Sackville Gardens is a public space in

Manchester Manchester () is a city and the metropolitan borough of Greater Manchester, England. It had an estimated population of in . Greater Manchester is the third-most populous metropolitan area in the United Kingdom, with a population of 2.92&nbs ...

, England. It is bounded by Manchester College'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 be ...

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

Manchester Corporation Manchester City Council is the local authority for the city of Manchester in Greater Manchester, England. Manchester has had an elected local authority since 1838, which has been reformed several times. Since 1974 the council has been a metropol ...

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

Manchester Pride Manchester Pride is a Charity (practice), charity that campaigns for LGBT, LGBTQ+ Equality Act 2010, equality across the United Kingdom, predominantly in Greater Manchester. The Charity offers dialogue, training, research and policy analysis, a ...

, 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. He was highly influential in the development of theoretical computer ...

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 in Greater Manchester, England, south-east of Manchester, south-west of Ashton-under-Lyne and north of Macclesfield. The River Goyt, Rivers Goyt and River Tame, Greater Manchester, Tame merge to create the River Mersey he ...

, after seeing Hugh Whitemore's play ''

Breaking the Code ''Breaking the Code'' is a 1986 British 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. 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 List of towns in England, 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. With population of China, a population exceeding 1.4 billion, it is the list of countries by population (United Nations), second-most populous country after ...

. 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 () was an English polymath active as a mathematician, physicist, astronomer, alchemist, theologian, and author. Newton was a key figure in the Scientific Revolution and the Age of Enlightenment, Enlightenment that followed ...

'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 philosopher, logician, mathematician, and public intellectual. He had influence on mathematics, logic, set theory, and various areas of analytic ...

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 plc was a British consumer electronics company, founded in 1968 by Alan Sugar. During the 1980s, the company was known for its Home computer, home computers beginning with the Amstrad CPC and later also the ZX Spectrum range after the ...

computer (a popular early

home computer Home computers were a class of microcomputers that entered the market in 1977 and became common during the 1980s. They were marketed to consumers as affordable and accessible computers that, for the first time, were intended for the use of a s ...

) 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 The human immunodeficiency viruses (HIV) are two species of '' Lentivirus'' (a subgroup of retrovirus) that infect humans. Over time, they cause acquired immunodeficiency syndrome (AIDS), a condition in which progressive failure of the im ...

AIDS The HIV, human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) is a retrovirus that attacks the immune system. Without treatment, it can lead to a spectrum of conditions including acquired immunodeficiency syndrome (AIDS). It is a Preventive healthcare, pr ...

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 immu ...

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 EuroPride is a pan-European identity, pan-European international event dedicated to Gay pride, LGBT pride, hosted by a different European city each year. The host city is usually one with an established gay pride, pride event or a significan ...

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 government in England, local authority for the City status in the United Kingdom, city of Manchester in Greater Manchester, England. Manchester has had an elected local authority since 1838, which has been re ...

, LGBT Foundation and

, supported by venues from across the Gay Village. The project has also been supported by Greater Manchester Mayor's LGBTQ+ Advisor, Carl Austin-Behan. In July, 2022 George House Trust held a re-dedication event of the Beacon of Hope HIV Memorial in Sackville Gardens.

National Trans Memorial

A monument called the National Transgender Memorial was unveiled in July 2013. After being vandalised in August 2013, it was restored in March 2014. During the night of the 29 August 2022 just after the Manchester Pride, the monument was set on fire and damaged. Plans for a new monument have been submitted to the city council on 9 April 2024.

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