Manchester Town Hall: The Revival of a Gothic Revival Masterpiece

Posted on: December 10th, 2024 by mlpEditor

Step inside the fascinating story of how Manchester’s architectural crown jewel is being transformed for future generations. Our Grade I listed Town Hall, one of Britain’s finest examples of Neo-Gothic architecture, is undergoing an ambitious restoration that blends heritage conservation with 21st-century innovation.

 

UPDATE – 28/1/25. Due to high demand, we have relocated the event, added capacity and adjusted the start time.

 

Project Vision and Planning

Technical expert Jamie Coath will uncover the intriguing challenges and creative solutions behind the Our Town Hall Project. We’ll explore how Purcell responded to the Council’s vision, carefully assessing this Victorian masterpiece to determine where changes could enhance its functionality and accessibility, while preserving its historic character. Through extensive consultation with the community, Purcell have shaped a vision that honours both the building’s past and its future role in city life.

 

Restoration and Engineering

You’ll discover the painstaking work involved in breathing new life into the external stonework, including the reinstatement of long-lost architectural features and the sensitive removal of 1960s additions. We’ll reveal how modern engineering expertise is being applied to replace the vast roof structure while protecting the building’s Gothic character.

 

Accessibility and Interior Works

One of the restoration team’s most rewarding challenges has been making this civic landmark truly accessible to everyone. Jamie will share how Purcell have thoughtfully integrated new entrances and lifts while respecting the building’s historic fabric. The talk will take you behind the scenes of their most delicate work: the restoration of the building’s magnificent interiors, including the revival of its famous clock and organ.

 

Public Realm

We’ll also explore how the project extends beyond the building itself, encompassing the restoration of the Albert Memorial and the surrounding public spaces that make this such a vital part of Manchester’s civic heart.

 

Looking to the Future

Throughout the talk, we’ll reflect on how this ambitious project is meeting its goals of preserving our city’s heritage while creating a more accessible and sustainable building for Manchester’s future.

 

Join us for an evening of discovery as we explore this remarkable chapter in the life of one of Britain’s most important civic buildings.

 

Practical Information

The talk includes a Q&A session.

Booking is essential. Lit & Phil members: we recommend logging into the website to make booking your free member ticket quicker and easier.

 

About the Speaker

Jamie is currently the Technical and Conservation Advisor for Purcell.  His particular technical expertise lies in stonework construction and conservation, and other related issues such as historic paint analysis and metalwork.

 

Accessibility Information

Please contact us regarding any specific accessibility requirements you may have by emailing events@manlitphil.ac.uk

 

Unmasking George Shaw: A Victorian Architectural Rogue

Posted on: October 31st, 2024 by mlpEditor

Discover the extraordinary story of George Shaw – a Victorian architect who blurred the lines between historical preservation and audacious forgery. This talk, by distinguished expert Dr Peter N. Lindfield, explores how one man from Saddleworth transformed Northwest England’s architectural landscape through a combination of genuine passion and remarkable cunning.

 

The Architectural Maverick

Imagine an architect who could transform ordinary buildings into romantic medieval masterpieces – and who wasn’t afraid to pull off the most audacious historical forgeries along the way. Meet George Shaw, the hidden genius of Victorian Gothic architecture who turned historical recreation into an art form and, on occasion, a thrilling con.

 

From Industrial Landscape to Architectural Fantasy

From the industrial landscapes of Saddleworth, Shaw emerged as a visionary architect who did more than just design buildings. He crafted entire historical fantasies, rebuilding houses and churches to look like relics from a long-lost medieval world. His workshops became a playground of architectural imagination, producing everything from intricate stained glass to elaborate furniture.

 

The Master of Historical Deception

But Shaw was no ordinary architect. With a mischievous streak, he created “authentic” Tudor furniture in his own workshops, selling these clever fabrications to unsuspecting aristocrats – including the Duke of Northumberland and the Earl of Derby. Was he a fraud, or a passionate antiquary pushing the boundaries of historical interpretation?

 

An Invitation to Discover

Join us for a fascinating exploration of Shaw’s world – where architecture meets performance, and history is both celebrated and cleverly reinvented. Discover the story of a man who transformed Northwest England’s landscape, one “ancient” building at a time.

 

About the speaker

Dr Peter N. Lindfield is a lecturer in architectural history at the Welsh School of Architecture, Cardiff University, and Fellow of the Society of Antiquaries of London.

 

Special Event Highlight

Signed copies of Peter’s book – The Intimacies of George Shaw (1810–76): Diaries and Letters of a Gothic Architect, Antiquary, and Forger – will be available to purchase after the talk. It is the first work to present extensive, edited, and annotated transcriptions of Shaw’s diaries and letters.

 

Practical Information

The presentation will include time for questions and discussion. Booking is essential.

 

Accessibility Information

The venue is wheelchair accessible with an accessible toilet on the ground floor. Please contact us regarding any specific accessibility requirements you may have by emailing events@manlitphil.ac.uk

Imagined Manchester: what our city could have been

Posted on: October 17th, 2024 by mlpEditor

Discover the hidden stories of Manchester’s urban landscape. This talk explores incredible city plans that were never built, revealing fascinating “what if” moments in Manchester’s history.

 

What You’ll Experience

This engaging presentation will showcase extraordinary images of imagined city schemes, share stories about unrealized architectural projects, and provide deep insights into Manchester’s urban development.

 

Fascinating Plans

Jonathan will discuss remarkable unbuilt designs including a part-Eiffel Tower in Piccadilly Gardens, a Deansgate travelator, a communications tower behind Piccadilly Station, a mini-Parthenon on Upper Brook Street, and potential city boulevards and heliports.

 

Key Questions Explored

The talk will delve into how cities develop, why some ambitious plans succeed while others fail, and what truly shapes urban landscapes. These explorations will challenge our understanding of city planning and architectural imagination.

 

Background

This talk is based on Jonathan Schofield’s books “Lost & Imagined Manchester” and “Illusion & Change Manchester”. These books will be available to purchase at the event.

 

Perfect for

Anyone curious about Manchester’s history, urban planning, and alternative city visions.

 

Practical Information

The presentation will include time for questions and discussion. There are no refreshments available at the venue. Booking is essential.

 

Accessibility Information

The venue is wheelchair accessible with an accessible toilet. Please contact us regarding any specific accessibility requirements you may have by emailing events@manlitphil.ac.uk

The dark side of sugar: a historical journey

Posted on: October 16th, 2024 by mlpEditor

Discover the complex history of sugar – from its ancient origins to its modern-day impact on global health and society. Dr Neil Buttery explores how this seemingly simple ingredient has shaped our world in profound and often troubling ways.

 

Key Topics

This fascinating talk will explore the evolution of human taste preferences and why we developed such a strong attraction to sweet foods. Dr Buttery will trace sugar’s journey from ancient honey-hunting practices through to early sugar production, examining its significant role in medieval European society.

The discussion will then move to the colonial sugar trade and its lasting impact, before addressing modern sugar industry practices and their implications for public health. The talk concludes with an examination of current challenges and governmental responses to sugar consumption.

 

What You’ll Learn

You’ll discover how our ancestors sought out sweet foods as an essential survival strategy and follow sugarcane’s remarkable 10,000-year journey from Papua New Guinea across the globe. Dr Buttery will explain sugar’s transformation from luxury item to everyday commodity, while addressing the environmental and social impact of its production. The talk concludes with an examination of current debates surrounding sugar consumption and public health initiatives.

 

Content Notice

This talk includes discussion of historical events including colonialism, slavery, and exploitation. While these topics are handled sensitively, some content may be challenging.

 

Practical Information

The talk includes a Q&A session and light refreshments can be purchased from the venue’s bar. Booking is essential.

 

About the Speaker

Dr Neil Buttery combines expertise in food history and evolutionary biology to offer unique insights into how our relationship with sugar has evolved over millennia.

 

Accessibility Information

The venue is wheelchair accessible with an accessible toilet on the ground floor. Please contact us regarding any specific accessibility requirements you may have by emailing events@manlitphil.ac.uk

How has British Imperialism shaped the modern world?

Posted on: October 16th, 2024 by mlpEditor

Manchester Lit & Phil were delighted to welcome back acclaimed author, journalist and broadcaster Sathnam Sanghera for this special in conversation event with eminent historian Professor Alan Lester.

Sathnam’s seminal 2021 bestseller Empireland revealed how Empire continues to shape life in Britain today. Its inspired sequel Empireworld, published in 2024, takes a significant step further in examining the wider global significance of British Imperial power. Sathnam and Alan’s conversation will reflect on just how deeply British Imperialism remains baked into our world today.

Together, they look at how the effects of Empire continue to be felt globally, shaping cities, cultures, and societies in profound ways. Alan Lester, a Professor of Historical Geography, shares his own and other specialist historians’ profound insights into the intricate relationship between colonial legacies and the contemporary debates surrounding them.

The event offers a critical look at Empire’s lasting impact, both negative and positive, on the 2.6 billion inhabitants of former British Colonies. From the spread of Christianity by missionaries, to the shaping of international law, to possibly being the single most significant incubator, refiner, and propagator of white supremacy in the history of the planet.

Through their conversation, Sathnam and Alan explore why a nuanced understanding of colonial history, clearly important for Britain today, has become so politically controversial – engendering backlash from the right and often taking a personal toll on writers and academics entering the debate.

We are at a point of unprecedented social change. Does this moment offer an opportunity to acknowledge and embrace Empire’s contradictions and paradoxes? Can we move beyond sterile monologues and embrace meaningful dialogues about history, identity and global legacies? Can Britain hope to have a productive future in the world without acknowledging what Empire did to the world in the first place?

Watch this recording and decide for yourself.

Covid-19: the importance of history in a global pandemic

Posted on: June 25th, 2024 by mlpEditor

What is the role of a historian in a health crisis? As Covid-19 became a full-blown pandemic in the spring of 2020, historians across the world produced rapid and imaginative responses, bringing historical perspectives to bear on how people and societies in the past responded to cholera, Spanish Flu, and more recently ebola. They paid much less attention to capturing and preserving the unfolding of Covid-19.

This talk draws on Stephanie Snow’s experience of leading a national oral history project on the UK’s National Health Service that metamorphosed into the creation of a national collection of Covid-19 testimonies in partnership with the British Library between 2020-2023.

History shows that individual and collective memory can fade rapidly after health crises. Recording testimonies in the moment plays a vital role in supporting individuals and communities to find meaning from their lived experiences in the face of complexity and uncertainty. It creates a permanent historical record of a crisis that captures societal responses that were not prominent in public narratives at the time. It also counters retrospective attempts to establish new public narratives of crisis for socio-political purposes.

Critiques of capturing experiences during crisis focus on the potential harm to participants. Stephanie’s talk will use evaluation data to show how such risks can be minimised if the work is undertaken in a supportive, responsive framework.

Should historians be as concerned with preserving the present as they are about exploring the past? Stephanie certainly thinks so. Join us to find out why.

How has British Imperialism shaped the modern world?

Posted on: June 11th, 2024 by mlpEditor

We’re delighted to welcome back acclaimed author, journalist and broadcaster Sathnam Sanghera for this special in conversation event with eminent historian Professor Alan Lester.

Sathnam’s seminal 2021 bestseller Empireland revealed how Empire continues to shape life in Britain today. Its inspired sequel Empireworld, published in 2024, takes a significant step further in examining the wider global significance of British Imperial power. Sathnam and Alan’s conversation will reflect on just how deeply British Imperialism remains baked into our world today.

Together, they will look at how the effects of Empire continue to be felt globally, shaping cities, cultures, and societies in profound ways. Alan Lester, a Professor of Historical Geography, will share his own and other specialist historians’ profound insights into the intricate relationship between colonial legacies and the contemporary debates surrounding them.

The event will offer a critical look at Empire’s lasting impact, both negative and positive, on the 2.6 billion inhabitants of former British Colonies. From the spread of Christianity by missionaries, to the shaping of international law, to possibly being the single most significant incubator, refiner, and propagator of white supremacy in the history of the planet.

Through their conversation, Sathnam and Alan will explore why a nuanced understanding of colonial history, clearly important for Britain today, has become so politically controversial – engendering backlash from the right and often taking a personal toll on writers and academics entering the debate.

We are at a point of unprecedented social change. Does this moment offer an opportunity to acknowledge and embrace Empire’s contradictions and paradoxes? Can we move beyond sterile monologues and embrace meaningful dialogues about history, identity and global legacies? Can Britain hope to have a productive future in the world without acknowledging what Empire did to the world in the first place?

Sathnam and Alan will discuss all of this and more. Don’t miss this very special event.

Northerners: From the Ice Age to the Present Day

Posted on: September 11th, 2023 by mlpEditor

How have northerners shaped the world we live in today?

Brian Groom, author of the bestselling Northerners: A History, From the Ice Age to the Present Day, will outline 180 million years of history showing how the north’s people have shaped Britain and the world in unexpected ways.

Manchester was at the heart of it, from the Roman era to becoming the nineteenth century’s ‘shock city’. Brian will show how the past echoes down the centuries and explore what northernness means today and the crucial role that Manchester and the north can play in Britain’s future.

Northern England, fashioned by waves of migration, invasions and battles, has had a profound impact on European culture and the global economy. It was not just the Industrial Revolution, viewed by economic historians as the key event in human history – and in which Manchester played a globally decisive role. At least six Roman emperors ruled for a period from the north. And the Anglo-Saxon kingdom of Northumbria was Europe’s leading cultural and intellectual centre.

Northern writers, activists, artists and comedians are celebrated the world over, from Wordsworth, the Brontes and Gaskell to LS Lowry, Emmeline Pankhurst and Peter Kay. St Oswald and Bede shaped the spiritual and cultural landscapes of Britain and Europe, and the world was revolutionised by the inventions of Richard Arkwright and the Stephensons. The north has exported some of sport’s biggest names and defined the sound of generations, from the Beatles to Britpop.

Join us at this Lit & Phil Local event to celebrate the history and future of the north, and northernness!

 

**This is a ‘Lit & Phil Local’ event. Priority booking is offered to local communities.**

Guided walk – Manchester and Slavery: abolitionists and manufacturers

Posted on: August 10th, 2023 by mlpEditor

Explore the contradictions of the eighteenth and nineteenth century city of Manchester with regard to slavery.

This walking tour looks at how Manchester and the slave trade were linked – and complements the recent publication of the UCLan report, ‘The Manchester Lit & Phil and the Transatlantic Slave Trade, 1780-1865’.

The tour passes sites associated with abolitionists determined to remove the stain of chattel slavery, and other locations where slave-picked cotton was used by manufacturers – some of whom were also abolitionists. It examines the contradictions of the eighteenth and nineteenth century city of Manchester with regard to slavery.

During the tour, stories of key individuals will be shared. These people include the Heywood and Gregg families, Thomas Clarkson, Thomas Percival (co-founder of the Lit & Phil), John Edward Taylor, John Bright, Frederick Douglass, Elizabeth Gaskell, Abel Heywood, William Andrew Jackson, amongst many others.

Key moments of the tour will include:

– the Thomas Clarkson speech which led to the first abolition petition from any British town or city in 1788

– the foundation of the Manchester Guardian in 1821

– confusion over the ship on the Manchester coat of arms granted in 1842

– the visit of Frederick Douglass in 1846

– the pro-Union city during the American Civil war in the early 1860s

Tour guide Jonathan Schofield’s commentary will be lively with a clear narrative, guaranteed.

 

Good to know: The walk will start at 2.30pm and finish around 4.30pm at the latest. We will meet outside Manchester Cathedral. Please arrive at least 10 minutes before the walk start time. The walk will finish at the Edwardian Hotel (formerly the Free Trade Hall).

Reparations for our slavery links – how might they work?

Posted on: August 10th, 2023 by mlpEditor

The battle for reparations for the illegal trafficking, torture, murder and exploitation of enslaved Africans during Britain’s slave-trading era is gaining traction. Influential organisations, institutions, and individual families have acknowledged their guilt and have offered to pay financial compensation.

Robert Beckford will argue that, while those who have diligently campaigned for reparations for over half a century welcome these developments, they should also be cautious.

His presentation will identify three areas of immediate concern. These are ‘miscalculation’ of the debt,’ the ‘erasure of Black campaign history’ and ‘hegemonic control of the compensation narrative.’

The lecture will also consider an alternative programme for meaningful restorative justice based on ‘liberative ethics,’ ‘constructive engagement’, and ‘historiographies of the underside.’

 

This event forms part of the Manchester Lit & Phil’s programme of events following the publication of the Report by researchers from the University of Central Lancashire’s Institute for Black Atlantic Research: ‘The Manchester Lit & Phil and the Transatlantic Slave Trade, 1780-1865’.

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