Sackville Gardens is a public space 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 ...

, England. It is bounded by

Manchester College Manchester College might refer to: England * Manchester College, a former name of Harris Manchester College, Oxford *Manchester Metropolitan University, formerly Manchester Polytechnic, formed in 1977 by a merger between Manchester College of Art ...

's Shena Simon Campus on one side and

Whitworth Street Whitworth Street is a street in Manchester, England. It runs between London Road ( A6) and Oxford Street ( A34). West of Oxford Street it becomes Whitworth Street West, which then goes as far as Deansgate ( A56). It was opened in 1899 and is ...

, Sackville Street, the

Rochdale Canal The Rochdale Canal is in Northern England, between Manchester and Sowerby Bridge, part of the connected system of the canals of Great Britain. Its name refers to the town of Rochdale through which it passes. The Rochdale is a broad canal bec ...

and Canal Street on the others. The land was purchased by

Manchester Corporation Manchester City Council is the local authority for Manchester, a city and metropolitan borough in Greater Manchester, England. Manchester is the sixth largest city in England by population. Its city council is composed of 96 councillors, three f ...

in 1900 and laid out with walks, lawns and flower beds. Known as Whitworth Gardens, it was planned to complement the Municipal College of Technology's

Sackville Street Building The Sackville Street Building is a building on Sackville Street, Manchester, England. The University of Manchester occupies the building which, before the merger with UMIST in 2004, was UMIST's "Main Building". Construction of the building for ...

. It is regularly used for events, such as Village People and

Manchester Pride Manchester Pride is a leading charity that campaigns for LGBTQ+ equality across the United Kingdom, predominantly in Greater Manchester. The Charity offers dialogue, training, research and policy analysis, advocacy and outreach activities focus ...

, and as the meeting point each morning for Free Manchester Walking Tours.

Turing memorial

The gardens contain the

Alan Turing Alan Mathison Turing (; 23 June 1912 – 7 June 1954) was an English mathematician, computer scientist, logician, cryptanalyst, philosopher, and theoretical biologist. Turing was highly influential in the development of theoretical ...

memorial statue, which depicts the "father of modern computing" sitting on a bench at a central position in the park. Sculptor Glyn Hughes said the park was chosen as the location for the statue because "It's got the university science buildings...on one side and it's got all the gay bars on the other side, where apparently he spent most of his evenings." The statue was unveiled on 23 June, Turing's birthday, in 2001. It was conceived by Richard Humphry, a barrister from

Stockport Stockport is a town and borough in Greater Manchester, England, south-east of Manchester, south-west of Ashton-under-Lyne and north of Macclesfield. The River Goyt and Tame merge to create the River Mersey here. Most of the town is withi ...

, after seeing Hugh Whitemore's play ''

Breaking the Code ''Breaking the Code'' is a 1986 play by Hugh Whitemore about British mathematician Alan Turing, who was a key player in the breaking of the German Enigma code at Bletchley Park during World War II and a pioneer of computer science. The play th ...

'', and he set up the Alan Turing Memorial Fund in order to raise the necessary funds. Glyn Hughes, an industrial sculptor from Adlington near

Westhoughton Westhoughton ( ) is a town and civil parish in the Metropolitan Borough of Bolton, Greater Manchester, England, southwest of Bolton, east of Wigan and northwest of Manchester.China China, officially the People's Republic of China (PRC), is a country in East Asia. It is the world's List of countries and dependencies by population, most populous country, with a Population of China, population exceeding 1.4 billion, slig ...

. Turing is shown holding an apple, a symbol classically used to represent forbidden love, as well as being the fruit of the tree of knowledge, the object that inspired

Isaac Newton Sir Isaac Newton (25 December 1642 – 20 March 1726/27) was an English mathematician, physicist, astronomer, alchemist, Theology, theologian, and author (described in his time as a "natural philosophy, natural philosopher"), widely ...

's theory of gravitation, and the means of Turing's own death. The text on the bronze bench reads "Alan Mathison Turing 1912–1954" and "IEKYF ROMSI ADXUO KVKZC GUBJ". The latter is described by Glyn Hughes as "a motto as encoded by the German 'Enigma'". The original message is often given as "Founder of Computer Science", however this is unlikely as the Enigma ciphering system does not allow a letter to be enciphered to itself, while the fourteenth letter of that message (the "U" in "Computer") is the same as the fourteenth letter of the encoded inscription. A plaque at the statue's feet says "Father of Computer Science, Mathematician, Logician, Wartime Codebreaker, Victim of Prejudice", followed by a

Bertrand Russell Bertrand Arthur William Russell, 3rd Earl Russell, (18 May 1872 – 2 February 1970) was a British mathematician, philosopher, logician, and public intellectual. He had a considerable influence on mathematics, logic, set theory, linguistics, a ...

quotation: "Mathematics, rightly viewed, possesses not only truth but supreme beauty, a beauty cold and austere like that of sculpture." The sculptor buried his own old

Amstrad Amstrad was a British electronics company, founded in 1968 by Alan Sugar at the age of 21. The name is a contraction of Alan Michael Sugar Trading. It was first listed on the London Stock Exchange in April 1980. During the late 1980s, Amstra ...

computer (a popular early home computer) under the statue, as a tribute to "the godfather of all modern computers".

Beacon of Hope

The gardens also contains the Beacon of Hope, the UK's only permanent memorial for people living with HIV or

AIDS Human immunodeficiency virus infection and acquired immunodeficiency syndrome (HIV/AIDS) is a spectrum of conditions caused by infection with the human immunodeficiency virus (HIV), a retrovirus. Following initial infection an individual ma ...

and lives lost to it. The sculpture, a decorated steel column designed by Warren Chapman and Jess Boyn-Daniel, was erected in the year 2000. On

World AIDS Day World AIDS Day, designated on 1 December every year since 1988, is an international day dedicated to raising awareness of the AIDS pandemic caused by the spread of HIV infection and mourning those who have died of the disease. The acquired imm ...

a candlelight vigil generally takes place at the Beacon. For several years the vigil, the traditional closing event of the Manchester Pride LGBT celebration weekend, had been held at the city's Castlefield Arena, but because of the siting of the beacon, it was decided that the vigil should be held in the gardens. Following a highly successful event in 2002, organised by the Village Business Association, George House Trust took control of the vigil for EuroPride in 2003, in collaboration with Manchester City Council and local HIV/AIDS groups such as Body Positive North West, the Lesbian and Gay Foundation and the Black Health Agency. George House Trust no longer runs the vigil annually at Manchester Pride. During 2021 and 2022, community organisations worked together to refurbish the Beacon of Hope. This work included the repainting of the railings around the Beacon, re-gilding of lettering on the plinth, replacement of missing and broken mosaic tiles and repairs to the internal lighting inside the Beacon itself. The restoration project included George House Trust, Friends of Sackville Gardens,

Manchester City Council Manchester City Council is the local authority for Manchester, a city and metropolitan borough in Greater Manchester, England. Manchester is the sixth largest city in England by population. Its city council is composed of 96 councillors, three f ...

LGBT Foundation LGBT Foundation (formerly known as The Lesbian & Gay Foundation) is a national charity based in Manchester with a wide portfolio of services. With a history dating back nearly 40 years, it campaigns for a fair and equal society where all lesbian, ...

and

, supported by venues from across the Gay Village. The project has also been supported by

Greater Manchester Mayor The Mayor of Greater Manchester is the directly elected metro mayor of Greater Manchester, responsible for strategic governance in the region that includes health, transport, housing, strategic planning, waste management, policing, the Greate ...

’s LGBTQ+ Advisor,

Carl Austin-Behan Carl Jason Austin-Behan is a British former politician and community activist who currently serves as LGBT adviser to the Mayor of Greater Manchester. He served as Lord Mayor of Manchester from May 2016 to May 2017, being its first openly gay Lor ...

. In July, 2022 George House Trust held a re-dedication event of the Beacon of Hope HIV Memorial in Sackville Gardens.

Gallery

Image:Sackville Park looking toward UMIST building.jpg, Sackville Gardens looking toward the Sackville Building, University of Manchester Image:Sackville park from Whitworth Street entrance.jpg, Sackville Gardens seen from the Whitworth Street entrance Image:Manchester Sackville Park Map.jpg, Map showing location of Sackville Gardens

References

External links

Manchester City Council's page for the parkSci/Tech Computer's inventor snubbed by industry
(BBC News story)

(Manchester Evening News story) {{coord, 53, 28, 36, N, 2, 14, 09, W, type:landmark, display=title Parks and commons in Manchester Gardens in Greater Manchester