In 1781, just as Manchester was starting to become an industrial giant, with thunderous machines, canals packed with activity, brass works, iron foundries and coal mines, a group of local merchants and freethinkers founded the Manchester Literary and Philosophical Society to debate ideas and attitudes. The growing metropolis would be a haven of thought as well as commerce. The Lit & Phil has since nurtured the city’s writing and debating.
Ed Glinert, Manchester’s most prolific tour guide, has devised an ingenious guided tour linking the great literary stories of Manchester with places and events that saw new ways of thinking influencing society. The tour begins outside the Lit & Phil’s traditional home, 36 George Street, Chinatown, the building where John Dalton devised atomic theory in 1803, no longer standing, and takes in a host of key sites:
- The Portico Library, to hear about the glorious flights of fancy of Thomas de Quincey.
- Central Library, built to resemble the Pantheon – of London.
- The Free Trade Hall, the only building in England “dedicated to a proposition” (A. J. P. Taylor).
- The Hidden Gem Church. Why was Catholicism banned in England for more than two hundred years?
- The former Swedenborgian church, dedicated to one of the most influential thinkers of the 18th century.
- The Chartist Plaque.
- Cross Street Chapel (the Lit & Phil’s first home.)
- Other relevant sites, and ends at the Wellington Inn, 18th century birthplace of John Byrom, the first Mancunian to be invited to join the Royal Society, who founded the Kabbalah Club to discuss the numerical pattern of the universe.
Location
6pm – Tour Begins:
36 George St, Manchester, M1 4HA
8pm – Tour Ends:
4 Cathedral Gates, Greater, Manchester M3 1SW
