Manchester City Centre Peace Trail

Overview

Curious about the hidden stories of peace in our city? Come along with Steve Roman, passionate peace activist and storyteller, as we wander through Manchester’s streets uncovering the remarkable Peace Trail. 

Meeting Point: Manchester Victoria Station, underneath the large, tiled map 

Duration: 2 hours 

Accessibility: It is suitable for people in wheelchairs. The route is paved and flat, apart from one slope. When we go through the Library there are lifts for those who need them. 

The Walk along the Peace Trail will bring alive Manchester’s radical history, its growth as the world’s first industrial city and its importance as a centre for peace, tolerance and promotion of social justice in the city and around the globe. 

Memorials and locations will gain new meanings as we learn about their peace history and the relevance for civil rights movements. What might we discover about our city’s evolving role—from industrial powerhouse to global advocate for justice and peace? Each stop invites us to see Manchester through fresh eyes. 

The walk will include the following themes / sites with perhaps some new perspectives: 

• Migration and the movement of peoples 

• Gandhi, Manchester Cathedral, the campaign against Chattel Slavery, and Abraham Lincoln 

• John Dalton, the “Nuclear Timeline”, the Peace Garden, MAG (Mines Advisory Group) and the Nobel Peace Prize 

• The Hidden Gem and religious tolerance, Free thinking and Science 

• Elizabeth Raffald, Margaret Ashton, Erinma Bell, Lydia Becker, Suffragists and Suffragettes 

• and, subject to time, Peterloo, the popular reform movement and Engels 

The guide is donating his fee to charity