A Parliament Week Trail around Manchester…
Parliament Week aims to build a greater awareness and engagement with parliamentary
democracy in the UK. This walking trail takes you back in time to show you how the
people of Manchester helped to push the pace of reform in the 19th century, which
helped to shape our democracy today.
During the late 18th and early 19th centuries, social unrest was endemic in many
of England’s great industrial cities. In Manchester, where the cotton industry was
booming, there was a growing underclass of poor textile workers who lacked
parliamentary representation and political rights.
War with Napoleonic France and the Corn Law of 1815, which drove up the price of
bread by excluding competition from foreign grain, set the scene for a volatile mix.
Demonstrations and protests were rife in the period, but the first great spark came in
August 1819 when mill workers from all over the north-west converged on the city’s St
Peter’s Fields to hear radical orator Henry Hunt. The peaceful rally ended in one of the
most notorious and shameful events of the period when the city’s militia tried to arrest
Hunt and disperse the crowd, resulting in the death of 17 innocent people.
From the embers of Peterloo, a series of Manchester-based reforming movements
emerged. They played a key role in parliamentary democracy and the three
Parliamentary Reform Acts of the 19th century, which reformed the voting system and
widened the voting franchise.
This short tour from the People’s History Museum to a handful of locations within a
mile or so of Albert Square reveals a story of protest, liberalism, new MPs, the Repeal
of the Corn Laws
reetin 1846 and the clamour for parliamentary reform.
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The People’s History Museum
1 Left Bank, Spinningfields, Manchester M3 3ER
Opening times: Monday-Sunday 10am-5pm. Admission Free.
The best place to explore the themes of protest and reform played out so dramatically
across Manchester’s streets throughout the centuries, the People’s History Museum
tells the story of democratic ideas – from the Levellers, the Chartists and the cotton
mill workers of the Peterloo Massacre to the birth of modern political parties.
It also reveals the sacrifices ordinary men and women made to achieve universal
suffrage and the dramatic journey to the Great Reform Act of 1832, which increased
the number of voters to one in six adult males and granted parliamentary seats to the
newer industrial cities.
Renowned for its stunning collection of political banners, the museum boasts two of
the oldest, from 1821 and 1830 – the tumultuous period of protest and reform between
Peterloo and the 1832 Act.
Manchester’s pivotal role in Free Trade and liberalism and the role of the Anti Corn Law
League in the creation of the Manchester Guardian, the Free Trade Hall and the ultimate
repeal of the Corn Laws in 1846 are also told through objects, people and place.
Having primed yourself at the People’s History Museum, see where democratic
heritage happened by walking up Bridge Street, along Deansgate to Peter Street
and the site of the Peterloo Massacre. (10 minutes)
10
The Peterloo Massacre
2 Radisson Hotel, Free Trade Hall, Peter Street, Manchester M2 5GP
Find the small plaque on the wall of the Radisson Free Trade Hall, near the corner of
Peter Street and Southmill Street, and you are at the epicentre of one of the most
important events in the history of British democracy. On 16 August 1819, a crowd of
workers and their families – estimated to number between 50,000 and 100,000 people
– swarmed across this area, which in 1819 was open land called St Peter’s Fields
bordered by Georgian townhouses. They had come from all over Lancashire to hear the
radical orator Henry Hunt.
In the streets beyond you, notably Bootle Street, Jackson’s Row and Windmill Street,
hundreds of dragoons, militia and special constables assembled. In Mount Street,
two blocks south of the plaque, nervous magistrates watched proceedings from
a townhouse. When the protestors were gathered, the Manchester and Salford
Yeomanry attempted to disperse the crowd and arrest Hunt. The resulting chaos saw
hundreds injured and up to 18 people killed, including a woman and a child.
A series of repressive acts, most notably the Six Acts, were passed by Parliament to
prevent any further disturbances. In the longer term, public opinion about “Peterloo”,
as it was dubbed in ironic reference to the heroics at the Battle of Waterloo, led
to a sustained call for the extension of the right to vote and the beginnings of the
democracy we enjoy today. Inside, on level 1 of the Radisson, you can see a painting of
the Peterloo Massacre, by Arthur Sherwood Edwards.
From Peter Street head down Southmill Street across Albert Square and walk
down Cross Street towards Cross Street Unitarian Church. (5 minutes).
5
The Little Circle and the birth of liberalism
3 Cross Street Unitarian Church, Manchester M2 1NL
One of the effects of government repression in the wake of Peterloo was the way it
quelled workers’ protests yet fuelled the thirst for reform among Manchester’s middle
classes. One group, dubbed the Little Circle, had their origins at the non-conformist
Cross Street Chapel, a modern version of which stands here today.
Although not inherently radical, many of its members had witnessed Peterloo and, in the
months after August 1819, their momentum grew. In 1820 they founded the Manchester
Chamber of Commerce; a reform-minded group of businessmen who helped John
Edward Taylor establish the Manchester Guardian. A second Little Circle group began
focusing on better representation in the Houses of Parliament as the 1820s progressed.
One of their members, Absalom Watkin, presented a petition to Parliament in 1830
which asked for two MPs for Manchester for the first time. The Reform Act of 1832
granted Manchester two MPs and Little Circle members, Mark Philips and Charles
Poulett Thomson, were elected to these positions later that year. In 1838, Thomas
Potter became the city’s first mayor in the Town Hall, originally sited next door in what
is now the Lloyds TSB building.
Head back to Albert Square (2 minutes).
2
The Anti Corn Law League; from the Reform Bill to the Free Trade Hall
4 Manchester Town Hall, Albert Square, Manchester M2 5DB
2 Radisson Hotel, Free Trade Hall, Peter Street, Manchester M2 5GP
5 Cobden House Chambers, 19 Quay Street, Manchester M3 3HN
Standing in Albert Square, beneath the neo-Gothic splendour of the Alfred Waterhousedesigned replacement for Manchester’s original town hall, gives you a sense of the
city’s growing political might. Manchester was the first industrial centre outside
London to really exert an influence on Parliament, and one of the biggest and best
organised political groups of the era, the Anti Corn Law League, had a strong power
base here. Members of Parliament such as Richard Cobden and John Bright, whose
statue still casts its discerning eye across the square, were its leaders.
The Corn Law of 1815 was designed to protect the interests of landed gentry by
imposing steep import duties on grain and keeping bread prices high. By 1839, as free
trade ideas flowed from the mouths of the city’s cotton merchants and factory owners,
opposition to the law was rife.
Cobden’s statue can be seen in St Ann’s Square, just a short jaunt away down Cross
Street, and there’s another inside the corridors of the Town Hall. Even the man who
split the Tory Party by repealing the Corn Laws in 1846, Prime Minister Robert Peel,
has a statue in Piccadilly Gardens.
Perhaps the most impressive monument to their achievement sees us return to the
frontage of the former Free Trade Hall, which in 1843 became a hall for their meetings.
Rebuilt in 1856 and repaired after the Second World War it aptly succumbed to free
market forces in 2004 when it became the Radisson Hotel. A short walk down Peter
Street into Quay Street takes you to Cobden’s former Manchester home, a beautifully
restored Georgian Townhouse with a commemorative plaque, now home to Cobden
House Chambers.
Explore further…
The Working Class Movement Library, 51 The Crescent, Salford, M5 4WX
Opening Times: Tuesday – Friday 10am-5pm, 10am-4pm third Saturday of each month (except
August). Admission Free. Telephone 0161 7363601 for more information.
Running parallel to the need for economic reform was the ever-present call for
parliamentary reform. The Peterloo Massacre gave impetus to a radical movement
called The Chartist Movement, begun in London but taken up eagerly in Manchester
and outlying districts in the 1830s.
Chartists wanted universal suffrage for all men, secret ballots and annual elections as
laid out in their ‘People’s Charter’. As the century wore on, Reform Bills delivered the
vote to certain members of the population, but the pressure for political reform grew.
Once again, Manchester and the numerous spinning and weaving towns surrounding it
were at the vanguard.
You can find out more about the Chartists at the Working Class Movement Library, which
has an extensive collection including contemporary publications, historical studies, the
Northern Star newspaper, poetry, novels and prints. It is also a key collection for items
relating to the Peterloo Massacre, Trade Unions and other political campaigns.
The Pankhurst Centre, 60-62 Nelson Street, Chorlton on Medlock, Manchester, M13 9WP
Opening times: Monday-Thursday 10am-4pm. Admission Free. Telephone 0161 273 5673 for more
information.
Pankhurst is a name that will always be linked with the women’s suffrage movement
and its leading light, Emmeline Pankhurst, was born in Manchester in 1858. She
married the lawyer Richard Pankhurst in 1878 and had four children, two of whom,
Christabel and Sylvia, became active in the women’s suffrage movement.
The extraordinary story of the Pankhursts can be uncovered at their Manchester
family home, now a museum and study centre. It was here, in 1903, that Emmeline
Pankhurst started the Women’s Social and Political Union (WSPU), quickly reviving
the flagging campaign for women’s suffrage via a systematic programme of civil
disobedience. The Pankhursts and fellow ‘suffragettes’ became national figures, their
actions helping pave the way for the Representation of the People Act of 1918, which
gave the vote to women over 30. Ten years later, in 1928, women finally received the
same voting rights as men.
As well as displaying the work and struggle of women, you can also get a flavour of the
day-to-day life in the Pankhursts’ parlour, which has been recreated to its Edwardian
state. The centre is also used as a meeting and resource centre for women’s groups.
Parliament Week aims to inform, connect and engage people across the UK with Parliamentary
democracy. Coordinated by the House of Commons and the House of Lords, Parliament Week
looks at the people, places and events that shape democracy in the UK and offers something
for everyone. Across the UK, charities, schools, museums and community groups are
organising events and online activities that demonstrate how you can engage with different
aspects of democracy in the UK.
To find out more visit www.parliamentweek.org.uk/
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@parliament_week