The Black Lion pub isn't just famous for early John Cooper Clarke gigs and new cinemas. The original Showmen's Guild, to defend fairground workers, was founded from a meeting there in 1889, while in 1882 the Salford branch of the Social Democratic Federation was also born there.
The Black Lion is a good place to start a walk around the places that made Salford a hotbed of radicalism over the last 150 years. Via Blackfriars Street, The Crescent, Chapel Street and Greengate, walkees will see the sites where Marx and Engels drank and Mrs Pankhurst delivered speeches.
But while most of the bricks and mortar still stand, the social history is slowly being lost. And this walk and talk by top people's historian Michael Herbert, of Red Flag Walks, aims to bring it all back to life.
Bexley Square riots, radical printing presses, Chartist meetings, mass mill strikes and police raids – and just what went on at the T&G building on The Crescent before it became a block of flats?
The walk also takes in the site of Salford's Flat Iron Market, so-called because it was shaped like an iron, and the Church on King Street where Joseph Brotherton founded the Vegetarian Society.
"Salford has often been overshadowed by its near neighbour Manchester when it comes to looking at the history of radical movements and yet there is a rich history of Salford radicalism just waiting to be discovered" says Michael Herbert "I am very pleased to be working with the Black Lion pub in putting together and presenting this walk."
Radical Salford
Saturday 14th July 11am
Meet at The Black Lion Black Lion pub, 63 Chapel Street, Salford M3 5BZ. £6/£5
The walk will last two hours. Advance booking is strongly recommended as places are limited. Email: redflagwalks@gmail.com
* On Saturday 28th July there is another walk by Red Flag Walks around Radical Manchester, taking in the Co-operative movement, the Clarion newspaper, more Marx and Engels, the Siege of Manchester, the Manchester Guardian, the Jacobite risings, the radicals of the 1790s, the American Civil War and the Cotton Famine, the International Brigade, riots in Albert Square and Peterloo.
Meet at Robert Owen's statue, Coop Bank, Corporation Street 11am. Pre-booking is also advised for this walk. Email redflagwalks@gmail.com
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