Wednesday the 19th of March from 18:00 at Altogether Otherwise
'A Grand Place to Escape From'

‘It is a well-known paradox that love of nature is the strongest in places from which nature has been most resolutely thrown out.’

Written in 1906, these words from the Manchester Guardian are as pertinent today as they were at the turn of the century. The city of Manchester is in constant flux; new developments are met with a responsibility and a need to preserve, protect and provide opportunities for its people to enjoy green space. In this talk, Curator Helen Antrobus explores Manchester in the early twentieth century, and the necessity to access ‘nature’sbeauties’. From parks, allotments and flower shows, to cycling, socialism, and trespass, A Grand Place to Escape From looks at the routes – both cultural and physical - that working people in Manchester took to access green space.

Helen Antrobus is Assistant National Curator for cultural heritage at the National Trust. Her current research interests include social activism and access to rural landscapes and the lives of female conservationists between 1900 and 1945. In 2022, she co-curated Beatrix Potter: Drawn to Nature at the Victoria and Albert Museum. In 20218, she curated Represent: Voices 100 Years on at the People’s History Museum. Her first book, First in the Fight: Women Who Made Manchester was published in 2019.