St. Peter's Square may now be a peaceful space overlooked by historical buildings – but it was once the site of an atrocity that shook Manchester and Britain.
St. Peter's Square is one of the most historic sites in the city, framed by three illustrious buildings – Manchester Central Library, the Midland Hotel and Manchester Town Hall – and stained by an infamous massacre. The Peterloo Massacre of 1819, where 15 people killed by sword-wielding cavalryman, became the rallying-call for democratic change in the country. Now this is a square both for refection and enlightenment. Monuments to the city's war dead are here, as is a Peace Garden, and a plaque to the Peterloo Massacre. So is the highly regarded Central Library, the first free public library in the country. But while the history and monuments may suggest quiet reflection, St. Peter's Square isn't entirely tranquil these days. There is a busy Metrolink tram station here, and the square is often filled with office workers on a break from the nearby Town Hall.St. Peter's Square gets its name from St. Peter's church, built here in 1788 when the city was yet to expand and much of the area was still open fields. That made it a natural gathering point for the mass meeting that Manchester's reformists called in 1819. At the time, after the Napoleonic wars, times were hard for the city's people, and the local politics corrupt. The 60,000 demonstrators were calling for more people to be given the vote and for parliament to be reformed. The local magistrates saw that as treason, and sent in the cavalry. The name 'Peterloo' arose when journalists compared events that day, in St. Peter's Field, to the recent Battle of Waterloo. The Square has changed much since then. The under-used church was pulled down, and the Square gained the splendours of the red-and-pink Victorian Midland Hotel, in the 1900s, the neoclassical dome of the Central Library, in the 1930s, and the neo-Gothic Town Hall extension shortly after.And St. Peter's Square is not standing still today. A redevelopment of the Library and Square is on-going and the somewhat ugly 1960s buildings on its eastern side being replaced. So the city's residents are looking forward to when St. Peter's Square in unwrapped from its hoardings – and the square that helped define this city is returned to them, newly refurbished.
