Manchester Cenotaph
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Town Hall Extension, Albert Square, Manchester M2, UK Print route »
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Manchester Cenotaph is a First World War memorial, with additions for later conflicts, designed by Sir Edwin Lutyens for St Peter's Square in Manchester, England. Manchester was late in commissioning a war memorial compared to most British towns and cities—the city council did not convene a war memorial committee until 1922. The committee quickly raised £10,000 but finding a suitable location for the monument proved controversial. The preferred site in Albert Square required the removal and relocation of several statues, and was opposed by the city's artistic community. The next choice was Piccadilly Gardens, an area ripe for development, but in the interests of expediency, the council chose St Peter's Square, although it already contained a stone cross commemorating the former St Peter's Church. Negotiations to move the cross were unsuccessful and the cenotaph was built with the cross in situ.
The choice of architect was initially to be decided by open competition, but the committee was criticised in the local press when it reserved the right to overrule the result. It abandoned the competition and approached Lutyens, who produced a variation of his design for his cenotaph in London. The memorial consists of a central cenotaph and a Stone of Remembrance flanked by twin obelisks, all features characteristic of Lutyens' works. The cenotaph is topped by an effigy of a fallen soldier and decorated with relief carvings of the imperial crown, Manchester's coat of arms and inscriptions commemorating the dead. The structures, based on classical architecture, use abstract, ecumenical shapes rather than overt religious symbolism. 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 northwest 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.
