Victoria Station … another story from Tony Goulding

This is “Sylvia” one of the Manchester Bees commissioned as Bee No. 41 of the “Bee in the City Sculpture Trail” in response to the bombing of the Manchester Arena on the 22nd May 2017. 

The decoration, green white and purple stripes give a clue to the question “who is Sylvia?” 

They were the colours adopted by the women’s suffrage movement and one of its leaders Old Trafford-born Sylvia Pankhurst. It is now located on the concourse of Victoria Station although it was originally in the Peoples History Museum. Designed and decorated by Sneaky Racoon.(1) 

It carries the inspirational words “Bee the Change” across its back and was sponsored by the trade union UNISON.

Close by is the semi-permanent memorial to the victims of the Arena bombing – the Manchester Angels.

These are the most recent, but by no means sole, points of historical interest at this 175-years-old station as adjacent to this memorial to the 22 “angels” is what has come to be known as The Soldiers Gate. 

It being the entrance used by tens of thousands of men embarking on trains which would eventually take them to the various killing fields of Flanders and the Dardanelles during World War 1, many not to return. 

In recent years, a door has been fitted to the gateway with a series of holes to represent a map of the Western Front with each one being the location of one of the cemeteries of The Commonwealth War Graves Commission containing over 1,000 graves. 

Their different sizes proportional to the number of graves or memorial names at that site.

The station is one of my favourite places in Manchester as despite it having been damaged during the Christmas Blitz of 1940 (and latterly by the I.R.A. bomb of Saturday 15th June, 1996) it has somehow retained some of its period features while also encapsulating the City’s ethos of continual change and renewal. 

There is the Metrolink interchange only yards from the wooden paneled booking office and the tiled map of the Lancashire and Yorkshire Railway’s Network.

The redevelopment of the station during the last decade has renewed interest in the historic Walkers Croft cemetery said to contain the remains of up to 40,000 people; many cholera victims. 

The cemetery was closed in 1832 and rather callously built over as the station expanded during the 19th century. 

The redevelopment of the 21st century has been more sensitive as remains found have been re-interred in Manchester’s Southern Cemetery and a plaque positioned to mark its existence.  

During recent trips through Victoria on the Metrolink Bury line I have noticed this building site adjacent to the platform and could not help wondering are there any bodies being uncovered?

Location; Manchester

Pictures; All pictures by Tony Goulding, 2020, except, 1940 bomb damage by J. B. Easton.m 63291 Courtesy of Manchester Library, Information and Archives, Manchester City Council. http://images.manchester.gov.uk/index.php?session=pass

Note:

1) Real name, Anna Mullin