Later in July 1883, Manchester held its first Building Trades Exhibition in St James's Hall. (This was a new public hall on Oxford Street; it was demolished in 1909 and replaced by today's Grade II listed St James' Building.) Organised by a committee mainly of Manchester architects and civil engineers and intended to be an annual event, the aim of the Exhibition was to showcase the latest and newest in building trades' materials and appliances – in building, sanitation, ventilation, paints and colours, architectural decoration, furniture, appliances for smoke abatement, and so on. It was expected to draw the general public and its opening was celebrated with a conversazione, with music provided by the band of the 3rd Dragoon Guards.
John and Alice as Mayor and Mayoress arrived at about half past seven and were given a tour, and then John – "standing at the entrance of the Oriental Court", said the Manchester Evening News of 20 July 1883 – declared the exhibition open. "Especially would they be struck," he said, "with the facility with which many beautiful objects were now reproduced so as to be placed within the reach of classes of society who years ago could never have dreamed of having such objects"
On Thursday 23 August, John and his daughter Mary went to a very different event – the fourth annual athletic festival of the Manchester City Police and Fire Brigade.
It was beautiful weather for the several thousand people who had gathered to watch the fun in the Pomona Gardens which lay beside the River Irwell in the fresh air to the west of the city, an island of beautiful gardens and pleasure grounds, now long lost and hardly remembered [1]. There were competitions for putting the shot and throwing the hammer. There were flat races, three-legged races and bicycle races. The crowd's favourite were the tugs of war – police and firemen teams against teams of soldiers from the 24th Regiment (South Wales Borderers) and the 3rd Dragoon Guards – in both matches the soldiers won. There were fire engine drill competitions and a demonstration of a new "steamer" which could throw a stream of water to the height of the highest building in Manchester.[2]
The previous year, the Mosley Street premises and fine art collections of the Royal Manchester Institution had been transferred to the Corporation on the condition that for the next 20 years the council would spend £2,000 a year on art. This they did enthusiastically – and John was for years on the Art Gallery Committee.
The Mosley Street building, newly renamed the Manchester Art Gallery, had its formal opening on 31 August 1883 by the Liberal politician Lord Carlingford, who was head of the government department with the task of promoting science and art. It was reported at length in the Manchester Courier of 1 September.
Eminent gentlemen – the high sheriff, bishops, academics, aldermen and councillors – gathered in the Mayor's Parlour of the Town Hall. Among them was Sir Philip Cunliffe-Owen of the Kensington Museum, who became a friend of the Hopkinson family. John, Lord Carlingford and the High Sheriff of Lancashire led the procession along Princess Street, past the crowds lining the route, to Mosley Street.
 |
| 'The Shadow of Death' by William Holman Hunt |
John gave the history of the art gallery and told of how it had been hoped that valuable pictures would be donated for the public benefit – and that this had indeed already happened. Sir Joseph Whitworth had presented five important works by William Etty. Mr William Agnew MP (Liberal member for Lancashire South-East) had indicated that he and his late brother's executors would give Holman Hunt's 'The Shadow of Death'. Mr W A Turner was to give 'The Golden Gate' by Val Prinsep. Manchester was showing that
What had been done in London at the cost of the nation they thought they might do, in their own way, at their own cost, for their own good. (Hear, hear).
Their aim was for all classes to improve themselves by contemplating and studying beautiful things. They were convinced that the more they studied
those forms of beauty which were the common property of all the less selfish they would become, and the more disposed to sink the individual to the citizen. (Hear, hear) They were weary of the too costly luxuries of the policemen and the inspecting officer. They had a strong longing coming over them to have something to see for their money when they had spent it. Wickedness, ugliness, dirtiness, offended now more than they used to do. They groaned under the hideousness of these burdens, and were determined to free themselves from the load, and to do it by the united effort of all.
Sir Philip Cunliffe Owen said that he had long been interested in what Manchester was doing and he reminded them "that British art owed a great deal to the munificence of the merchant princes of Manchester (Hear, hear)".
 |
| Sir Philip Cunliffe-Owen (1828-94) |
Sir Philip first appears in the Manchester press in January 1874 at the opening of the Society for the Promotion of Scientific Interest in Manchester – the Kensington Museum was active in loans and advice to towns and cities across the country. Not only did Sir Philip become a friend of the family, but his daughter Olga married John and Alice's son Dr Albert Hopkinson on 22 Oct 1891. (Readers of Ferdinand Mount's engrossing book Kiss Myself Goodbye: The many lives of Aunt Munca will like to know that the Sir Hugo Cunliffe-Owen who features there was Olga's brother. So Philippa, Sir Hugo's daughter and wife first of Denis McDuff and then Archie Baring, was Olga's niece).
On the afternoon of Saturday 1 September, John, Alice and Mary went back to the Boys' Refuge in Strangeways in a party of dignitaries including the local landowner and politician Lord Egerton of Tatton and his wife and daughter, to be shown round the new building by Mr Leonard Kilbee Shaw [3] , one of the founders of the refuges and a dedicated campaigner for children's rights.
The last big event of the Mayoral year for Alice seems to have been the Grand Nautical Bazaar held in St George's Hall, Liverpool in aid of Liverpool Homes for Aged Mariners. From mid-August the Manchester newspapers had been carrying advertisements for the Bazaar, calling for contributions to be brought to the Town Hall with the enticing line "The Mayoress of Manchester has kindly consented to Preside at the City of Manchester Stall".
 |
| St George's Hall, Liverpool, from the southwest by Dave Root |
The Grand Nautical Bazaar "on board a magnificent Atlantic liner in St George's Hall" was indeed a grand affair. There was music from the band of Scots Guards, the choir of the School for the Blind, the band of the 'Indefatigable' and the band of the Seamen's Orphanage. There was theatrical entertainment from the actors and singers then performing in Liverpool. The Great Organ was played, and Mlle. Lottie Adelina de Lara "the marvellous child pianist" performed. Eleven years old, she had been giving public recitals from the age of six and would go on to become a classical pianist and composer, having trained in Frankfurt, studied with Fanny Davies and Clara Schumann and become a friend of Brahms. She played for Dame Myra Hess at the famous lunchtime concerts in the National Gallery during World War Two.
The Bazaar had many patrons, including the Dukes and Duchesses of Westminster and Abercorn and the Earls and Countesses of Derby and Sefton, and it lasted from the 9th to the 12th of October. The Mayors of Liverpool, Manchester, Oldham and Birkenhead took it in turn to declare proceedings open – John's turn was on Wednesday 10th at 2 o'clock. As the Manchester Courier of 11 October reported, it was a great success
The bazaar was opened at two o'clock in the afternoon by the Mayor of Manchester, who, speaking from the bridge of the 'St George,' said he was there to simply perform a neighbourly act and to express his sympathy and kindly feeling towards the noble object they had in view … The sale of goods then commenced. The hall was crowded to an almost excessive degree during the day, and the theatrical entertainments were especially well patronised.
John's sister Ellen Tubbs wrote to Alice during this unique year in her life
You are an astonishment to me. How you are brought through everything and do honour to your position! [4]
No wonder Ellen was astonished, if Alice's usual day was spent – as seen by her granddaughter Ellen Ewing at Christmas 1883 – "generally lying on a sofa and carefully protected by her daughters from unwelcome intrusions of any description". [5] But perhaps she was then still recovering from all the unaccustomed excitement and socialising and didn't feel strong enough to engage with five young children. After all, in June 1881 she had been strong enough to go with John on the tour of Norway, and she wasn't yet sixty.
Notes
[1] Life in the Mouse House blog
https://mousehouselife.wordpress.com/2023/10/25/escape-to-pomona-island/
[2] Manchester Times, 25 August 1883
[3] for more on Leonard Kilbee Shaw, see the Together Trust Archive website
[4] John and Alice Hopkinson 1824-1910 (1948) ed. Mary Hopkinson and her niece Lady Ewing, with a Preface by Sir Gerald Hurst, K.C., p. 82
[5] ibid., p. 85
No comments:
Post a Comment