The Peterloo Group was a group of poets, artists and writers in

Manchester Manchester () is a city in Greater Manchester, England. It had a population of 552,000 in 2021. It is bordered by the Cheshire Plain to the south, the Pennines to the north and east, and the neighbouring city of Salford to the west. The t ...

during the latter part of the 1950s. It had three founder members;

Robin Skelton Robin Skelton (12 October 1925 – 22 August 1997) was a British-born academic, writer, poet, and anthologist. Biography Born in Easington, East Riding of Yorkshire, Easington, Yorkshire, Skelton was educated at the University of Leeds and Cambr ...

, poet and professor of English at

Manchester University , mottoeng = Knowledge, Wisdom, Humanity , established = 2004 – University of Manchester Predecessor institutions: 1956 – UMIST (as university college; university 1994) 1904 – Victoria University of Manchester 1880 – Victoria Univer ...

Tony Connor John Anthony Connor (born 1930) is an English poet and playwright. Biography Tony Connor was born in Manchester, England. After leaving school at 14, he served in the British Army as a tank gunner, and worked as a textile designer between 1944 and ...

, poet and Michael Neville Seward Snow, painter. Their objective was to bring together the isolated people who were writing and working in the visual arts within the region, and to provide a forum for discussion and exhibition of their work.

Historical background

The first meeting was held in May 1957 in a hired room above the Town Hall Hotel, a Victorian gothic public house in Tib Lane adjacent to

Albert Square Walford is a fictional borough of east London in the BBC soap opera ''EastEnders''. It is the primary setting for the soap. ''EastEnders'' is filmed at Borehamwood in Hertfordshire, towards the north-west of London. Much of the location work i ...

, - and close to St Peter's Square where in 1819 the infamous

Peterloo Massacre The Peterloo Massacre took place at St Peter's Field, Manchester, Lancashire, England, on Monday 16 August 1819. Fifteen people died when cavalry charged into a crowd of around 60,000 people who had gathered to demand the reform of parliament ...

had taken place, and from which the group took its name. The first discussion was on the subject of ‘The Social Position of the Arts Today’. Meetings continued on a monthly basis with writers and artists talking about their work and inviting discussion. Amongst the poets leading meetings, were Tony Connor, Michael Dixon, David Dunn,

Michael Holroyd Sir Michael de Courcy Fraser Holroyd (born 27 August 1935) is an English biographer. Early life and education Holroyd was born in London, the son of Basil de Courcy Fraser Holroyd (a descendant of Sir George Sowley Holroyd, Justice of the King' ...

, John Knight, Jack Marriott, John McDonald, Robin Skelton, Margaret Snow, Noel Varney and Bernadette Wiseman. Several exhibitions of painting and sculpture were organized showing members work; the lounge of the nearby Library Theatre being a popular exhibition space. Exhibitors included Michael Snow, Tony Connor, Donald McKenna, Noel Varney and

Laurence Whitfield Laurence Whitfield (born 1938 in Manchester) is an English artist. He was a member of The Peterloo Group, and studied at Manchester College of Arts and Technology, Manchester Regional College of Art, now known as Manchester College of Arts and Tec ...

alongside works by the specially invited guests;

L. S. Lowry Laurence Stephen Lowry ( ; 1 November 1887 – 23 February 1976) was an English artist. His drawings and paintings mainly depict Pendlebury, Lancashire (where he lived and worked for more than 40 years) as well as Salford and its vicinity ...

and

Cliff Holden Cliff Holden FCSD (12 December 1919 – 20 April 2020) was a British painter, designer, and silk-screen printer. Holden was born in Manchester, England in December 1919 and educated at Wilmslow Modern School, followed by Reaseheath School of Ag ...

. By 1959 the group had gained considerable status in art ‘scene’ of Manchester, enhanced even more so with the co-operation of the University Extra-Mural Department and enabling the arrangement of events such as a public lecture by Sir Geoffrey Keynes on the work of

William Blake William Blake (28 November 1757 – 12 August 1827) was an English poet, painter, and printmaker. Largely unrecognised during his life, Blake is now considered a seminal figure in the history of the poetry and visual art of the Romantic Age. ...

. This co-operation, along with the support of the Vice Chancellor of the University, led to meetings between the group and interested parties from the City of Manchester and cleared the way for the formation of the Manchester Institute of Contemporary Arts (‘MICA’), and, with several members moving away from the City, the dissolution of the group in 1960.

References

*Ambit magazine, Edition # 10, 1961. {{DEFAULTSORT:Peterloo Group Culture in Manchester English artist groups and collectives Arts organizations established in 1957