The British Empire at its most powerful with Manchester its industrial capital, decorated with Baroque banks, Italianate warehouses, grand civic buildings, a glorious Classical infirmary on Piccadilly Gardens, an imposing Romanesque St Peter’s Church on St Peter’s Square and an elegant library on King Street that had been the Town Hall.

The Halle Orchestra was conducted by the great Hans Richter (then the world’s finest with the baton) and the city was zinging with cotton trading conducted by tens of thousands of moustachioed merchants, their top hats glued to their heads.

What could possibly go wrong?