Manchester Cenotaph
The Cenotaph | |
---|---|
United Kingdom | |
For casualties of the First World War (modified to include the Second World War and the Korean War) | |
Unveiled | 12 July 1924 |
Location | 53°28′43″N 2°14′34″W / 53.4787°N 2.2429°W St Peter's Square, Manchester, England |
Designed by | Edwin Lutyens |
Listed Building – Grade II* | |
Official name | Manchester War Memorial |
Designated | 3 September 1974 |
Reference no. | 1270697 |
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.
Having picked a site, it was originally proposed to choose an architect by open competition, but the memorial committee was criticised in the local press when it reserved the right to overrule the judgement of the independent assessor. A sub-committee therefore approached
The memorial was unveiled on 12 July 1924 by the Earl of Derby, assisted by Mrs Bingle, a local resident whose three sons had died in the war. It cost £6,940 and the remaining funds were used to provide hospital beds.
In 2014, Manchester City Council dismantled the memorial and reconstructed it at the northeast corner of St Peter's Square next to Manchester Town Hall to make room for the expanded Metrolink tram network. It is a grade II* listed structure and in 2015, Historic England recognised Manchester Cenotaph as part of a national collection of Lutyens' war memorials.
Background
In the aftermath of the
Commissioning
Many towns and cities began to erect war memorials after
Three potential sites were considered for the memorial:
More controversy surrounded the choice of architect. The Manchester Art Federation and other bodies petitioned the city council to hold an open competition, to which the Council agreed. The war memorial committee appointed Percy Worthington, a local architect, as the assessor for the competition but attracted severe criticism in the local press when it reserved to itself the right to veto Worthington's choice. After further debate, a subcommittee approached Sir Edwin Lutyens,[9] and the competition collapsed. Conveniently, Lutyens assured the committee in August 1923 that his design could accommodate the cross and crypts remaining in place, while clearly distinct; and so this whole issue was deferred until after the cenotaph had been completed and dedicated.
Architect
Lutyens, described by
Lutyens designed the
Design
Manchester's war memorial is a cenotaph, flanked by twin obelisks, and a Stone of Remembrance, all in Portland stone on a raised coved platform.[10][14] The memorial covers an area of approximately 93 feet (28 metres) by 53 feet (16 metres).[7] The cenotaph is 32 feet (9.8 metres) high made from 160 long tons (160,000 kilograms) of Portland stone. The pylon is surmounted by a sculpture of an unknown soldier, partially covered by his greatcoat, lying on a catafalque. The pylon rises from the base in diminishing stages, narrowing as it rises. Below the catafalque, on the front and rear, are moulded swords and imperial crowns, and to the sides are Manchester's coat of arms surrounded by laurel wreaths. The cenotaph bears inscriptions below the coat of arms: "TO THE HONOURED MEMORY OF THOSE WHO GAVE THEIR LIVES FOR THEIR COUNTRY" (on the north-west side) and "O LORD GOD OF OUR FATHERS KEEP THIS/FOREVER IN THE IMAGINATION OF THE THOUGHTS OF THE HEART OF THY PEOPLE" (on the south east).[7][10][15][16] Identical, 23-foot (7-metre) high obelisks stand either side of the cenotaph[17][18] and the Stone of Remembrance is set in front. The stone, a monolith in the shape of an altar, is 12 feet (3.7 metres) long and subtly, aesthetically curved; it is devoid of decoration and inscribed, "THEIR NAME LIVETH FOR EVERMORE".[19][20]
Lutyens' design, with flanking objects, recumbent figure and a Stone of Remembrance set in front of the cenotaph, is reminiscent of his earlier cenotaph in Southampton. While other First World War memorials feature sculpture or overt religious symbolism, Manchester's, like many of his memorials, uses abstract and ecumenical shapes inspired by classical architecture. Its effigy of the unknown soldier raised high on the pylon rather than at eye level is reminiscent of ancient tower tombs. The sculpture's position high above eye level gives the soldier anonymity, complementing the abstract shapes of the structures and allowing an onlooker to project an image of their own choosing onto it,[21][22][23][24] and distances the viewer from the fact of the death and focuses on an idealised sense of self-sacrifice.[25]
The Pevsner City Guide to Manchester described the cenotaph as one of the few impressive war memorials in Manchester but, in its original site at western end of St Peter's Square, lamented its cluttered setting and proximity to the overhead powerlines of the Metrolink tram system.[16] The cenotaph, obelisks, and stone are features typical of Lutyens' war memorial work, although Manchester's is one of only two with flanking obelisks—Northampton's has a similar pair of obelisks flanking a Stone of Remembrance.[7][17][26][27]
-
Right obelisk
-
Cenotaph
-
Stone of Remembrance
-
Left obelisk
History
St Peter's Square already housed a memorial cross by Temple Moore marking the location of the former St Peter's Church, which had been demolished in 1907. The statutory trustees had agreed with the British Legion in recommending Albert Square as the memorial site; nevertheless the Bishop of Manchester, ex-officio chairman of the trustees, had subsequently indicated approval to relocating the cross and burials from St Peters Square, should this be needed to accommodate the war memorial. A full meeting of the trustees did not, however, endorse him in this. Lutyens provisionally resolved the stand-off by stating that he was happy for the cross to be retained; and the issue was adjourned until after the cenotaph had been erected.[6][16][28] Nevertheless, the impracticality of having a cross obscuring the view of the cenotaph for spectators became apparent at the dedication ceremony, and negotiations about relocating cross and burials recommenced; but the trustees remained reluctant and after further discussion Lutyens said he did not object to their remaining.[4] According to Tim Skelton, author of Lutyens and the Great War (2008), "the heated discussions resulted in a compromise that clearly show[ed]" as Moore's cross "severely impinged on the setting of the memorial and appear[ed] to be an integral part of it".[28]
Despite the war memorial committee's promise that local labour would be used, the monument was built by
The unveiling ceremony at Manchester took place in front of a large crowd and a guard of honour from the Manchester Regiment and ex-servicemen. The service was led by the Dean of Manchester, the Very Reverend Gough McCormick, and the Baptist minister Reverend John Edward Roberts of Union Chapel on Oxford Road. Several dignitaries gave speeches including the lord mayor and Lord Derby, who remarked that the memorial was not only a tribute to the dead but a warning as to the cost of war. After the unveiling, a procession of women laid flowers around the base of the memorial.[32][31] The remainder of the £10,000 raised by the war memorial committee was used to provide hospital beds for ex-servicemen and their families.[28] The controversies that arose during the memorial's gestation largely disappeared after its unveiling; the Manchester City News praised the design for its "simplicity of forms and rhythmic beauty of proportion".[5]
A marble plaque, added nearby and dedicated to "OUR ITALIAN COMRADES 1915–1918", was removed during the
Relocation
The suitability of St Peter's Square re-emerged in 1925 during discussions about the proposed art gallery and consideration was given to moving the cenotaph to Piccadilly.
The cenotaph was designated a grade II listed structure on 12 February 1985.[10] Listed status provides legal protection from demolition or modification; grade II is applied to about 92% of listed buildings of "special interest, warranting every effort to preserve them". It was upgraded in 1994 to grade II*, which is reserved for "particularly important buildings of more than special interest" and applies to about 5.5% of listed buildings. In November 2015, as part of commemorations for the centenary of the First World War, Manchester Cenotaph was recognised as part of the "national collection" of Lutyens' war memorials.[38][39]
See also
- Grade II* listed buildings in Greater Manchester
- Grade II* listed war memorials in England
- Listed buildings in Manchester-M2
References
Bibliography
- Amery, Colin; et al. (1981). Lutyens: The Work of the English Architect Sir Edwin Lutyens. London: ISBN 9780728703032.
- Barnes, Richard (2004). The Obelisk: A Monumental Feature in Britain. ISBN 9781872914282.
- Boorman, Derek (1988). At the Going Down of the Sun: British First World War Memorials. ISBN 9781850720416.
- Boorman, Derek (2005). A Century of Remembrance: One Hundred Outstanding British War Memorials. ISBN 9781844153169.
- ISBN 9780850523638.
- Brown, Jane (1996). Lutyens and the Edwardians. London: ISBN 9780670858712.
- Corke, Jim (2005). War Memorials in Britain. Oxford: ISBN 9780747806264.
- Carden-Coyne, Ana (2009). Reconstructing the Body: Classicism, Modernism, and the First World War. Oxford: ISBN 9780199546466.
- Hartwell, Clare (2002). Manchester. Pevsner City Guides. London: Penguin. ISBN 9780140711318.
- Hartwell, Clare; Hyde, Matthew; ISBN 9780300105834.
- King, Alex (1998). Memorials of the Great War In Britain: The Symbolism and Politics of Remembrance. Oxford: ISBN 9781859739884.
- O'Neill, Joseph (2014). Manchester in the Great War. ISBN 9781783376124.
- ISBN 9780712668224.
- Simpson, Andrew (2017). Manchester: Remembering 1914–18. ISBN 9780750978965.
- Skelton, Tim; Gliddon, Gerald (2008). Lutyens and the Great War. London: ISBN 9780711228788.
- ISBN 9781107661653.
- Wyke, Terry; Cocks, Harry (2004). Public Sculpture of Greater Manchester. Liverpool: ISBN 9780853235675.
Citations
- ^ O'Neil, pp. 17–18.
- ^ O'Neil, pp. 90–91.
- ^ a b Skelton, p. 63.
- ^ a b c d "Cenotaph". National Recording Project. Public Monuments and Sculpture Association. Archived from the original on 19 March 2017. Retrieved 18 March 2017.
- ^ a b c Carden-Coyne, pp. 116–117.
- ^ a b Hartwell (2004), p. 332.
- ^ a b c d Boorman (2005), pp. 112–113.
- ^ Skelton, pp. 63–64.
- ^ Skelton, pp. 64–65.
- ^ a b c d e f g h Historic England. "Manchester War Memorial (1270697)". National Heritage List for England. Retrieved 23 October 2016.
- ^ Borg, pp. 74–75.
- ^ "Thiepval Memorial". Commonwealth War Graves Commission. Retrieved 29 March 2016.
- ^ Historic England. "Midland Bank (1219241)". National Heritage List for England. Retrieved 29 March 2017.
- ^ Corke, p. 55.
- ^ Wyke, pp. 130–132
- ^ a b c d Hartwell (2002), p. 202.
- ^ a b Barnes, p. 118.
- ^ Boorman (1988), pp. 123–124.
- ^ Ridley, p. 278.
- ^ Skelton, p. 24.
- ^ Winter, pp. 102–104.
- ^ Borg, p. 96.
- ^ Amery et al., p. 148.
- ^ King, p. 139.
- ^ Carden-Coyne, p. 155.
- ^ Borg, p. 88.
- ^ Brown, p. 175.
- ^ a b c Skelton, p. 65.
- ^ a b "Manchester Cenotaph". War Memorials Register. Imperial War Museums. Retrieved 13 March 2017.
- ^ Carden-Coyne, p. 130.
- ^ a b Simpson, pp. 104–105.
- ^ "Manchester Memorial Bereaved mother assists in unveilling ceremony". Yorkshire Post and Leeds Intelligencer. 14 July 1924. p. 5. – via British Newspaper Archive (subscription required)
- ^ "Relocation, Relocation, Relocation A dignified setting for the Manchester Cenotaph" (PDF). North West Branch Newsletter. Institute of Historic Building Conservation. November 2014. p. 3. Retrieved 26 May 2017.
- ^ "Manchester's cenotaph 'could be moved'". BBC News. 8 March 2011. Retrieved 28 November 2020.
- ^ "Workmen start on cenotaph relocation". Manchester Evening News. 25 January 2014. Retrieved 13 March 2017.
- ^ "Fury as bizarre graffiti daubed on bench at newly restored cenotaph". Manchester Evening News. 30 September 2014. Retrieved 13 March 2017.
- ^ "Manchester's cenotaph to be monitored by 24-hour CCTV after £4,000 damage". Manchester Evening News. 6 October 2014. Retrieved 13 March 2017.
- ^ "The Listing and Grading of War Memorials". Historic England. July 2015. p. 2. Archived from the original on 21 October 2016. Retrieved 10 February 2017.
- ^ "National Collection of Lutyens' War Memorials Listed". Historic England. 7 November 2015. Retrieved 1 February 2016.