An introduction to Salford - welcome!
From urban buzz to greenbelt tranquility, Salford is building on the mixture of its waterfront, urban and countryside environments to create places where people want to live, work, invest and visit.
Find out more: Where is Salford? | The Quays | Sport | Outdoors | Opportunities | Heritage | Salford's Community Plan | What's in Salford?
Salford is about 200 miles north west of London. With excellent road and public transport links to all parts of the UK, the city is well placed as a visitor and commercial centre. And Manchester International Airport, gateway to over 200 international destinations, is just a few miles away too.
The city of Salford covers 37 square miles and the five districts of Salford, Eccles, Worsley, Irlam & Cadishead, and Swinton & Pendlebury. Some 220,000 people are proud to call Salford their home!
The Blackfriars, Broughton and Ordsall districts of central Salford are just one minutes' walk from the heart of Manchester's shopping and central business districts - just across the River Irwell which runs between the two cities.
Salford's closeness to Manchester city centre makes it an important part of the economy and culture that is driving England's north west forward. Salford and Manchester enjoy a unique situation: their connection creates a wealth of opportunities ranging from the potential for business relocation and development to establishing Salford's waterways and watersides as key regional and national visitor attractions and turning the city into a residential area of choice within Greater Manchester.
Imagine London’s Docklands… only better. World-class attractions like The Lowry - with the largest free collection of L S Lowry’s work - theatres, galleries, designer shopping, river cruises, museums, modern architecture, watersports, football, cricket, plus top-flight executive apartments make The Quays a spectacular destination and the new leisure capital of the north west!
Sports enthusiasts have world famous football, rugby and cricket within kicking distance of the city with Manchester United Football Club, Swinton Lions, Salford Reds and Lancashire Cricket Club all nearby.
In July 2002 Manchester hosted the biggest sporting event in British history - the 17th Commonwealth Games - and Salford was proud to play its part by hosting the triathlon and 20km and 50km walks. Part of the marathon course ran through Salford too.
Overall, the Commonwealth Games provided Salford (and of course Manchester) with a magnificent sporting legacy, and Salford is now the recognised home of world-class triathlon in the UK having hosted three ITU World Cup events since the 2002 Games.
Half the city is made up of green spaces and features forests, nature reserves, mosslands, parklands and picturesque villages. There are hundreds of acres of beautiful park with a variety of wildlife habitats. Salford has the UK's only orange canal, wetland, ponds and a fishing lake.
Salford is well known as a channel for academic and business talent. Children get a great start at a wide range of schools, further education colleges and the award-winning University of Salford. Over 150 big name firms including Colgate Palmolive, Cussons, Avis Car Hire and BUPA are based in Salford. Speaking of healthcare, you’ll also find the major teaching hospitals; Hope Hospital and Royal Manchester Children’s Hospital here.
A series of regeneration programmes are changing the city's most deprived communities. These programmes include: single regeneration budget funding, a £53 million New Deal for Communities scheme, two Sure Start programmes, a Health Action Zone and an Education Action Zone. Whitehall has also recently announced housing market renewal fund support for an area designated Central Salford.
As one of the world's first industrial cities, Salford is flooded with historic achievements – including the world’s first free public library. Thanks to the 40 miles of the Duke of Bridgewater’s underground canals at The Delph, Worsley is heading towards UNESCO World Heritage status, but there is also 600 years of history packed into the haunted Tudor house; Ordsall Hall, whilst the people of Salford are celebrated in LifeTimes, an award-winning social history project based at Salford Museum and Art Gallery.
Within Salford's Community Plan is our vision to create a city where people choose to live and work, where the quality of life of our citizens is improved by creating economic prosperity, developing and maintaining strong, safe, healthy and sustainable communities, providing a better education for all, enabling our young people to fulfil their potential and creating a city that is good to live in by providing quality homes and a clean and healthy environment.
Where to begin? We have:
- 60% green space
- 18 square miles of countryside and parks
- six waterways
- 30 miles of rivers and canals
- 112 ponds and lakes
- 14 waterway bridges
- Britain's largest inland waterway
- a world-class arts and theatre complex attracting over 1,000,000 visitors a year
- a history stretching back to 923AD
- the north west's first five star hotel
- one infamous Tudor building
- one of the world's first public lending libraries
- Manchester city centre one minute away
- one potential World Heritage site
- 30 miles of sculpture trail
- one airport
- two National League rugby clubs
- one leading UK university
- over 150 big name companies
- the UK's Triathlon World Cup venue; and
- three ghosts.
This page was last updated on 24 April 2008
Bookmark this page using:
Find out more about social bookmarking.
These sites allow you to store, tag and share links across the internet. You can share these links both with friends and people with similar interests. You can also access your links from any computer you happen to be using.
If you come across a page on our site that you find interesting and want to save for future reference or share it with other people, simply click on one of these links to add to your list.
All of these sites are free to use but do require you to register. Once you have registered you can begin bookmarking. Each of the sites works slightly differently so use the links below to find out which service best suits your needs.
Find out more about social bookmarking at Wikipedia.
