Manchester - Monumental Metropolis & Modern Metro

Stephen Roberts visits Manchester and discovers a metropolis like no other. 

A fascinating juxtaposition and arresting alliteration; that’s what it is. Manchester has many monuments, but also a modern metro and so I used the latter to glimpse the former. 

Living somewhere with no rapid transit, I appreciated Manchester’s Metrolink, a network of tramlines and stops while as a historian I was sold on those monuments, each recalling a past worthy, either because of local connection or national prominence. Last year saw a 

Presidents & Prime Ministers

My first stop is the statue of Sir Robert Peel (1788-1850), he who is depicted in the TV series Victoria and who stands authoritatively in bronze on his plinth in Piccadilly Gardens. Sir Robert famously created the British policeman, or ‘Bobbie’, whilst Home Secretary and was born in nearby Bury in 1788. He went on to become PM, dying in 1850 following a fall from a horse, which might explain why this is not an equestrian statue.

Also in Piccadilly Gardens is a statue of the Duke of Wellington, an Anglo-Irish soldier and later Prime Minister. Could a more famous pair have been conjured? The larger than life bronze statue shows Wellington addressing the House of Lords. Reliefs around the plinth show scenes from his life as soldier and statesman, one of them, naturally, being his victory over Napoleon at Waterloo. If you’ve begun to wonder about bronze statues, well, apparently, they weather better than marble.

William Ewart Gladstone was a famous Liberal Prime Minister born in nearby Liverpool who went on to be Prime Minister on no fewer than four occasions. He also spoke in Manchester several times and his bronze statue in Albert Square shows him in full flow in the House of Commons.

Although many of Manchester’s monuments are clustered in these two locations you will encounter others as you explore the city. Like the four-metre-high statue of Abraham Lincoln located on the historically named Brazennose Street which was renamed Lincoln Square when Lincoln’s statue was erected. Originally unveiled after WW1, it’s dedicated to the workers of Manchester who supported the fight to abolish slavery during the American Civil War at a time when Manchester’s mills relied on cotton from the Confederate South.

Royalty

With the TV series Victoria wowing viewers with costume drama, back in Piccadilly Gardens was an oversized bronze representation of the older Victoria rather than the youngster depicted on the TV. Statues in squares receive the ‘attentions’ of pigeons; one is tempted to say Victoria would not have been amused. The monarch is sculpted as ‘sombre and weary-looking', apt maybe, considering it wasn’t completed until after she’d died. A plaque proclaims this a ‘talking statue’ (it wasn’t the only one). ‘Hear Victoria here – be amazed’. I was.

It seems unkind that Victoria’s Germanic Consort, Prince Albert has been consigned to his own Albert Square, when one feels he should perhaps be beside his Queen. Albert’s monument dominates the square, although he has competition from the massive town hall. Manchester’s Albert Memorial pre-dates the London version which bears it a remarkable similarity. I’m sure Albert would be delighted to know that a German market establishes itself in the square in the lead-up to Christmas, especially as he is credited with bringing some of his nation’s festive traditions here, including, of course, the Christmas tree. 

Economy & Industry

Manchester may honour genuine royalty and royalty amongst statesmen, but the city was built on industry. In fact, it’s a city noted for radical innovation, oft regarded as the ‘capital of the North’.

James Watt was not a Manchester man, but you can understand Mancunians embracing him; his inventions enabled the city to become one of the world’s first manufacturing centres. His statue is a bronze copy of a marble one in Westminster Abbey. Ironically, one of Watt’s lesser-known inventions was the sculpture-copying machine. 

Then there is Radical-Liberal John Bright, a Rochdale boy and son of a wealthy cotton manufacturer, who sat in the Commons for over 40 years. Bright was a great reforming politician and free trader who was most famous for his collaboration with Richard Cobden to repeal the Corn Laws, which kept the price of bread artificially high, causing distress to the poorest in our society. He also campaigned for universal suffrage and the secret ballot, plus religious toleration. It’s right he should be venerated in Manchester, a city that became known for radical ideas that reflected the social and political struggles of the time. Not all his views were popular, however, as evidenced by the burning of his effigy on one occasion in Manchester. Today, he’s keeping Albert company in Albert Square.  

The Free Trade Hall was first built as the HQ of Bright’s Anti-Corn Law League epitomising that radicalism with its third manifestation of 1856 becoming Manchester’s most famous building. There’s a red plaque on the building recalling the Peterloo Massacre of August 1819, when a peaceable parliamentary reform meeting was scattered by troops. The plaque claims there were 15 deaths. They didn’t die entirely in vain. Manchester was granted two Members of Parliament in 1832, its first since 1660.

Local Worthies

Of course, not everyone can be of world or even national renown, and Albert Square is home to a pair of local worthies who didn’t quite make the A-List.

James Fraser may be lesser known today, but not to the people of Manchester in the late-19th century when he was Bishop for fifteen years. Fraser was born in Gloucestershire, but took over as Manchester’s Bishop in 1870. He was highly regarded and respected for his work within the community. The announcement of his death caused Manchester’s Cotton Exchange to halt trading, such was the esteem in which he was held.

Another lesser light is Oliver Heywood whose father owned Heywood’s Bank in the city. Oliver’s support of many charitable causes led to him becoming the first honorary Freeman of the City of Manchester in 1888.

Arts & Sciences

Whilst Manchester may have boomed because of textile manufacturing and become arguably the world’s first truly industrialised city, it also has a place for arts and sciences. Home to the world-famous Hallé Orchestra, there’s also a standout statue for another famed musician. 

Frédéric Chopin has an eye-catching statue on Deansgate that commemorates the UK’s strong links with Poland. A composer and virtuoso pianist, Chopin is depicted at his keys, looking across at his muse Baroness Dupon. Look out for the carved eagle, the symbol of Poland. Chopin only visited Manchester once, performing in 1848 the year before he died, but the statue also symbolises the part Polish migrants have played in the city’s life since the 19th century.

Alan Turing can be found sitting on a bench in Sackville Gardens, with an enigmatic apple in his right hand. Mathematician, computer scientist and logician, it was Turing who famously helped crack the German Enigma code during WW2. After the war he helped develop computers at the University of Manchester.

Finis

Although I cannot mention all of Manchester’s monuments, it would be remiss of me to omit the Cenotaph in St Peter’s Square. Erected in 1924 to commemorate those who died in WW1, the Portland stone edifice was designed by Sir Edwin Lutyens. Interestingly my tale of monuments and metro coalesce at this point, as this iconic memorial was dismantled and moved in 2014 to accommodate another city centre tram line. Past, present, and future cannot always be separated. The ‘Victory over Blindness’ statue located outside Piccadilly station depicts seven WW1 ex-servicemen blinded by conflict.

It remained for me to return to my bivouac close to Piccadilly Station. The metro got me there, of course, a light-rail system that began operating in 1992, so arguably a part of the city’s history too, as it trundles towards its 25th anniversary. With almost 100 stops, 65 miles of route, and well over 30 million passengers per year, this is a clean, handy way to travel, enabling folk to get to and from work, de-camp to shop in the Arndale, or, like me, enjoy some of Manchester’s history.