On Market Street at the Clarion Cafe

I grew up with stories of the Clarion Cycling Club which for me was pretty exciting stuff.  

Very simply the idea was to “combine the pleasures of cycling with the propaganda of Socialism” and it arose from a meeting of six young men in Birmingham in 1894.

They regularly read The Clarion the socialist weekly paper started by Robert Blatchford four years earlier in Manchester which announced that it would follow a “policy of Humanity; a policy not of party, sect or creed; but justice, of reason and mercy.”  The first edition sold 40,000 copies and then settled down to about 30,000 a week.

In the same way the Clarion Cyclist Club went from one group to 30 by the end of the following year and 70 by 1897.  It was that potent mix of serious politics and fun.  As Tom Groom one of the founders said

"We are not neglectful of our Socialism, the frequent contrasts a cyclist gets between the beauties of nature and the dirty squalor of towns make him more anxious than ever to abolish the present system.”

And there were Clarion Cyclist Club houses which my old friend Lawrence had told me about, but what I didn’t know was that here in the centre of the city there was a Clarion Cafe and Restaurant.  It was my new pal Graham who first posted a picture of the pace to me and then followed it up with a wonderful collection of interior photographs.

The Cafe and restaurant was opened by Robert Blatchford on Saturday 31st October 1908 at 50a Market Street and continued till 1936.

“According to Harry Pollitt, the Cafe was the work of ‘skilled men from eighteen trades built decorated and furnished’

The salon was imposing with a Dutch fireplace and ceiling lantern ships lanterns and the walls decorated with oak panels.
William Morris's ‘A Kings Lesson’ was pictured in a frieze by the great artists Bernard Sleigh.  

The windows had coloured glass figures representing Justice, Knowledge, Progress and fraternity.


On the floor above the Clarion cafe was a large and luxurious Clarion clubroom, with murals by Walter Crane.”*

So over the next few days I shall be featuring pictures of the place.

*Manchester Clarion Cafe 1908-1936, hayes peoples history, http://ourhistory-hayes.blogspot.co.uk/2011/10/manchester-clarion-cafe-1908-1936.ht


Pictures; courtesy of Manchester Libraries, Information and Archives, Manchester City Council, Clarion Cafe, 1908, m57126, The Morris Room, 1908, m57128, 
http://images.manchester.gov.uk/index.php?session=pass