Manchester city centre is the central business district

Central business district

A central business district is the commercial and often geographic heart of a city. In North America this part of a city is commonly referred to as "downtown" or "city center"...

 of Manchester

Manchester

Manchester is a city and metropolitan borough in Greater Manchester, England. According to the Office for National Statistics, the 2010 mid-year population estimate for Manchester was 498,800. Manchester lies within one of the UK's largest metropolitan areas, the metropolitan county of Greater...

, England

England

England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Scotland to the north and Wales to the west; the Irish Sea is to the north west, the Celtic Sea to the south west, with the North Sea to the east and the English Channel to the south separating it from continental...

. It lies within the Manchester Inner Ring Road

Manchester Inner Ring Road

Manchester and Salford Inner Relief Route is a Ring Road in Greater Manchester, England. It is the product of the amalgamation of several major roads around the city centres of Manchester and Salford to form a ring...

, next to the River Irwell

River Irwell

The River Irwell is a long river which flows through the Irwell Valley in the counties of Lancashire and Greater Manchester in North West England. The river's source is at Irwell Springs on Deerplay Moor, approximately north of Bacup, in the parish of Cliviger, Lancashire...

. The electoral ward

Wards of the United Kingdom

A ward in the United Kingdom is an electoral district at sub-national level represented by one or more councillors. It is the primary unit of British administrative and electoral geography .-England:...

 of Manchester Central has an area of 2.2 square miles (5.7 km²) and a population of 11,689.

The city centre evolved from the civilian vicus

Vicus (Rome)

In ancient Rome, the vicus was a neighborhood. During the Republican era, the four regiones of the city of Rome were subdivided into vici. In the 1st century BC, Augustus reorganized the city for administrative purposes into 14 regions, comprising 265 vici. Each vicus had its own board of...

of the Roman fort

Castra

The Latin word castra, with its singular castrum, was used by the ancient Romans to mean buildings or plots of land reserved to or constructed for use as a military defensive position. The word appears in both Oscan and Umbrian as well as in Latin. It may have descended from Indo-European to Italic...

 of Mamucium, on a sandstone bluff near the confluence of the rivers Medlock

River Medlock

The River Medlock is a river of Greater Manchester in North West England. It rises near Oldham and flows, south and west, for ten miles to join the River Irwell in the extreme southwest of Manchester city centre.-Source:...

 and Irwell

River Irwell

The River Irwell is a long river which flows through the Irwell Valley in the counties of Lancashire and Greater Manchester in North West England. The river's source is at Irwell Springs on Deerplay Moor, approximately north of Bacup, in the parish of Cliviger, Lancashire...

. In the Middle Ages

Middle Ages

The Middle Ages is a periodization of European history from the 5th century to the 15th century. The Middle Ages follows the fall of the Western Roman Empire in 476 and precedes the Early Modern Era. It is the middle period of a three-period division of Western history: Classic, Medieval and Modern...

, what is now the city centre was the township of Manchester

Manchester Township (England)

Manchester Township was one of the many townships and chapelries which formed the ancient parish of Manchester within the Salford hundred of Lancashire, England. It included the area of what is now Manchester City Centre and the adjoining area of Ancoats....

.

Extensively redeveloped since the Manchester Blitz

Manchester Blitz

The Manchester Blitz was the heavy bombing of the city of Manchester and its surrounding areas in North West England during the Second World War by the Nazi German Luftwaffe...

 of 1941 and 1996 IRA bomb

1996 Manchester bombing

The 1996 Manchester bombing was an attack carried out by the Provisional Irish Republican Army on 15 June 1996 in Manchester, England. The bomb, placed in a van on Corporation Street in city centre, targeted the city's infrastructure and economy and caused widespread damage, estimated by...

, the city centre remains the commercial and cultural centre of Manchester.