What's on

Ballads and Songs of Peterloo, with Dr Alison Morgan

Performance Space

Ballads and Songs of Peterloo by Dr Alison Morgan is based on her unique collection of more than seventy poems and ballads which highlight the outrage, grief, defiance and resolution felt by labouring-class people in the immediate aftermath of the Peterloo Massacre in which eighteen people were killed and more than 600 injured as they […]

Trace Your Peterloo People

Join us in a full day of discovery at our Peterloo focused genealogy open day.  Book a 30 minute 1-1 session with a member of the Manchester and Lancashire Family History Society (MLFHS) and delve into the wealth of resources to start you off on your own family tree, or help break through a brick […]

Queer

Performance Space

Manchester Histories are proud to present “Queer”, a platform showcasing some of the ways that LGBT+ communities and their allies have stood strong for protest, democracy and freedom of speech. We invite you to: hear the story of Manchester’s Clause 28 protest march, the history of one of the most important queer publications in Manchester, […]

Peterloo Event Day

Performance Space

The Manchester & Lancashire Family History Society host a special Peterloo Event Day. From 10.30am – 12pm, Ed Glinert, Manchester tour guide, will speak about Peterloo.  Ed has worked with Mike Leigh and also the great radical activist Paul Foot.  Ed has been talking, walking, reading, thinking, sleeping, writing, giving lectures and guided tours about […]

1819-1981 Exhibition

Performance Space

Linda Brogan, Excavating The Reno, who excavated the Reno cellar club in Moss Side MCR, and Manchester Histories have joined forces to present 1819 – 1981. This one day exhibition (running on Sat 15 June, Thurs 18 July and Tues 13 Aug) will tell the stories of the memoirs of police and communities from the 1981 […]

Peterloo: Witnesses to a Massacre

Performance Space

Join the authors of the verbatim graphic novel 'PETERLOO: Witnesses to a Massacre' for an illustrated, behind the scenes look into the research, writing and art that went into this historically accurate and visually vivid account of the 1819 massacre of pro democracy reformers from around the Greater Manchester region. 'This amazing artwork makes a […]

Saturday Spectacular

Media Lounge

Join us to make posters to mark the 200th anniversary of the Peterloo Massacre using pens, inks and quills. Join in with our board game challenge and much more. Free - please drop in

The Riot Act

Performance Space

Written by Rob Johnston. On August 12th 1842, just 23 years after The Peterloo Massacre, Lancashire cotton-workers again marched in protest at appalling pay and conditions. Reaching Preston’s Lune Street the protesters were confronted by the authorities and read The Riot Act. A gripping mix of tragedy and humour from the WINNER of BEST DRAMA […]

£5

Remembering Resistance: A Century of Women’s Protest in the North of England

Performance Space

Remembering Resistance is bringing to life the history of women’s protest in the North of England.  The project is celebrating and cataloguing women’s efforts to bring about political change over the last 100 years by creating an archive of women’s activism to inspire future generations. To ensure the voices of women who have been involved […]

The Peaceful Weavers of Peterloo

Performance Space

An original production, written and performed by Charlotte Peters Rock, telling aspects of this important history, in songs and stories. The legacy of The Peaceful Weavers of Peterloo, has continued unabated, over the last 200 years. They wanted to feed, clothe, safely house and educate themselves and their children.The weavers (and other reformers) wanted the vote and […]

Retro Silent Disco

Performance Space

GET UP, STAND UP, STRUT YOUR FUNKY STUFF! The Retro Silent Disco is back by popular demand this July, Dance the night away in the brilliant Central Library to classic hits from the seventies, eighties and nineties. Bar open all evening. Doors Open 8pm. 18 and over.

£6

Peterloo Liberty Cap Workshop

Performance Space

Help revive the Peterloo liberty cap as a symbol of freedom and democracy by making your own with professional artists Paul Fitzgerald and Eva Schlunke. These will then become part of a sea of raised liberty caps for a mass participation art event during the August 2019 Peterloo Bicentenary commemorations in Manchester.