Today, Manchester’s Market Street boasts dozens of busy high-street retailers and restaurants. But once upon a time, the site was home to the Clarion Café, a powerful institution for social activists.
Manchester has a long and rich history as a host for working-class institutions, each of which have played an essential role in shaping the city’s culture, identity, and political landscape. Yet, the Clarion Café finds itself in danger of being forgotten.
Aside from its lavish Dutch-inspired interior and affordable prices, the Clarion Café was more than just a place to grab a cup of coffee. The café was founded in 1908 by Robert Blatchford, editor of the Clarion newspaper, a popular socialist publication of the late 19th and early 20th centuries. The café inherited its name through its association with the newspaper.
Located on 50a Market Street in Manchester, the coffeehouse was part of the wider Clarion movement. The cafe’s central and accessible location meant that it quickly became a hub of political and cultural activity for working class people in the city and beyond.
The Clarion newspaper was one of the most influential socialist newspapers ever published in Britain, completely selling out its first run of 25,000 copies. The paper covered controversial, working-class issues, such as the slum conditions in Manchester and miners strikes.
Before long, the café became a beloved gathering spot for the newspaper’s audience, inviting the likes of trade unionists, socialists, left wing activists and women through its doors to discuss politics and participate in regular meetings, lectures, concerts and events.
The café was unique in the fact that it was one of few cultural institutions, for its time, that allowed for working-class individuals and women to participate in politics. This is where the cafe articulates its distinct working-class identity.
The Clarion movement thrived in the 1890s and early 1900s, but Blatchford’s British militarism in the First World War disenchanted much of the paper’s readership. The newspaper was published until 1934, but unfortunately it never regained its significance as a creative force in the socialist movement after the war.
Following the fall of the Clarion movement, the café had no choice but to close its doors in 1936. Though the Clarion café was short-lived, its legacy as a working-class political and cultural institution lives on. You can find out more about the cafes legacy today by visiting Manchester’s Working Class Movement Library either in person, or online at: https://www.wcml.org.uk/
The Clarion Café is one of many working-class cultural spaces that have existed in Manchester over the years. It should serve as a testament to the rich and diverse cultural history of the city, and to the resilience and creativity of its working-class communities.