People on the Corridor

Images from Left to Right: Emmeline Pankurst, Sir Ernest Rutherford, Alan Turing, Peter Saville, Joseph Akkinagbe, Jane Davies, Professor Paulo E Stanga and Sister Mary Kenny.

The Corridor is all about people. If you think about it, all the organisations, businesses, cities and countries in the world are nothing without the people that have the passion, vision and talent to make them what they are. Manchester was built by talented, passionate and pioneering people. And many of these pioneering people contributed much to the direction of the modern world.

The Corridor has played a major part in this story. In the city centre, the Corridor starts at Peter Street where in 1819 the Peterloo Massacre took place –15 people died for the right to vote and to Parliamentary representation. It was one of the key steps to democracy in Britain.

In 1903 in a house, which still stands today on Nelson Street close to the original Manchester Royal Infirmary, a group of women led by Emmeline Pankhurst were establishing the Women’s Social and Political Union – later nicknamed the Suffragettes. In 1905 the ‘Votes for Women’ slogan was first used at the Free Trade Hall in Manchester.

Leap ahead again to 1945 and in the old Chorlton-on-Medlock Town Hall in All Saints, a group of African immigrants and students at the university met up. The meeting became known as the sixth Pan-African National Congress. Here the decision was taken for African nations to push for independence. 

And of course where would the world be without Kilburn, Turing and Rutherford?

On 21 June 1948 on Bridgeford Street in the heart of the University of Manchester campus, Professors Williams and Kilburn began something which informs almost every moment of our contemporary lives. They developed the first stored programme computer, ‘Baby’. Helping out the professors was the famed Alan Turing. Curiously, the successor of ‘Baby’ was the Manchester Mark 1, and assisting on this were the parents of the man who would create the World Wide Web, Tim Berners-Lee.

In 1917 Nobel prize-winning Sir Ernest Rutherford, ably assisted by Hans Geiger, Niels Bohr and many others. discovered the nucleus of an atom and how to split it. 

The Corridor is as much about people today as it was back in the days of the historic greats. We stand on the shoulders of giants – and tomorrow others will stand on the shoulders of the people that make the Corridor what it is today. 

Looking down the length of Oxford Road in 2006, celebrated Guardian journalist, Stuart Jeffries, said, “This looks like the place where it all happens.” He was right. Here you will find out about some of the people that work on, with or contribute to the Corridor today. They are not all destined for fame and immortality but each has a unique story – and they all share a common thread – each has talent, passion and a pioneering spirit. 

Click on the links below to view case study interviews of the inspirational and influential Corridor People we have interviewed to date. A positive portrayal of subjects both photographed and interviewed demonstrating the individual strengths, diversity and talent of chosen subjects validating modern day Manchester as a world class location and destination. 

More interviews to follow in the coming months.