People's History Museum

Two centuries of British working-class and labour movement history, free entry

Address Left Bank, Spinningfields, Manchester M3 3ER
Phone 0161 838 9190

The People's History Museum tells the story of British democracy and the labour movement from the 1780s to the present, and it does so with unexpected flair. The building itself — an Edwardian pump house beside the River Irwell — has been dramatically refitted, and the exhibition design is engaging rather than worthy. Free entry.

Manchester is the right city for this museum: the Peterloo massacre, the Chartist movement, the first trade unions, the Independent Labour Party — much of the political history of working-class Britain either happened here or has its deepest roots here. The banner collection is extraordinary, a visual record of the aspirations and struggles of people who rarely appear in conventional history. Allow two hours.

things to do museum
A story
The museum holds one of the world's largest collections of trade union banners — elaborate silk panels hand-embroidered with political imagery and carried on demonstrations from the 1830s onward. The Peterloo massacre of 1819, when cavalry charged a peaceful crowd of 60,000 people gathered on St Peter's Field to demand parliamentary reform, is documented here with particular power: the museum stands a short walk from where it happened.