Acts of Achievement:
City Centre
BLACK HISTORY TRAIL
Chorlton on Medlock •
City Centre •
Hulme •
Moss Side •
Salford & Old Trafford •
Home • Your
History • Background
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| 1: Black Arts Alliance | |
| Black artists who were serious about Black culture established Black Arts Alliance (BAA) in 1985 following a conscious and concerted decision. They believed it was under-represented and therefore misrepresented, and wanted to do something positive about it. BAA is one of the Northwest’s foremost Black arts organisations and works with the Black arts to provide education, training, and entertainment that reflect Black culture and history in print, the spoken word and drama. BAA celebrates its twentieth anniversary in 2005, maintains a strong national and international network within the art fraternity and works with several other art organisations, projects and artists. It has developed and pioneered many flagship Black projects in Manchester and elsewhere. In recent years, it has been developing a Northwest program of activities to celebrate Black History Month – Acts of Achievements. Over the years, it has published artists’ work, held conferences and provided resources for artists. It is a constituted and registered charity with specialist provisions in the arts and for arts practitioners. |
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| 2: Band-on-the Wall | |
| This club has been well known for programming Black music in reggae, jazz, soul, R&B, among others in popular music, to the City centre for many decades. Band-on-the-Wall served an important function in supplying the Manchester diverse population with a mixed Black culture, represented by the music of Black artists. It is currently closed for massive redevelopment, and is expected to open again in 2007. |
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| 3: The Pumphouse Museum | |
| The People's History Museum is the national centre for the collection, conservation, interpretation, and study of material relating to the history of working people in Britain. The museum galleries are housed in the Pump House: a former Edwardian hydraulic pumping station, in Bridge Street, Manchester. They hold valuable information and artefacts that give accounts of the Black presence in Manchester. The collections help the visitor gain insight into the struggle that Black people in Manchester and the UK have had to overcome in order to gain the rights and appreciation they now have in modern Britain |
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| 4: Castlefield Fort | |
| The first mention of a Black African in Britain in the historical record is at a Roman military settlement at Carlisle, in ca. 210 AD. Shortly after, in the years 253-58 AD, a division raised in North Africa guarded Hadrian’s Wall on the Empire’s northern frontier. After the collapse of the Roman Empire, long-range trading and raiding sporadically brought Africans to these shores. Viking raiders took Moroccan captives to Ireland in the 9th century. The first authenticated African skeleton in the British archaeological record is that of a young girl buried at North Elmham in Norfolk, in ca. 1000 AD. Another associated historical site is that of Sambo’s Grave in Lancaster. Sambo's death is thought to have been in 1736, although another version of the story dates it at around 1720. Repeatedly vandalised, the grave now bears a plea for respect. MORE |
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| 5: Whitworth St | |
| Names such as India House are evidence of the city’s links with the profits of slavery. Naming buildings India, Africa and Asia house alongside street names such as Bombay, Nigeria etc brought home to the English that they had travelled the seas and acquired wealth and treasure in tradable goods and human chattels. Other structural examples are the Royal Exchange on Cross Street (now the theatre) and Corn Exchange at Hanging Ditch (now the Triangle) when they were used as originally intended. |
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| 6: Britannia Hotel | |
| A grade ll listed building dating back to 1858, Originally a warehouse , it is one of the greatest examples of the links between the toil of slaves (in this case picking cotton) and the labour of the English lower working class. Let us not forget that the worker bee is the symbol of Manchester, working until it dies from exhaustion for the benefit of the Queen (Bee). Many buildings still have the glass roofs on the upper floor where weavers would toil away for long hours at a stretch. Karl Schinkel's diaryrecording his 1825 visit to Manchester used the local name of "Cottonopolis" |
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| 7: Town Hall Albert Square | |
| Originally housing the city courts and where executions by hanging were carried out in the central court space. | |
| 8: Spring Gardens | |
| A large number of buildings, banks, and office complexes in this area of the city were built from the profit of the African Slave trade. In many of these buildings are architectural designs and images that can be traced to activities and cultures that merchants who travelled wanted to be on public display, as a part of their ostentatious lifestyles. |
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| 9: St Peters Square | |
| Built on the site of the 1819 Peterloo Uprising, its most notable Black connection is, of course, William Cuffay (1788-1870), a labour leader and prominent activist in the Chartist movement, who was convicted of insurrection and transported to Tasmania.More | |
| 10: BBC Regional Offices | |
| The African Caribbean Community assisted the BBC to pioneer and develop its community radio programme and build a relationship with the local community when it first launched the ventured early in 1970. Members from this community offered original programme ideas for broadcasting that were well received by listeners. |
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| 11: All Saints | |
| Site of the fifth Pan African Congress held in 1945. The fifth African congress of the Pan African Congress Movement (PACM) was held at the Chorlton -on-Medlock Town Hall in 1945. It was a significant meeting of African minds from across the globe. Racist treatment reinforced a sense of solidarity within the Diaspora. This found expression in the series of Pan-African meetings. The commemorative plaque (which is presently within a section of the Manchester Metropolitan University Humanities faculties) was a memorial which members of the African Caribbean communities in Manchester campaigned to have erected. read more about the fifth Pan African Congress In All Saints Park in 2001, a remembrance tree was planted, acknowledging the plight and plunder of Africa and her people. |
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| 12: Grosvenor Street | |
| This street once boasted a very vibrant economy, mainly in food and clubs/pubs developed by African Seamen. Students were among their major customers. |
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