Palazzo Manchester: How the princes of the industrial revolution looked to Florence

'How proud we should be to grasp Michelangelo, if he could step upon the scene once more and... stand before us!'

Good morning members — today’s story explains why you can spot so many Italian-style buildings in Manchester. It’s by a new Mill contributor called Annie Beverley, who dived deep into the archives to write this great piece.

Last night’s members’ discussion thread was fantastic. We are still learning how to make these discussions work, but I think last night’s thread was one of our best — bringing together lots of really interesting ideas about how Greater Manchester will change as a result of the pandemic. If you missed it, feel free to add your views, or just have a read through. That discussion will now feed into our series of stories on the post-Covid recovery.

And if you missed last night’s members’ story, it was about the life of Polish Jews who escaped the Holocaust and built a new life in Manchester — and the pain of talking about their past.