intensity, and longevity of the aromatic compounds, or perfume oils, used. As the percentage of aromatic compounds increases, so does the intensity and longevity of the scent. Specific terms are used to describe a fragrance’s approximate concentration by the percent of perfume oil in the volume of the final product. The most widespread terms^[26] are:

• Parfum or Extrait (P): 15–40% aromatic compounds (IFRA: typically ~20%). In English, parfum is also known as perfume extract, pure perfume, or simply perfume.
• Esprit de parfum (ESdP): 15–30% aromatic compounds, a seldom used strength concentration between EdP and parfum.
• Eau de parfum (EdP) or Parfum de toilette (PdT): 10–20% aromatic compounds (typically ~15%). It is sometimes called “eau de perfume” or “millésime.”^{[citation needed]} Parfum de toilette is a less common term, most popular in the 1980s, that is generally analogous to eau de parfum.
• Eau de toilette (EdT): 5–15% aromatic compounds (typically ~10%). This is the staple for most masculine perfumes.
• Eau de cologne (EdC): 3–8% aromatic compounds (typically ~5%). This concentration is often simply called cologne.
• Eau fraîche: 3% or less aromatic compounds. This general term encompasses products sold as “splashes,” “mists,” “veils” and other imprecise terms. Such products may be diluted with water rather than oil or alcohol.^[26]

Imprecise terminology

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The wide range in the percentages of aromatic compounds that may be present in each concentration means that the terminology of extrait, EdP, EdT, and EdC is quite imprecise with regard to oil concentration. Although an EdP will often be more concentrated than an EdT and in turn an EdC, this is not always the case. Different perfumeries or perfume houses assign different amounts of oils to each of their perfumes. Therefore, although the oil concentration of a perfume in EdP dilution will necessarily be higher than the same perfume in EdT from within a company’s same range, the actual amount will vary among companies. An EdT from one house may have a higher concentration of aromatic compounds than an EdP from another.

Furthermore, some fragrances with the same product name but having a different concentration may not only differ in their dilutions, but actually use different perfume oil mixtures altogether. For instance, in order to make the EdT version of a fragrance brighter and fresher than its EdP, the EdT oil may be “tweaked” to contain slightly more top notes or fewer base notes. Chanel No. 5 is a good example: its parfum, EdP, EdT, and now-discontinued EdC concentrations are in fact different compositions (the parfum dates to 1921, the EdT from the 1950s, and the EdP was not developed until the 1980s). In some cases, words such as extrême, intense, or concentrée that might indicate a higher aromatic concentration are actually completely different fragrances, related only because of a similar perfume accord. An example of this is Chanel’s Pour Monsieur and Pour Monsieur concentrée. This complexity adds a layer of nuance to the understanding and appreciation of perfumery, where variations in concentration and formulation can significantly alter the olfactory (“the sense of smell”) experience.

History of the terms and concentrations

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The terms “perfume” and “cologne” lead to much confusion in English. “Perfume” is often used as a generic, overarching term to refer to fragrances marketed to women, regardless of their exact concentration. The term “cologne” is applied to those sold to men. The actual product worn by a woman may be an eau de parfum rather than an extrait, or by a man an eau de toilette rather than an eau de cologne. The reasons why the terms “perfume” and “cologne” are often used in a generic sense is related to the modern development of perfumery in Europe since the 18th century.

The term “cologne” was first used in Europe in the 18th century to refer to a family of fresh, citrus-based fragrances distilled using extracts from citrus, floral, and woody ingredients. These “classical colognes” were supposedly first developed in Cologne, Germany, hence the name. This type of cologne, which is still in production, describes unisex compositions “which are basically citrus blends and do not have a perfume parent.”^[28] Examples include Mäurer & Wirtz’s 4711 (created in 1799), and Guerlain’s Eau de Cologne Impériale (1830). “Toilet water,” or eau de toilette, referred to wide range of scented waters not otherwise known as colognes, and were popular throughout the 19th century.

The term “perfume” emerged in the late 19th century. The first fragrance labeled a “parfum” extract with a high concentration of aromatic compounds was Guerlain’s Jicky in 1889. In the first half of the 20th century, fragrance companies began offering their products in more than one concentration, often pairing an extrait with a lighter eau de toilette suitable for day wear, which made their products available to a wider range of customers. As this process accelerated, perfume houses borrowed the term “cologne” to refer to an even more diluted interpretation of their fragrances than eau de toilette. Guerlain, for example, offered an eau de cologne version of its flagship perfume Shalimar and many of its other fragrances. In contrast to a classical eau de cologne, this type of modern cologne is a lighter, less concentrated interpretation of a more concentrated product, typically a pure parfum, and is usually the lightest concentration from a line of fragrance products.^[28]

The eau de parfum concentration and terminology is the most recent, being originally developed to offer the radiance of an EdT with the longevity of an extrait. Parfum de toilette and EdP began to appear in the 1970s and gained popularity in the 1980s. In the 21st century, EdP is probably the most widespread strength concentration. It is often the first concentration offered when a new fragrance is launched, and usually referred to generically as “perfume.”^[26]

Historically, women’s fragrances tended to have higher levels of aromatic compounds than men’s fragrances. Fragrances marketed to men were typically sold as EdT or EdC, rarely as EdP or perfume extracts. This is changing in the modern fragrance world, especially as fragrances are becoming more unisex. Women’s fragrances used to be common in all levels of concentration, but in the 21st century are mainly seen in EdP and EdT concentrations. Many modern perfumes are never offered in extrait or eau de cologne formulations, and EdP and EdT account for the vast majority of new launches.^{[citation needed][29]}

Solvent types

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Perfume oils are often diluted with a solvent, though this is not always the case, and its necessity is disputed. By far the most common solvent for perfume-oil dilution is alcohol, typically a mixture of ethanol and water or a rectified spirit. Perfume oil can also be diluted by means of neutral-smelling oils such as fractionated coconut oil, or liquid waxes such as jojoba oil and almond oil.

Applying fragrances

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The conventional application of pure perfume (parfum extrait) in Western cultures is behind the ears, at the nape of the neck, under the armpits and at the insides of wrists, elbows and knees, so that the pulse point will warm the perfume and release fragrance continuously. According to perfumer Sophia Grojsman behind the knees is the ideal point to apply perfume in order that the scent may rise.^[30] The modern perfume industry encourages the practice of layering fragrance so that it is released in different intensities depending upon the time of the day. Lightly scented products such as bath oil, shower gel, and body lotion are recommended for the morning; eau de toilette is suggested for the afternoon; and perfume applied to the pulse points for evening.^{[31][self-published source]} Cologne fragrance is released rapidly, lasting around 2 hours. Eau de toilette lasts from 2 to 4 hours, while perfume may last up to six hours.^[32]

A variety of factors can influence how fragrance interacts with the wearer’s own physiology and affect the perception of the fragrance. Diet is one factor, as eating spicy and fatty foods can increase the intensity of a fragrance.^[33] The use of medications can also impact the character of a fragrance.^[33] The relative dryness of the wearer’s skin is important, since dry skin will not hold fragrance as long as skin with more oil.^[32]

Describing a perfume

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The precise formulae of commercial perfumes are kept secret. Even if they were widely published, they would be dominated by such complex ingredients and odorants that they would be of little use in providing a guide to the general consumer in description of the experience of a scent. Nonetheless, connoisseurs of perfume can become extremely skillful at identifying components and origins of scents in the same manner as wine experts.^[34]

The most practical way to start describing a perfume is according to the elements of the fragrance notes of the scent or the “family” it belongs to, all of which affect the overall impression of a perfume from first application to the last lingering hint of scent.^[35][36]

The trail of scent left behind by a person wearing perfume is called its sillage, after the French word for “wake“, as in the trail left by a boat in water.

Fragrance notes

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Main article: Note (perfumery)

Perfume is described in a musical metaphor as having three sets of notes, making the harmonious scent accord. The notes unfold over time, with the immediate impression of the top note leading to the deeper middle notes, and the base notes gradually appearing as the final stage. These notes are created carefully with knowledge of the evaporation process of the perfume.

• Top notes: Also called the head notes. The scents that are perceived immediately on application of a perfume. Top notes consist of small, light molecules that evaporate quickly. They form a person’s initial impression of a perfume and thus are very important in the selling of a perfume. Examples of top notes include mint, lavender and coriander.
• Middle notes: Also referred to as heart notes. The scent of a perfume that emerges just prior to the dissipation of the top note. The middle note compounds form the “heart” or main body of a perfume and act to mask the often unpleasant initial impression of base notes, which become more pleasant with time. Examples of middle notes include seawater, sandalwood and jasmine.
• Base notes: The scent of a perfume that appears close to the departure of the middle notes. The base and middle notes together are the main theme of a perfume. Base notes bring depth and solidity to a perfume. Compounds of this class of scents are typically rich and “deep” and are usually not perceived until 30 minutes after application. Examples of base notes include tobacco, amber and musk.

The scents in the top and middle notes are influenced by the base notes; conversely, the scents of the base notes will be altered by the types of fragrance materials used as middle notes. Manufacturers who publish perfume notes typically do so with the fragrance components presented as a fragrance pyramid,^[37] using imaginative and abstract terms for the components listed.

Olfactive families

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The grouping of perfumes can never be completely objective or definitive. Many fragrances contain aspects of different families. Even a perfume designated as “single flower” will have subtle undertones of other aromatics. There are hardly any true unitary-scent perfumes consisting of a single aromatic material.

The family classification is a starting point to describe a perfume, but does not fully characterize it.

Traditional categories

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The traditional categories which emerged around 1900:

• Citrus: The oldest fragrance family that gave birth to lightweight eau de colognes. Development of newer fragrance compounds has allowed for the creation of more tenacious citrus fragrances. Examples: 4711, Guerlain’s Eau de Cologne Impériale, Penhaligon’s Quercus.
• Single Floral: Fragrances dominated by the scent of a particular flower, i.e., rose, carnation, iris. In French this type of fragrance is called a soliflore. Example: Serge Lutens Sa Majeste La Rose.
• Floral Bouquet: Compound of several flower scents. Examples: Houbigant Quelques Fleurs, Jean Patou Joy.
• Amber or “Oriental”: Large class featuring sweet, slightly animalic scents of ambergris or labdanum, often combined with vanilla, tonka bean, flowers and woods. Can be enhanced by camphorous oils and incense resins, evoking Victorian era “Oriental” imagery. Traditional examples: Guerlain Shalimar, Yves Saint Laurent Opium, Chanel Coco Mademoiselle.^[38]
• Woody: Fragrances dominated by woody notes, typically agarwood, sandalwood, cedarwood, and vetiver. Patchouli, with its camphoraceous smell, is commonly found in these perfumes. Traditional examples: Myrurgia Maderas De Oriente, Chanel Bois des Îles. Modern: Balenciaga Rumba.
• Leather: A family of fragrances featuring honey, tobacco, wood and wood tars in the middle or base notes and a scent that alludes to leather. Traditional examples: Robert Piguet Bandit, Balmain Jolie Madame.
• Chypre (IPA: [ʃipʁ]): Meaning Cyprus in French, this category is named after the François Coty‘s Chypre (1917), which was the first modern fragrance built on an accord of bergamot, oakmoss, and labdanum. Example: Guerlain Mitsouko, Rochas Femme.
• Fougère (IPA: [fu.ʒɛʁ]): Meaning fern in French, built on a base of lavender, coumarin and oakmoss, with a sharp herbaceous and woody scent. Named for Houbigant‘s landmark fragrance Fougère Royale, many men’s fragrances belong to this family. Modern examples: Fabergé Brut, Guy Laroche Drakkar Noir, Penhaligon’s Douro.

Modern

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Since 1945, new categories have emerged to describe modern scents, due to great advances in the technology of compound design and synthesis, as well as the natural development of styles and tastes:

• Bright Floral: Combining single floral and floral bouquet traditional categories. Example: Estée Lauder Beautiful.
• Green: Lighter, more modern interpretation of the Chypre type, with pronounced cut grass, crushed green leaf and cucumber-like scents. Examples: Estée Lauder Aliage, Sisley Eau de Campagne, Calvin Klein Eternity.
• Aquatic, Oceanic, Ozonic: The newest category, first appearing in 1988 Davidoff Cool Water (1988), Christian Dior Dune (1991). A clean smell reminiscent of the ocean, leading to many androgynous perfumes. Generally contains calone, a synthetic discovered in 1966, or more recent synthetics. Also used to accent floral, oriental, and woody fragrances.
• Fruity: Featuring fruits other than citrus, such as peach, cassis (blackcurrant), mango, passionfruit, and others. Example: Ginestet Botrytis.
• Gourmand (French: [ɡuʁmɑ̃]): Scents with “edible” or “dessert-like” qualities, often containing vanilla, tonka bean, and coumarin, as well as synthetic components designed to resemble food flavors. Example: Thierry Mugler‘s Angel.

Fragrance wheel

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Main article: Fragrance wheel

This newer classification method is widely used in retail and the fragrance industry, created in 1983 by the perfume consultant Michael Edwards. The new scheme simplifies classification and naming, as well as showing the relationships among the classes.^[39]

The five main families are Floral, Oriental, Woody, Aromatic Fougère, and Fresh, the first four from the classic terminology and the last from the modern oceanic category. Each of these are divided into subgroups and arranged around a wheel. In this scheme, Chanel No.5, traditionally classified as an aldehydic floral, is placed under the Soft Floral sub-group, while amber scents are within the Oriental group. Chypre perfumes are more ambiguous, having affinities with both the Oriental and Woody families. For instance, Guerlain Mitsouko is under Mossy Woods, but Hermès Rouge, a more floral chypre, is under Floral Oriental.

Aromatics sources

[edit]

Plant sources

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Plants have long been used in perfumery as a source of essential oils and aroma compounds. These aromatics are usually secondary metabolites produced by plants as protection against herbivores, infections, as well as to attract pollinators. Plants are by far the largest source of fragrant compounds used in perfumery. The sources of these compounds may be derived from various parts of a plant. A plant can offer more than one source of aromatics, for instance the aerial portions and seeds of coriander have remarkably different odors from each other. Orange leaves, blossoms, and fruit zest are the respective sources of petitgrain, neroli, and orange oils.

• Bark: Commonly used barks include cinnamon and cascarilla. The fragrant oil in sassafras root bark is also used either directly or purified for its main constituent, safrole, which is used in the synthesis of other fragrant compounds.^[40]
• Flowers and blossoms: Undoubtedly the largest and most common source of perfume aromatics. Includes the flowers of several species of rose and jasmine, as well as osmanthus, plumeria, mimosa, tuberose, narcissus, scented geranium, cassie, ambrette as well as the blossoms of citrus and ylang-ylang trees. Although not traditionally thought of as a flower, the unopened flower buds of the clove are also commonly used. Most orchid flowers are not commercially used to produce essential oils or absolutes, except in the case of vanilla, an orchid, which must be pollinated first and made into seed pods before use in perfumery.
• Fruits: Fresh fruits such as apples, strawberries, cherries rarely yield the expected odors when extracted; if such fragrance notes are found in a perfume, they are more likely to be of synthetic origin. Notable exceptions include blackcurrant leaf, litsea cubeba, vanilla, and juniper berry. The most commonly used fruits yield their aromatics from the rind; they include citrus such as oranges, lemons, and limes. Although grapefruit rind is still used for aromatics, more and more commercially used grapefruit aromatics are artificially synthesized since the natural aromatic contains sulfur and its degradation product is quite unpleasant in smell.
• Leaves and twigs: Commonly used for perfumery are lavender leaf, patchouli, sage, violets, rosemary, and citrus leaves. Sometimes leaves are valued for the “green” smell they bring to perfumes, examples of this include hay and tomato leaf.
• Resins: Valued since antiquity, resins have been widely used in incense and perfumery. Highly fragrant and antiseptic resins and resin-containing perfumes have been used by many cultures as medicines for a large variety of ailments. Commonly used resins in perfumery include labdanum, frankincense/olibanum, myrrh, balsam of Peru, benzoin. Pine and fir resins are a particularly valued source of terpenes used in the organic synthesis of many other synthetic or naturally occurring aromatic compounds. Some of what is called amber and copal in perfumery today is the resinous secretion of fossil conifers.
• Roots, rhizomes and bulbs: Commonly used terrestrial portions in perfumery include iris rhizomes, vetiver roots, various rhizomes of the ginger family.
• Seeds: Commonly used seeds include tonka bean, carrot seed, coriander, caraway, cocoa, nutmeg, mace, cardamom, and anise.
• Woods: Highly important in providing the base notes to a perfume, wood oils and distillates are indispensable in perfumery. Commonly used woods include sandalwood, rosewood, agarwood, birch, cedar, juniper, and pine. These are used in the form of macerations or dry-distilled (rectified) forms.
• Rom terpenes. Orchid scents

Animal sources

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• Ambergris: Lumps of oxidized fatty compounds, whose precursors were secreted and expelled by the sperm whale. Ambergris should not be confused with yellow amber, which is used in jewelry. Because the harvesting of ambergris involves no harm to its animal source, it remains one of the few animalic fragrancing agents around which little controversy now exists.
• Castoreum: Obtained from the odorous sacs of the North American beaver.
• Civet: Also called civet musk, this is obtained from the odorous sacs of the civets, animals in the family Viverridae, related to the mongoose. World Animal Protection investigated African civets caught for this purpose.^[41]
• Hyraceum: Commonly known as “Africa stone”, is the petrified excrement of the rock hyrax.^[42]
• Honeycomb: From the honeycomb of the honeybee. Both beeswax and honey can be solvent extracted to produce an absolute. Beeswax is extracted with ethanol and the ethanol evaporated to produce beeswax absolute.
• Musk: Originally derived from a gland (sac or pod) located between the genitals and the umbilicus of the Himalayan male musk deer Moschus moschiferus, it has now mainly been replaced by the use of synthetic musks sometimes known as “white musk”.

Other natural sources

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• Lichens: Commonly used lichens include oakmoss and treemoss thalli.
• “Seaweed”: Distillates are sometimes used as essential oil in perfumes. An example of a commonly used seaweed is Fucus vesiculosus, which is commonly referred to as bladder wrack. Natural seaweed fragrances are rarely used due to their higher cost and lower potency than synthetics.

Synthetic sources

[edit]

Main article: Aroma compound

Many modern perfumes contain synthesized odorants. Synthetics can provide fragrances which are not found in nature. For instance, Calone, a compound of synthetic origin, imparts a fresh ozonous metallic marine scent that is widely used in contemporary perfumes. Synthetic aromatics are often used as an alternate source of compounds that are not easily obtained from natural sources. For example, linalool and coumarin are both naturally occurring compounds that can be inexpensively synthesized from terpenes. Orchid scents (typically salicylates) are usually not obtained directly from the plant itself but are instead synthetically created to match the fragrant compounds found in various orchids.

One of the most commonly used classes of synthetic aromatics by far are the white musks. These materials are found in all forms of commercial perfumes as a neutral background to the middle notes. These musks are added in large quantities to laundry detergents in order to give washed clothes a lasting “clean” scent.

The majority of the world’s synthetic aromatics are created by relatively few companies. They include:

• Givaudan
• International Flavors and Fragrances (IFF)
• Firmenich
• Takasago
• Symrise

Each of these companies patents several processes for the production of aromatic synthetics annually.

Characteristics

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Natural and synthetics are used for their different odor characteristics in perfumery

	Naturals	Synthetics
Variance	Natural scents will vary from each supplier based on when and where they are harvested, how they are processed, and the extraction method itself. This means that a certain flower grown in Morocco and in France will smell different, even if the same method is used to grow, harvest, and extract the scent. As such, each perfumer will prefer flowers grown in one country over another, or one extraction method to the next. However, due to a natural scent’s mixed composition, it is easy for unscrupulous suppliers to adulterate the actual raw materials by changing its source (adding Indian jasmine into Grasse jasmine) or the contents (adding linalool to rosewood) to increase their profit margin.	Much more consistent than natural aromatics. However, differences in organic synthesis may result in minute differences in concentration of impurities. If these impurities have low smell (detection) thresholds, the differences in the scent of the synthetic aromatic will be significant.
Components	Contains many different organic compounds, each adding a different note to the overall scent. Certain naturally derived substances have a long history of use, but this cannot always be used as an indicator of whether they are safe or not. Possible allergenic or carcinogenic compounds.	Depending on purity, consists primarily of one chemical compound. Sometimes chiral mixtures of isomers, such as in the case of Iso E Super.[43] Due to the almost pure composition of one chemical compound, the same molecules found diluted in nature will have a different scent and effect on the body, if used undiluted.
Scent uniqueness	Reminiscent of its originating material, although extraction may capture a different “layer” of the scent, depending on how the extraction method denatures the odoriferous compounds.	Similar to natural scents yet different at the same time. Some synthetics attempt to mimic natural notes, while others explore the entire spectrum of scent. Novel scent compounds not found in nature will often be unique in their scent.
Scent complexity	Deep and complex fragrance notes. Soft, with subtle scent nuances. Highly valued for ideal composition.	Pure and pronounced fragrance notes. Often monotonous in nature, yet reminiscent of other natural scents.
Price	Dependent on extraction method. More expensive, but not always, as prices are determined by the labor and difficulty of properly extracting each unit of the natural materials, as well as its quality. Typically the relationship between, longevity of a perfume, cost and the concentration of essential oils follows the graph below: This chart shows the typical relationship between price of perfume, its longevity and the concentration of essential oils.[44]	Dependent on synthesis method. Generally cheaper, but not necessarily. Synthetic aromatics are not necessarily cheaper than naturals, with some synthetics being more costly than most natural ingredients due to various factors such as the long synthesis routes, low availability of precursor chemicals, and low overall yield. However, due to their low odor threshold, they should be diluted when making a perfume.

Obtaining natural odorants

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Main article: Fragrance extraction

Before perfumes can be composed, the odorants used in various perfume compositions must first be obtained. Synthetic odorants are produced through organic synthesis and purified. Odorants from natural sources require the use of various methods to extract the aromatics from the raw materials. The results of the extraction are either essential oils, absolutes, concretes, or butters, depending on the amount of waxes in the extracted product.^[45]

All these techniques will, to a certain extent, distort the odor of the aromatic compounds obtained from the raw materials. This is due to the use of heat, harsh solvents, or through exposure to oxygen in the extraction process which will denature the aromatic compounds, which either change their odor character or renders them odorless.

• Maceration/Solvent extraction: The most used and economically important technique for extracting aromatics in the modern perfume industry. Raw materials are submerged in a solvent that can dissolve the desired aromatic compounds. Maceration lasts anywhere from hours to months. Fragrant compounds for woody and fibrous plant materials are often obtained in this manner as are all aromatics from animal sources. The technique can also be used to extract odorants that are too volatile for distillation or easily denatured by heat. Commonly used solvents for maceration/solvent extraction include ethane, hexane, and dimethyl ether. The product of this process is called a “concrete.”
  • Supercritical fluid extraction: A relatively new technique for extracting fragrant compounds from a raw material, which often employs Supercritical CO₂. Due to the low heat of process and the relatively nonreactive solvent used in the extraction, the fragrant compounds derived often closely resemble the original odor of the raw material.
  • Ethanol extraction: A type of solvent extraction used to extract fragrant compounds directly from dry raw materials, as well as the impure oily compounds materials resulting from solvent extraction or enfleurage. Ethanol extraction from fresh plant materials contain large quantities of water, which will also be extracted into the ethanol.
• Distillation: A common technique for obtaining aromatic compounds from plants, such as orange blossoms and roses. The raw material is heated and the fragrant compounds are re-collected through condensation of the distilled vapor.

• • Steam distillation: Steam from boiling water is passed through the raw material, which drives out their volatile fragrant compounds. The condensate from distillation are settled in a Florentine flask. This allows for the easy separation of the fragrant oils from the water. The water collected from the condensate, which retains some of the fragrant compounds and oils from the raw material is called hydrosol and sometimes sold. This is most commonly used for fresh plant materials such as flowers, leaves, and stems.
  • Dry/destructive distillation: The raw materials are directly heated in a still without a carrier solvent such as water. Fragrant compounds that are released from the raw material by the high heat often undergo anhydrous pyrolysis, which results in the formation of different fragrant compounds, and thus different fragrant notes. This method is used to obtain fragrant compounds from fossil amber and fragrant woods where an intentional “burned” or “toasted” odor is desired.
  • Fractionation: Through the use of a fractionation column, different fractions distilled from a material can be selectively excluded to modify the scent of the final product. Although the product is more expensive, this is sometimes performed to remove unpleasant or undesirable scents of a material and affords the perfumer more control over their composition process.
• Expression: Raw material is squeezed or compressed and the essential oils are collected. Of all raw materials, only the fragrant oils from the peels of fruits in the citrus family are extracted in this manner since the oil is present in large enough quantities as to make this extraction method economically feasible.
• Enfleurage: Absorption of aroma materials into solid fat or wax and then extraction of odorous oils with ethyl alcohol. Extraction by enfleurage was commonly used when distillation was not possible because some fragrant compounds denature through high heat. This technique is not commonly used in the modern industry due to prohibitive costs and the existence of more efficient and effective extraction methods.^[35]

Fragrant extracts

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Although fragrant extracts are known to the general public as the generic term “essential oils“, a more specific language is used in the fragrance industry to describe the source, purity, and technique used to obtain a particular fragrant extract. Of these extracts, only absolutes, essential oils, and tinctures are directly used to formulate perfumes.

• Absolute: Fragrant materials that are purified from a pommade or concrete by soaking them in ethanol. By using a slightly hydrophilic compound such as ethanol, most of the fragrant compounds from the waxy source materials can be extracted without dissolving any of the fragrantless waxy molecules. Absolutes are usually found in the form of an oily liquid.
• Concrete: Fragrant materials that have been extracted from raw materials through solvent extraction using volatile hydrocarbons. Concretes usually contain a large amount of wax due to the ease in which the solvents dissolve various hydrophobic compounds. As such concretes are usually further purified through distillation or ethanol based solvent extraction. Concretes are typically either waxy or resinous solids or thick oily liquids.
• Essential oil: Fragrant materials that have been extracted from a source material directly through distillation or expression and obtained in the form of an oily liquid. Oils extracted through expression are sometimes called expression oils.
• Pomade: A fragrant mass of solid fat created from the enfleurage process, in which odorous compounds in raw materials are adsorbed into animal fats. Pommades are found in the form of an oily and sticky solid.
• Tincture: Fragrant materials produced by directly soaking and infusing raw materials in ethanol. Tinctures are typically thin liquids.^[35]

Products from different extraction methods are known under different names even though their starting materials are the same. For instance, orange blossoms from Citrus aurantium that have undergone solvent extraction produces “orange blossom absolute” but that which have been steam distilled is known as “neroli oil”.

Composing perfumes

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Perfume compositions are an important part of many industries ranging from the luxury goods sectors, food services industries, to manufacturers of various household chemicals. The purpose of using perfume or fragrance compositions in these industries is to affect customers through their sense of smell and entice them into purchasing the perfume or perfumed product. As such there is significant interest in producing a perfume formulation that people will find aesthetically pleasing.

The perfumer

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Main article: Perfumer

The job of composing perfumes that will be sold is left up to an expert on perfume composition or known in the fragrance industry as the perfumer. They are also sometimes referred to affectionately as a “Nez” (French for nose) due to their fine sense of smell and skill in smell composition.

The composition of a perfume typically begins with a brief by the perfumer’s employer or an outside customer. The customers to the perfumer or their employers, are typically fashion houses or large corporations of various industries.^[46] The perfumer will then go through the process of blending multiple perfume mixtures and sell the formulation to the customer, often with modifications of the composition of the perfume. The perfume composition will then be either used to enhance another product as a functional fragrance (shampoos, make-up, detergents, car interiors, etc.), or marketed and sold directly to the public as a fine fragrance.^[34]

Technique

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Although there is no single “correct” technique for the formulation of a perfume, there are general guidelines as to how a perfume can be constructed from a concept. Although many ingredients do not contribute to the smell of a perfume, many perfumes include colorants and antioxidants to improve the marketability and shelf life of the perfume, respectively.

Basic framework

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Perfume oils usually contain tens to hundreds of ingredients and these are typically organized in a perfume for the specific role they will play. These ingredients can be roughly grouped into four groups:

• Primary scents (Heart): Can consist of one or a few main ingredients for a certain concept, such as “rose”. Alternatively, multiple ingredients can be used together to create an “abstract” primary scent that does not bear a resemblance to a natural ingredient. For instance, jasmine and rose scents are commonly blends for abstract floral fragrances. Cola flavourant is a good example of an abstract primary scent.
• Modifiers: These ingredients alter the primary scent to give the perfume a certain desired character: for instance, fruit esters may be included in a floral primary to create a fruity floral; calone and citrus scents can be added to create a “fresher” floral. The cherry scent in cherry cola can be considered a modifier.
• Blenders: A large group of ingredients that smooth out the transitions of a perfume between different “layers” or bases. These themselves can be used as a major component of the primary scent. Common blending ingredients include linalool and hydroxycitronellal.
• Fixatives: Used to support the primary scent by bolstering it. Many resins, wood scents, and amber bases are used as fixatives.

The top, middle, and base notes of a fragrance may have separate primary scents and supporting ingredients. The perfume’s fragrance oils are then blended with ethyl alcohol and water, aged in tanks for several weeks and filtered through processing equipment to, respectively, allow the perfume ingredients in the mixture to stabilize and to remove any sediment and particles before the solution can be filled into the perfume bottles.^[47]

Fragrance bases

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Instead of building a perfume from “ground up”, many modern perfumes and colognes are made using fragrance bases or simply bases. Each base is essentially modular perfume that is blended from essential oils and aromatic chemicals, and formulated with a simple concept such as “fresh cut grass” or “juicy sour apple”. Many of Guerlain‘s Aqua Allegoria line, with their simple fragrance concepts, are good examples of what perfume fragrance bases are like.

The effort used in developing bases by fragrance companies or individual perfumers may equal that of a marketed perfume, since they are useful in that they are reusable. On top of its reusability, the benefit in using bases for construction are quite numerous:

1. Ingredients with “difficult” or “overpowering” scents that are tailored into a blended base may be more easily incorporated into a work of perfume
2. A base may be better scent approximations of a certain thing than the extract of the thing itself. For example, a base made to embody the scent for “fresh dewy rose” might be a better approximation for the scent concept of a rose after rain than plain rose oil. Flowers whose scents cannot be extracted, such as gardenia or hyacinth, are composed as bases from data derived from headspace technology.
3. A perfumer can quickly rough out a concept from a brief by combining multiple bases, then present it for feedback. Smoothing out the “edges” of the perfume can be done after a positive response.

Reverse engineering

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Creating perfumes through reverse engineering with analytical techniques such as Gas chromatography–mass spectrometry (GC/MS) can reveal the “general” formula for any particular perfume. The difficulty of GC/MS analysis arises due to the complexity of a perfume’s ingredients. This is particularly due to the presence of natural essential oils and other ingredients consisting of complex chemical mixtures. However, “anyone armed with good GC/MS equipment and experienced in using this equipment can today, within days, find out a great deal about the formulation of any perfume… customers and competitors can analyze most perfumes more or less precisely.”^[48]

Antique or badly preserved perfumes undergoing this analysis can also be difficult due to the numerous degradation by-products and impurities that may have resulted from breakdown of the odorous compounds. Ingredients and compounds can usually be ruled out or identified using gas chromatograph (GC) smellers, which allow individual chemical components to be identified both through their physical properties and their scent. Reverse engineering of best-selling perfumes in the market is a very common practice in the fragrance industry due to the relative simplicity of operating GC equipment, the pressure to produce marketable fragrances, and the highly lucrative nature of the perfume market.^[47]

Copyright

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It is doubtful whether perfumes qualify as appropriate copyright subject matter under the US Copyright Act. The issue has not yet been addressed by any US court. A perfume’s scent is not eligible for trademark protection: the scent serves as the functional purpose of the product.^[49]

In 2006 the Dutch Supreme Court granted copyright protection to Lancôme‘s perfume Tresor (Lancôme v. Kecofa).

The French Supreme Court has twice taken the position that perfumes lack the creativity to constitute copyrightable expressions (Bsiri-Barbir v. Haarman & Reimer, 2006; Beaute Prestige International v. Senteur Mazal, 2008).^[49]

Sometimes, a knock-off perfume would use an altered name of the original perfume (for instance, now-discontinued Freya by Oriflame perfume has a similar-designed copy produced as “Freyya“).

It is still questionable if perfume’s “functional purpose” can be protected with technical patent (one which lasts 15 years). Apparently,^{[according to whom?]} Russian “Novaya Zarya” labels their colognes as “hygienic lotions” for a similar reason. A counterexample: NovZar’s more-than-century-old Shipr chypre and Troinoi cologne are being produced by other companies in Russia in similar bottles.

Numbered perfumery, “analogs”

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A different kind of copying perfumes is known in ex-USSR countries as “номерная парфюмерия” (literally “numbered perfumery”):

A “number-making” company with perfumery equipment would use their own, one-style-for-all cheap bottle; de jure labeling a knock-off perfume as an “aroma in the direction of [the well-known perfume]” or a “version” of certain branded perfume. This way, the production costs of initially cheap scents are reduced, since the bottle is used neither for plain counterfeiting nor for subtle re-designing.

The questionable part of numbered perfumery naming is the idea to openly mark perfume #XXX (say, #105) as either “type” or “version”, or “аромат направления” (literally “aroma in the direction of”) of a well-known perfum.^[50]

• Resellers in offline stores (in malls, airport shops) can offer “fillable” perfumery, sometimes using weasel wording to justify the price.
• Such perfumes usually get three-digit numbers as an officially registered name, which is stickered to the bottles.
• When it comes to propellant, a “number” usually has an alcohol base [almost] without stabilization (which may give strong “alcohol base stench”, altering perfume’s scent into the “smell of cheapness” phenomenon).
  • To avoid this, many “numbers” can be made with (di)propylenglicol base and come as “perfume oil(s)”. PG or DPG based numbered perfumery comes in 50ml plastic bottles and is purposed for tiny rollers; (D)PG is not usable in spray bottles (while not affected by the “smell of cheapness” issue nonetheless). Some companies offer all of their own “numbers” in both alcohol based and (D)PG based variants.

In small online “bulk”, however (in purchases over 5000RUB), a whole 100ml bottle of such perfume (or 50ml bottle of “scent oil” of same “direction”) costs only around 6 EUR.

Health and environmental issues

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Perfume ingredients, regardless of natural or synthetic origins, may all cause health or environmental problems when used. Although the areas are under active research, much remains to be learned about the effects of fragrance on human health and the environment.

Immunological; asthma and allergy

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Evidence in peer-reviewed journals shows that some fragrances can cause asthmatic reactions in some individuals, especially those with severe or atopic asthma.^[51] Many fragrance ingredients can also cause headaches, allergic skin reactions^[52] or nausea.^[53][54][55]

In some cases, an excessive use of perfumes may cause allergic reactions of the skin. For instance, acetophenone, ethyl acetate^{[citation needed]} and acetone^[47] while present in many perfumes, are also known or potential respiratory allergens. Nevertheless, this may be misleading, since the harm presented by many of these chemicals (either natural or synthetic) is dependent on environmental conditions and their concentrations in a perfume. For instance, linalool, which is listed as an irritant, causes skin irritation when it degrades to peroxides, however the use of antioxidants in perfumes or reduction in concentrations can prevent this. As well, the furanocoumarin present in natural extracts of grapefruit or celery can cause severe allergic reactions and increase sensitivity to ultraviolet radiation.^[56]

Some research on natural aromatics have shown that many contain compounds that cause skin irritation.^[57] However some studies, such as IFRA’s research claim that opoponax is too dangerous to be used in perfumery, still lack scientific consensus.^[58] It is also true that sometimes inhalation alone can cause skin irritation.^{[citation needed]}

A number of national and international surveys have identified balsam of Peru, often used in perfumes, as being in the “top five” allergens most commonly causing patch test reactions in people referred to dermatology clinics.^[59][60][61] A study in 2001 found that 3.8% of the general population patch tested was allergic to it.^[62] Many perfumes contain components identical to balsam of Peru.^[63]

Balsam of Peru is used as a marker for perfume allergy. Its presence in a cosmetic is denoted by the INCI term Myroxylon pereirae.^[64] Balsam of Peru has been banned by the International Fragrance Association since 1982 from use as a fragrance compound, but may be present as an extract or distillate in other products, where mandatory labelling is not required for usage of 0.4% or less.^[63]

Carcinogenicity

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There is scientific evidence that nitro-musks such as musk xylene could cause cancer in some specific animal tests. These reports were evaluated by the EU Scientific Committee for Consumer Safety (SCCS, formerly the SCCNFP^[65]) and musk xylene was found to be safe for continued use in cosmetic products.^[66] It is in fact part of the procedures of the Cosmetic Regulation in Europe that materials classified as carcinogens require such a safety evaluation by the authorities to be allowed in cosmetic consumer products.

Although other ingredients such as polycyclic synthetic musks, have been reported to be positive in some in-vitro hormone assays,^[67][68] these reports have been reviewed by various authorities. For example, for one of the main polycyclic musks Galaxolide (HHCB) these reviews include those of the EU Scientific Committee on Consumer Safety,^[69] the EU’s Priority Substances Review,^[70] the EU Scientific Committee on Health and Environmental Risk,^[71] and more recently also the US EPA.^[72] The outcome of all of these reviews over the past decade or so is that there are no safety concerns for human health. Reviews with similar positive outcomes also exist for another main polycyclic musk (AHTN)—for instance, on its safe use in cosmetics by the EU.^[73]

Many natural aromatics, such as oakmoss absolutes,^[57][74] basil oil, rose oil and many others contain allergens or carcinogenic compounds, the safety of which is either governed by regulations (e.g. allowed methyl eugenol levels in the EU Cosmetics Regulation (Entry 102, Annex III of the EU Cosmetics Regulation.^[75]) or through various limitations set by the International Fragrance Association.^[76]

Environmental

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Pollution

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Synthetic musks are pleasant in smell and relatively inexpensive, as such they are often employed in large quantities to cover the unpleasant scent of laundry detergents and many personal cleaning products. Due to their large-scale use, several types of synthetic musks have been found in human fat and milk,^[77] as well as in the sediments and waters of the Great Lakes.^[78]

These pollutants may pose additional health and environmental problems when they enter human and animal diets.

Species endangerment

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The demands for aromatic materials such as sandalwood, agarwood, and musk have led to the endangerment of these species, as well as illegal trafficking and harvesting.

Safety regulations

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The US FDA controls the safety of perfumes through their ingredients and requires that they be tested to the extent that they are Generally recognized as safe (GRAS). Due to the need for protection of trade secrets, companies rarely give the full listing^{[citation needed]} of ingredients regardless of their effects on health.^{[dubious – discuss]}

In the EU, as from 11 March 2005, the mandatory listing of a set of 26 recognized fragrance allergens was enforced.^[79] The requirement to list these materials is dependent on the intended use of the final product. The limits above which the allergens are required to be declared are 0.001% for products intended to remain on the skin, and 0.01% for those intended to be rinsed off. This has resulted in many old perfumes like chypres and fougère classes, which traditionally make use of oakmoss extract, being reformulated.^{[citation needed]}

Preserving perfume

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Fragrance compounds in perfumes will degrade or break down if improperly stored in the presence of heat, light, oxygen, and extraneous organic materials. Proper preservation of perfumes involves keeping them away from sources of heat and storing them where they will not be exposed to light. An opened bottle will keep its aroma intact for several years, as long as it is well stored.^[34] However, the presence of oxygen in the head space of the bottle and environmental factors will in the long run alter the smell of the fragrance.

Perfumes are best preserved when kept in light-tight aluminium bottles or in their original packaging when not in use, and refrigerated to relatively low temperatures: between 3–7 °C (37–45 °F). Although it is difficult to completely remove oxygen from the headspace of a stored flask of fragrance, opting for spray dispensers instead of rollers and “open” bottles will minimize oxygen exposure. Sprays also have the advantage of isolating fragrance inside a bottle and preventing it from mixing with dust, skin, and detritus, which would degrade and alter the quality of a perfume.

There exist several archives and museums devoted to the preservation of historical perfumes, namely the Osmothèque, which stocks over 3,000 perfumes from the past two millennia in their original formulations. All scents in their collection are preserved in non-actinic glass flasks flushed with argon gas, stored in thermally insulated compartments maintained at 12 °C (54 °F) in a large vault.