St Peter's Square, Manchester

Last updated

St Peter's Square
At Manchester 2018 068.jpg
St Peter's Square in January 2018
Maintained by City of Manchester
Location Manchester, England, UK
Coordinates 53°28′40″N2°14′37″W / 53.47778°N 2.24361°W / 53.47778; -2.24361
Construction
Completion1930s

St Peter's Square is a public square in Manchester city centre, England. The north of the square is bounded by Princess Street and the south by Peter Street. To the west of the square is Manchester Central Library, Midland Hotel and Manchester Town Hall Extension. The square is home to the Manchester Cenotaph, the statue of Emmeline Pankhurst Rise up, Women , and St Peter's Square Metrolink tram stop and incorporates the Peace Garden. In 1819, the area around the square was the site of the Peterloo Massacre.

Contents

From 2010 to 2017, the square underwent significant redevelopment which entailed the restoration of Central Library and attached Library Walk link, the relocation of the Cenotaph to the rear of Manchester Town Hall, the creation of a new extended tram stop and the construction of two new office blocks to the south of the square; One St Peter's Square and Two St Peter's Square.

History

St Peter's Church, demolished 1907 St Peter's Church, Manchester 03.jpg
St Peter's Church, demolished 1907
A map of St Peter's Field and surrounding area on 16 August 1819 Map of Peterloo Massacre.png
A map of St Peter's Field and surrounding area on 16 August 1819

The area around St Peter's Square, then known as St Peter's Field, [1] was the site of the 1819 Peterloo Massacre. The name derives from St Peter's Church which was built in 1788-94 where the gardens are today and also gave its name to Peter Street. The church was built in the neoclassical style by the architect James Wyatt, and was once famous for its church music. It was demolished in 1907 and the Cenotaph replaced it in 1924. A stone cross (1908) commemorates the church. The square is the site for the city's Remembrance Day commemoration each year.

In the 1930s, the square was redeveloped around the construction of the Central Library and Town Hall Extension (1930–34).

In 1980, Manchester City Council declared Manchester a Nuclear-free city, and marked this designation by laying out a Peace Garden in the northern part of St Peter's Square. A statue was commissioned from the sculptor Barbara Pearson, Messenger of Peace, consisting of a seated bronze female figure surrounded by doves. It was installed in the new garden in 1986; shortly afterwards, the doves were stolen and had to be replaced. [2] [3]

In the later 20th century, as the city's transport network developed, St Peter's Square began to emerge as a potential location for a rapid transit station. In the 1970s, proposals for the Picc-Vic tunnel envisaged the construction of an underground railway station to serve both St Peter's and the neighbouring Albert Square. These plans were later abandoned. [4] The early proposals for an on-street light rail system in Manchester revived the idea of a station in the square, and the idea was retained as the project evolved, becoming a reality when the Metrolink system opened in 1992.

Redevelopment

Night view St Peters Square Manchester.jpg
Night view

In 2013, Manchester City Council approved plans for the redevelopment of the square, including the expansion of the Metrolink stop to four platforms. [5] This coincided with the construction of the One and Two St Peter's Square buildings and the refurbishment of Manchester Central Library, both adjacent to the square. Numerous archaeological finds were made when construction work uncovered the former crypt of the long-demolished St. Peter's Church, [6] which had a concrete raft built over it in order to safely construct the new tram lines. [7] The outline of the church is marked in the paving around the square.

The scheme involved using £20 million of public money, [8] moving the Cenotaph, demolishing an inter-war building to establish a new office quarter and closing Library Walk to the public. The Peace Garden was moved to a new location in nearby Lincoln Square, although it was decided not to retain the Messenger of Peace sculpture. [9] The plans were criticised as bland, unrealistic and private sector orientated rather than public orientated.[ citation needed ]

In response to the criticisms Darryl Lee, director of Mosley Street Ventures, said: "The developers have had lengthy and detailed discussions about their proposals with English Heritage and Manchester City Council, who have pronounced themselves happy with the scheme". An English Heritage spokesperson added: "Long before Century House was built, St Peter’s Square was envisaged as a grand civic space, and English Heritage feels that the Simpson scheme, taken with other developments which are under way, goes some way to realising that ambition. While we think that Century House makes a positive contribution to the conservation area, we feel that its loss is outweighed by the public benefits of the scheme." [10]

Rise up, Women , a statue of Emmeline Pankhurst, was unveiled on 14 December 2018 to commemorate 100 years since women were first allowed to vote in United Kingdom general elections. [11]

Monuments and statues

Manchester Cenotaph

This is the work of Sir Edwin Lutyens and has similarities to the Cenotaph in Whitehall, London. It was inaugurated in 1924 and the ceremonies of Remembrance Day have been observed here annually since then. In 2014 the cenotaph was relocated to the north-east end of the square; opposite the Cooper Street entrance to the Town Hall.

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Emmeline Pankhurst</span> British suffragette (1858–1928)

Emmeline Pankhurst was a British political activist who organised the British suffragette movement and helped women to win in 1918 the right to vote in Great Britain and Ireland. In 1999, Time named her as one of the 100 Most Important People of the 20th Century, stating that "she shaped an idea of objects for our time" and "shook society into a new pattern from which there could be no going back". She was widely criticised for her militant tactics, and historians disagree about their effectiveness, but her work is recognised as a crucial element in achieving women's suffrage in the United Kingdom.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Manchester Piccadilly station</span> Railway station in Manchester, England

Manchester Piccadilly is the main railway station of the city of Manchester, in the metropolitan county of Greater Manchester, England. Opened originally as Store Street in 1842, it was renamed Manchester London Road in 1847 and became Manchester Piccadilly in 1960. Located to the south-east of the city centre, it hosts long-distance intercity and cross-country services to national destinations including London, Birmingham, Nottingham, Glasgow, Edinburgh, Cardiff, Bristol, Exeter, Plymouth, Reading, Southampton and Bournemouth; regional services to destinations in Northern England including Liverpool, Leeds, Sheffield, Newcastle and York; and local commuter services around Greater Manchester. It is one of 19 major stations managed by Network Rail. The station has 14 platforms: 12 terminal and two through platforms. Piccadilly is also a major interchange with the Metrolink light rail system with two tram platforms in its undercroft.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Manchester Metrolink</span> Tram system in Greater Manchester, England

Manchester Metrolink is a tram/light rail system in Greater Manchester, England. The network has 99 stops along 64 miles (103 km) of standard-gauge route, making it the most extensive light rail system in the United Kingdom. Over the 2023/24 financial year 42 million passenger journeys were made on the system.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Manchester city centre</span> Central business district in Manchester, Greater Manchester, England

Manchester City Centre is the central business district of Manchester, in Greater Manchester, England, within the confines of Great Ancoats Street, A6042 Trinity Way, and A57(M) Mancunian Way, which collectively form an inner ring road. The City Centre ward had a population of 17,861 at the 2011 census.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Stretford</span> Town in Greater Manchester, England

Stretford is a market town in Trafford, Greater Manchester, England, sited on flat ground between the River Mersey and the Manchester Ship Canal; the Bridgewater Canal bisects the town. The town is located 4 miles (6.4 km) south of Manchester, 3 miles (4.8 km) south of Salford and 4 miles (6.4 km) north-east of Altrincham. Stretford borders Chorlton-cum-Hardy to the east, Moss Side and Whalley Range to the south-east, Hulme to the north-east, Urmston to the west, Salford to the north and Sale to the south. In 2011 it had a population of 46,910.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Albert Square, Manchester</span> Public square in Manchester, England

Albert Square is a public square in the centre of Manchester, England. It is dominated by its largest building, the Grade I listed Manchester Town Hall, a Victorian Gothic building by Alfred Waterhouse. Other smaller buildings from the same period surround it, many of which are listed.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Piccadilly Gardens</span> Public park in Manchester, England

Piccadilly Gardens is a green space in Manchester city centre, England, on the edge of the Northern Quarter.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Free buses in Greater Manchester</span>

Free bus is a zero-fare bus system that operates in Greater Manchester. The system was first introduced in Manchester city centre in 2002, with three routes linking the city's major thoroughfares and stations with its main commercial, financial and cultural districts.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">St Peter's Square tram stop</span> Manchester Metrolink tram stop

St Peter's Square is a tram stop in St Peter's Square in Manchester city centre, England. It opened on 27 April 1992 and is in Zone 1 of Greater Manchester's Metrolink light rail system.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Picc-Vic tunnel</span> Proposed underground railway in Manchester, England

Picc-Vic was a proposed, and later cancelled, underground railway designed in the early 1970s with the purpose of connecting two major mainline railway termini in Manchester city centre, England. The name Picc-Vic was a contraction of the two key station names, Manchester Piccadilly and Manchester Victoria. The proposal envisaged the construction of an underground rail tunnel across Manchester city centre. The scheme was abandoned in 1977 during its proposal stages due to Westminster's lack of willingness to invest in Manchester. The view was that the scheme still retained two large and expensive-to-maintain terminal stations in Manchester while other similarly sized cities had reduced their terminals to one.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Deansgate-Castlefield tram stop</span> Manchester Metrolink tram stop

Deansgate-Castlefield is a tram stop on Greater Manchester's Metrolink light rail system, on Deansgate in the Castlefield area of Manchester city centre. It opened on 27 April 1992 as G-Mex tram stop, taking its name from the adjacent G-Mex Centre, a concert, conference and exhibition venue; the G-Mex Centre was rebranded as Manchester Central in 2007, prompting the Metrolink stop to be renamed on 20 September 2010. The station underwent redevelopment in 2014–15 to add an extra platform in preparation for the completion of the Second City Crossing in 2016–17.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Margaret Ashton</span> English suffragist, politician, pacifist and philanthropist

Margaret Ashton was an English suffragist, local politician, pacifist and philanthropist, and the first woman city councillor for Manchester.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">History of Manchester Metrolink</span>

The history of Manchester Metrolink begins with its conception as Greater Manchester's light rail system in 1982 by the Greater Manchester Passenger Transport Executive, and spans its inauguration in 1992 and the successive phases of expansion.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Manchester Cenotaph</span> World War I memorial

Manchester Cenotaph is a war memorial in St Peter's Square, Manchester, England. Manchester was late in commissioning a First World War memorial compared with most British towns and cities; the city council did not convene a war memorial committee until 1922. The committee quickly achieved its target of raising £10,000 but finding a suitable location for the monument proved controversial. The preferred site in Albert Square would have required the removal and relocation of other statues and monuments, and was opposed by the city's artistic bodies. The next choice was Piccadilly Gardens, an area already identified for a possible art gallery and library; but in the interests of speedier delivery, the memorial committee settled on St Peter's Square. The area within the square had been had been purchased by the City Council in 1906, having been the site of the former St Peter's Church; whose sealed burial crypts remained with burials untouched and marked above ground by a memorial stone cross. Negotiations to remove these stalled so the construction of the cenotaph proceeded with the cross and burials in situ.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Exchange Square tram stop</span> Manchester Metrolink tram stop

Exchange Square is a tram stop on the Manchester Metrolink's Second City Crossing line, and opened on 6 December 2015 as part of Phase 2CC of the network's expansion. It is located by the main entrance to the Manchester Arndale shopping centre, and is also close to the Printworks.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Manchester station group</span> Four stations in Manchester, England

The Manchester station group is a station group of four railway stations in Manchester city centre, England; this consists of Manchester Piccadilly, Manchester Oxford Road, Manchester Victoria and Deansgate. The station group is printed on national railway tickets as MANCHESTER STNS. For passengers travelling from one of the 91 National Rail stations in Greater Manchester, the four stations are printed as MANCHESTER CTLZ which additionally permits the use of Metrolink tram services in Zone 1.

This timeline lists significant events in the history of Greater Manchester's light rail network called the Manchester Metrolink.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">British Rail Class 316 (Picc-Vic)</span>

The British Rail Class 316 was a proposed type of electric multiple unit intended for use on planned urban rail services in Greater Manchester. Intended as part of the family of EMUs descended from the prototype "PEP" stock, the class was never proceeded with as the planned services for which it was to be built were cancelled.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Zone 1 (Manchester Metrolink)</span>

Zone 1 of the Manchester Metrolink light rail network is the heart of the system where all of the other lines converge. Its boundaries approximately mirror the city's Inner Ring Road. Within Zone 1, first opened in 1992 as the City Zone, trams largely run along semi-pedestrianised streets rather than on their own separate alignment.

<i>Rise up, Women</i> (Emmeline Pankhurst statue) Bronze sculpture in St Peters Square, Manchester depicting Emmeline Pankhurst

Rise up, Women, also known as Our Emmeline, is a bronze sculpture of Emmeline Pankhurst in St Peter's Square, Manchester. Pankhurst was a British political activist and leader of the suffragette movement in the United Kingdom. Hazel Reeves sculpted the figure and designed the Meeting Circle that surrounds it.

References

  1. Revived by recent developers as 'Peter's Fields' for the area to the west.
  2. Wyke, Terry; Cocks, Harry (1 January 2004). Public Sculpture of Greater Manchester. Liverpool University Press. pp. 65–66. ISBN   978-0-85323-567-5 . Retrieved 7 November 2024.
  3. Coyle, Simon (14 April 2015). "Manchester public art: Messenger Of Peace on Cooper Street". Manchester Evening News. Retrieved 7 November 2024.
  4. SELNEC PTE (October 1971), SELNEC Picc-Vic Line, SELNEC PTE publicity brochure
  5. Tom Brooks-Pollock (18 January 2013). "Manchester Cenotaph to be moved to make way for new look St. Peter's Square - Manchester Evening News". Menmedia.co.uk. Retrieved 23 February 2014.
  6. Helen Heath (15 February 2017). "Bishop of Manchester rededicates cross in St Peter's square". thenorthernquota.org. Retrieved 14 March 2020.
  7. "A greener future for St. Peter's Square" (PDF). TfGM. Archived from the original (PDF) on 29 September 2016.
  8. Manchester Evening News (14 September 2009). "Manchester square to be made 'traffic free'".
  9. Williams, Jennifer (31 May 2018). "Lincoln Square set to become a peace garden in £4m plan to make neglected plaza a 'calm space'". Manchester Evening News. Retrieved 7 November 2024.
  10. "Critics hit out at Ian Simpson's St Peter's Square office plans". Architects Journal. 16 May 2013. Retrieved 12 April 2014.
  11. "Suffragette statues mark 100 years of women's first vote". BBC News. 14 December 2018. Retrieved 14 December 2018.