Author Archives: ed

16 August 1819. A peaceful meeting of some 60,000 people at St Peter’s Fields, where the Free Trade Hall and the Theatre Royal are now, called to demand the right to vote, was attacked by the military. A dozen were killed on the spot, more died of their injuries. The injured numbered 650.

The build-up to the day, the dramatic events that took place, the remarkable aftermath…Ed Glinert will capture all this on the two tours taking place this Wednesday, the 16th of August. The evening tour takes place after the reading of the names of the victims.
Please book on Eventbrite. Continue reading →

It was Britain’s first industrial suburb, a land of massive mills, smoking chimneys, mean terraced housing with ne’er a tree or blade of grass in sight. That was 1820. Now in 2020 it has been reborn as the main mighty meme of Manchester, high-life Central, with a high-maintenance history. Here is a hit of hot history from the ’hood.
* Next tour is FREE: Sat 13 November 2021, 11am from the Band on the Wall. Continue reading →

Many apologies for cancelling today’s (Sat 31 July) “Marx & Engels in Manchester” tour. A leaky boiler meant that I had to stay in for the afternoon. The re-arranged date is Sat 28 August, also at 2.30pm, and from the Engels statue outside HOME. Please use your tickets for that or for any alternative walk – Ed. New bookings can be made in the main body of this piece. Continue reading →

Sorry folks, it just doesn’t work in bad weather as it’s so open.

Please use your ticket for the next date in September, or alternatively use it for any tour of your choice. Continue reading →

Next walks
* Sat 3 Sep, Le Corbusier’s Manchester. Meet 11am by the Visitor Centre.
* Sat 3 Sep Hitler’s Plans for Manchester. Meet 2pm at Victoria Station wallmap.
* Sun 4 Sep, The Grand Canals of Manchester (East). Meet 1.30pm at the Malmaison Hotel.
* Mon 5 Sep, Manchester Cathedral & Chetham’s. Meet 2pm at Victoria Station wallmap.
* Tue 6 Sep, John Dalton’s Manchester (250 years since his birth). Meet at the Art Gallery, 11.30am.
* Wed 7 Sep, Angel Meadow. Meet 6pm at Victoria Station wallmap.
* Thu 8 Sep, The Hidden Gems of Manchester. Meet 11am by the Visitor Centre.
* Thu 8 Sep, The Grand Hotels of Manchester. Meet 2.30pm by the Visitor Centre.
* Fri 9 Sep, Lost Manchester. Meet 11.30am at the Victoria Station wallmap.
* Fri 9 Sep, The Mysterious Manchester pub walk. Meet 6pm at the Victoria Station wallmap. Continue reading →

Every July we celebrate the Bridgewater Canal, Britain’s first industrial man-made waterway, which opened on the 17th of July 1761 and soon connected Manchester with the coal mines of Worsley. So join Ed Glinert, Manchester’s leading historian, to explore the waters, banks, sites and sights alongside.  Continue reading →

This tour is the big one for anybody new to the city or just looking to be refreshed at parts you have reached before.

“Welcome to Manchester” is the ideal walk – a taster, a teaser, a trip through town on a timeless tourist trail.

It’s a best of everything, taking in the old and the new, the ancient and the artful, the glamorous and the glorious.

* The tour has been devised by official Manchester tour guide Ed Glinert, author of Penguin’s Manchester Compendium and the forthcoming Manchester Encyclopaedia. Continue reading →

Ed Glinert is delivering a talk on the Town Hall Ford Madox Brown Murals on Tuesday 10 July 5.30pm at Manchester Central Library. 

This is a very rare opportunity to have the paintings explained by Manchester’s most prolific tour guide, who has spent an eternity studying the paintings, while the Town Hall is shut. Continue reading →

I know we live in strange times, and are surrounded by lots of unexplained phenomena, like how anyone thought Liz Truss should be leader of the Tory party and PM, and why Chelsea or anyone would appoint Frank Lampard as manager, but some of the stuff I’ve had to endure this week has been strange even by the usual odd guiding standards. On Wednesday some 16 people booked for the Secret History tour. Two turned up. Continue reading →

If football is, as many are alleging, “coming home”, where is it coming home to? It can’t be Wembley Stadium; not the new Wembley, that concrete monstrosity which has replaced the 1966 World Cup winning stadium and Owen Williams’ beautiful twin towers, unnecessarily demolished. It can’t be any individual club ground. No, the only place I can think of that is the true home of football is the place where the Football Association, the world’s first such body in the modern era, was founded: the Freemason’s Tavern on Long Acre, Covent Garden, London (now the Connaught Rooms). It was there… Continue reading →