Category Archives: News

Ed Glinert will be giving a talk at the Portico Library in the evening of Thursday the 28th of October to mark the 200th anniversary of Thomas de Quincey’s “Confessions of An English Opium-Eater, the first major work of English literature to feature Manchester at length. Continue reading →

Today is the day in 1819 when sabre-wielding troops charged 60,000 Mancunians at a rally in St Peter’s Field called to lower the price of bread and demand the vote. More than a dozen people were killed and some 650 injured.

Join Ed Glinert on an expert TOUR relating the entire Peterloo story starting at 2.30pm from Central Library, St Peter’s Square.

The first few decades of the 19th century, enshrined in public imagination as the elegant age of the Regency, were a time of severe political repression in England. The Tory government, led by Lord Liverpool, feared that the kind of revolutionary activity recently witnessed in France would break out in England – probably in Manchester, where social conditions were so desperate – and decided to stamp out all dissent and free speech.

The government had been at war with France, which saw Wellington triumph over Napoleon’s forces at Waterloo in 1815.

But as Paul Foot once wrote, the British government was also waging war against its own people. Continue reading →

We have the most extensive range of tours of any walks organisation in the country, covering the city of Manchester in incredible detail, but even going as far as Knutsford, Alderley Edge, Wigan and Liverpool in our enthusiasm to deliver entertaining and exhilarating tours.

Please see the Calendar page on this website to discover what we do day by day.

For now we do a daily “Welcome to Manchester” at 1.30pm from the Visitor Centre in Piccadilly Gardens, but practically every day there’s a tour from our vast repertoire on … Continue reading →

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 →