Building and commissioning the Town-class cruisers

The five Southampton-group ships entered service during 1937. Newcastle and Southampton commissioned on consecutive days, and both had originally been planned as Minotaur and Polyphemus of the Arethusa class. Newcastle and Sheffield were built at Newcastle, Southampton at Clydebank, and Glasgow at Greenock, while Birmingham was the only member of the group completed in a naval dockyard. Liverpool and Manchester were laid down before Gloucester, but the second subgroup is called the Gloucester class because Gloucester was technically ordered first. Together, the dates, builders, and naming rule distinguish the class's first eight ships before the enlarged Edinburgh pair.