An Evening Talk with The Victorian Society

In this beautifully illustrated talk, incorporating many original documents, the untold story of Manchester’s extensive involvement in the Arts and Crafts movement will be revealed.

Manchester wasn't alone in setting up such a Guild though. Margaret Bennett, the Victorian Society South Yorkshire Secretary, will add a short postscript to this talk on what was happening in Sheffield around that time. In particular, the setting up of the Guild of St George in 1871 by John Ruskin and the Sheffield Artcrafts Guild in 1894.

William Morris was a frequent visitor to Manchester, and the only Morris & Co shop outside London was located opposite the city’s Alfred Waterhouse Town Hall. His now famous dictum: Do not have anything in your house that you do not know to be useful or believe to be beautiful, was first heard in Manchester.

The first of his explicitly socialist lectures Art, Wealth and Riches was delivered at the Manchester Royal Institution, now the City Art Gallery - it was not well received!

John Ruskin was also a frequent lecturer in the city, and Morris’s fellow art worker Walter Crane was Head of Design at the Manchester Municipal School of Art from 1893-1896.

The speaker Barry Clark is an experienced speaker and a retired Manchester Metropolitan University lecturer with a life-long interest in the Arts and Crafts movement. He will be selling and signing the beautiful book “The Northern Art Workers' Guild and the Arts and Crafts movement in Manchester” on the evening. It usually retails at £22 but will be reduced to £20 for this talk - payment by card, cash, or cheque.

Doors open at 19.00. Talk starts at 19.30.