Manchester is a Victorian city - it rose to prominence and experienced rapid expansion and prosperity during the mid to late 19th century.

Manchester’s Victorian heritage isn’t just visible in the city centre, with its magnificent facades, but also in the suburbs. Houses built in the 1880s and 1890s still serve as solid, attractive homes, either for families, or divided into flats for students.

With their signature red brick facades, bay windows, black and white gables, chimney pots and doorsteps, they are as part of the character of Manchester as those famous white wooden houses are a part of San Francisco.

In many parts of Manchester, run down streets of terraced houses have been renovated by the local council, including these ones along Lloyd Street South, Moss Side, close to the site of the former Manchester City ground.

Many areas remain to be done - including the ones on Platt Lane overlooking Platt Fields park - but there is a slow and steady improvement taking place all around Manchester.

The legacy from the Victoria era is an important part of the identity of Manchester, with its multiple layers of development from different periods.

The number on the front of the year may indicate that we’ve just crossed the threshold into a new millennium, but we’re living in a city that’s mainly 20th and 19th century.