Every city has something to be proud of, and Manchester has a lot.
It might be a city with “so much to answer for”, as the famous quote goes, but with a history that’s as rich, vibrant, and culturally diverse as Manchester’s, we’re happy to answer for it.
From iconic music and sporting achievements, to groundbreaking inventions, political movements, world firsts, and so much more, there’s no end to list of things that Manchester has gifted the world over the years, and we should have no shame in shouting about them from the rooftops with pride.
But are we forgetting something here? Is there something missing from that list?
Oh yeah, there’s also Vimto.
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Vimto is a much-loved Manchester-born soft drink that contains the juice of grapes, raspberries and blackcurrants – each in a 3% concentration – which is then flavoured with a selection of delicately-balanced herbs and spices.
It was created in 1908 at 19 Granby Row in Manchester city centre – now part of The University of Manchester’s grounds – by John Noel Nichols, who was a wholesaler of herbs, spices and medicines that saw the market opening for soft drinks, due to the temperance movement and the passage of the 1908 Licensing Act.
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It was originally sold under the name Vim Tonic, which Nichols shortened to Vimto in 1912.
It’s hard to believe it now, but Vimto was originally registered as a health tonic or medicine when it was first created, but was then re-registered as a cordial in 1913.
It enjoyed so much success during the initial years following its creation that in 1910, because the Granby Row premises had become too small, Vimto production moved to a warehouse at Chapel Street, Salford, then to Old Trafford (1927), and finally to a state-of-the-art plant in Wythenshawe in 1970.
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As well as its continued popularity throughout the 20th and 21st centrury, Vimto has even taken on a life of its own as a flavour too in more recent years, meaning that as well as being able to pop to your local shop or supermarket to buy some Vimto cordial, a bottle of still Vimto, a can of the fizzy kind from the chippy on a Friday, or even a Vimto slushie, you can now also buy some Vimto bon bons, Vimto ice lollies, candy sprays, chewy bars, and a cheeky Vimto cocktail to go along with it – although the latter doesn’t actually contain Vimto, it has to be said.
There’s even a Vimto Remix range too, boasting some other unique flavour combinations like Mango, Strawberry & Pineapple, and Raspberry, Orange & Passion Fruit, so it’s really come a long way from its origins.
And yes, we know it’s not for everyone.
Someone once pointed out that its name is an acronym for vomit, which you can make of that what you will, and it’s also certainly got its fair share of competitors on the market too, but there’s no denying it’s a drink that’s loved round these parts.
To cut a long story short, Manchester is pretty proud of Vimto.
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So proud in fact, that we decided to dedicate a monument especially to it, and stick it pride of place in the heart of the city centre, on the very spot that it was created.
Credit: Manchester History
The sculpture is aptly entitled A Monument to Vimto.
The giant wooden bottle and berries was first commissioned by J.N. Nichols plc, and carved by environmental artist Kerry Morrison out of an oak tree from a sustainable forest, before being successfully installed in Granby Row in 1992.
And we’re not kidding either, the monument now stands proudly at the site of the original factory where the first batch of Vimto was ever made.
After 19 years of the typical Manchester weather taking its toll, and plenty of attention from city revellers, the monument was ready for a refresh, and was thus “brought back to its former glory” in 2011 with a much-needed makeover.
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The grapes and raspberries were restored – with the grapes changing from red to green to reflect the ingredients of Vimto – the blackcurrants were replaced entirely, a new wooden barrel was constructed to replace the bottom of the Vimto bottle, and new labels were carved and painted.
As bizarre as it may be, and despite the many heads it’s turned over the years, Manchester is as proud of the Vimto monument as we are the drink itself.
And we would’t have it any other way.
Featured Image – Flickr
Trending
Has Liam Gallagher just casually confirmed that a new Oasis album is coming?
Danny Jones
Liam Gallagher is playing his usual social media mind games to perfection as it looks like he might have just revealed that a new Oasis album is on the way.
Keeping close watch on his social media needs to be someone’s full-time job, honestly.
The younger Gallagher sibling and his older brother Noel have finally patched things up after a decade and a half and barring a big bust-up on the first day of their upcoming reunion shows, the world will soon be able to see them back touring again next summer.
A comeback on its own was something we never thought we’d actually live to see come to fruition but now it looks like not only will be once again seeing the Burnage boys performing their many hits but they may or may not have been working on a new Oasis album. It all started back in September, actually.
Liam, 52, has been enjoying some playful back-and-forth with Oasis fans ever since the comeback was confirmed in August and the talk of new/unreleased music has been rumbling for a while.
Responding to a fan on 7 September, who asked point blank if it was true that a new album was on the way, “Yep it’s already finished.”
Then, as the days rolled into November, LG began swapping out the usual ‘RASTAS’ and ‘BUMBALCART’ tweets with two very random on-brand and what we presumed were merely innocuous words: “SPIRITUAL” and, most recently, “CELESTIAL”.
For a man who’s said the word ‘biblical’ more times than he’s had hot dinners, we didn’t make too much of it initially, but it was in his response to other fans on Saturday, 2 November and earlier this week that’s started to grab attention, even responding to a so-called leak about the number of the track listing.
As always, take this stuff with a big ol’ pinch of salt.
All that being said, the last time he did this sort of stuff it was about the support acts for the Oasis reunion tour and he wasn’t lying then, so who knows? Maybe we really are going to get the long-awaited eighth album from Oasis for the first time since 2008.
Elsewhere, the frontman has been joking that he and Noel are practically the best of friends nowadays and almost pretending that there was never any bad blood, adding that he’ll be on his “best behaviour” when they head out on the road for their first tour date at the Principality Stadium in Cardiff in July.
Liam has also made it clear he’d much rather keep the Oasis reunion train rolling after the ‘Live ’25 World Tour’ ends than return to a solo career – as for Noel, he could always go back to his High Flying Birds project or maybe even switch industries…
Some of the very best memes about Gary Barlow’s ‘massive’ son
Danny Jones
We don’t know why the internet does what it does sometimes, all we can tell you is that on occasions like this when seemingly the entire country is making jokes and some truly incredible memes about Gary Barlow’s ‘massive’ son, we’re just glad.
In case you’ve been living under a rock – or in his case, a planet – Gary Barlow has gone viral after sharing what clearly thought was an unassuming family picture on social media.
Well, to be more accurate, his son Daniel has gone viral due to the seemingly enormous height difference between him and his dad which, naturally, has become the funniest thing in about a decade by UK standards.
The British sense of humour is elite, we all know that, but when we tell you we’ve been literally streaming tears reacting to the endless flood of memes about Gary Barlow’s big son, we’re doing so through uncontrollable fits of laughter. Here are some of the very best we’ve come across:
Honestly, typing this out has been more of a challenge than anything I’ve ever written, mainly due to the convulsive and all-consuming chuckles.
We were today years old when we learned that there’s a word for the giggles, by the way: the technical term is ‘gelastic seizures’, so feel free to enjoy that bonus fact.
Anyway, back to the nonsense.
There’s a somewhat small comfort in knowing that while the online landscape is full of very negative things going on right now, it can still be an escape for simple-minded folks like us to laugh at a pretty tall kid from Cheshire.
Not ready to deal with the hideous result just yet so will continue on my quest to find the best Gary Barlow’s massive son memes for a while… pic.twitter.com/fHI8k858XU
For context, the 24-year-old Barlow child isn’t anywhere near as big as you’re probably thinking; as far as we can tell, it’s more a case of he’s just taller than his below-average height popstar dad.
According to our very intense research (that definitely didn’t take us less than a minute before we started scrolling through the memes again), Dan Barlow clocks in at around 6’2″ and Gary is roughly 5’7″.
Sorry to spoil the party and shatter the illusion. We can all just forget that bit and keep carrying on like Gary Barlow’s wife Dawn Andrews gave birth to a ‘giant’ if you like?
Honestly, just go on Twitter (no, not X; this is peak old-school Twitter comedy at its best) and look on the ‘Gary Barlow’ trending feed and take a few minutes, or an hour, to p*ss yourself at the endless wave of ridiculous memes about a boy who is basically just a bit taller than his dad.
As for the Take That star himself, the 53-year-old is yet to comment on the whole situation, probably because it’s utterly ridiculous but still, crack a joke would’ya, Gaz?
Brits are the funniest people in the universe. FACT. We also hope it goes without saying that this is very tongue-in-cheek; there is no sizeism or offence intended here whatsoever and he can see the sunny side of this sheer silliness.
Daniel Barlow just happens to be taller than the man who wrote the absolute banger that is ‘Relight My Fire’, so they’re both winners if you ask us. Happy meming!