Wednesday 16-11-2022 - 15:11

In November we celebrate International Student Day, and in recognition of that, we wanted to show you some of the influence different nationalities and individuals have had in the city.

So, we’re bringing you five locations that celebrate internationalisation and the impact the world has had in Manchester.

We want you to get involved. Get yourself off to each of the locations below using this map and take some pictures with each monument.

If you get them posted on Instagram using #internationalmanchester you could win an official Manchester Met hoodie. There’re extra entries if you tag @isg.mmu and @theunionmmu, too.

 

 

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Adolph Valette

First, we begin at our very own Art School, where there’s a plaque for Adolph Valette.

You may’ve heard of the artist L.S Lowry. The Salford artist’s famous matchstick artwork received international recognition and has since become iconic with the people of Salford, Manchester, and the industrial settings of Northern England.

In 1905, Lowry managed to get a spot at the Manchester Municipal College of Art, where he studied under the French Impressionist artist Adolphe Valette.

The Manchester Municipal College of Art is now part of the Manchester Municipal University, and on Cavendish Street, outside the building you’ll find a blue plaque honouring Valette.

 

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Friedrich Engels

If you travel further down Oxford Road, left onto Whitworth St, and onto First Street, you’ll find a statue of Friedrich Engels.

Engels spent two decades in Manchester researching for his book “The Condition of the Working Class in England”. Friedrich went on to contribute to the famous Communist Manifesto, with Karl Marx.

The socialist’s iconic life is well documented in Manchester and a 3.5-metre statue of him has been in the city since 2017. It was brought to Manchester from a village in Ukraine for the Manchester International Festival in 2017.

 

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The Chinese Arch

As you head further into Manchester towards Piccadilly, you’ll find yourself in the famous China Town.

The area is huge and recognized as the second largest Chinese community in Britain and the fourth largest in Europe.

If you turn into Nicholas Street, you’ll come across the iconic Imperial Chinese Archway, which was gift to Manchester from the Chinese People.

The structure was designed and built by engineers in Peking, and is decorated with ceramics, lacquer, paint, and gold leaf.

 

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Abraham Lincoln

Further into Spinningfields, there’s a statue of a famous former President you may’ve heard of.

On Brazennose Street is a monument 16th American president, Abraham Lincoln.

The statue was designed by sculptor George Grey Barnard and first arrived in Manchester in 1919. It was originally put in Platt Field’s Park, but then moved to its current home in 1986.

So, why is there a statue of Abraham Lincoln in the city centre of Manchester?

During the American Civil War, the people of Manchester came together to boycott cotton picked in the southern states of America to protest slavery.

This protest led to massive unemployment levels in Manchester, but assisted Lincoln in ending the Civil War.

 

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Mahandma Ghandi

Finally, we finish off with a statue of Mahandma Ghandi.

The statue was built in 2019, to mark Ghandi’s 150th birthday, and remains standing outside Manchester Cathedral.

As you all know, to say Manchester’s a multi-cultural and multi-faith city is an understatement, and the statue was built to celebrate that.

Gandhi had visited Manchester on his way to see mill workers in Lancashire in 1931 to explain the Indian perspective on the boycott of British goods that was damaging their industry.

Manchester gave him a typical Northern warm welcome during the visit and he attracted huge crowds.

There’re even more unlikely links between Ghandi and Manchester, more recently, too. In 1982, a Manchester Gramma School student, Sir Ben Kingsley won an Academy Award for portraying Ghandi in a film about his life.

 

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Manchester's wonderful internationally welcoming city, home to over 21,000 new international students every year.

As a Manchester Met student we encourage you to join our Facebook group and follow our Instagram to keep up to date with our cultural events and to receive as much support as an international student as possible.