A problem for me, a cause for contemplation (and even at times, irritation) when I returned to Manchester after a 40 year absence was how much iambic pentameter and rhyming poetry I heard at the city’s open mics. Hadn’t such regular form long since become “old-school”, out-dated and not interesting? It was all of that in Canada. Well, here’s the story of my long overdue education.

In April of this year I saw a call for anyone interested in learning more of Manchester’s literary heritage to attend a meeting about the “Sun Inn Poets”. Keen for this opportunity, I turned up at Manchester Cathedral https://manchestercathedral.org

Tom Branfoot (@thesuninnpoets)Yorkshire poet and, currently, writer-in-residence at the cathedral called the meeting to garner support for his National Lottery Heritage funded project named for the Sun Inn Poets. He wanted to revive awareness of the group who met in the 1840s at the Sun Inn and who adopted its name. This group had contributed so much to Manchester’s literary history but their legacy had long been forgotten. Tom wanted to revive interest in their work and to stimulate a 21st century group of writers and artists to create a body of new, radical works: poetry, song, visual art, whatever people brought to the group would be welcomed and applauded.

First, some background. The Sun Inn was an ancient (even in the 19th century) timber-framed hostelry which stood opposite the gates of Chetham’s College (est.: 1653) on Long Millgate in Manchester. It was known as Poets’ Corner after it became the meeting place for a group of mostly working class writers, The Sun Inn Poets.

In the early 19th century, Manchester was not known as a significant cultural centre. It’s importance and fame, of course, grew from its role in the Industrial Revolution which of course had its sinister side. People toiled in mills and factories for little reward and in dreadful living and working conditions. How could these conditions not spur on radical politics? When literacy among the working class was low, their complaints against injustice, their demands to be heard, seen and rewarded with improved conditions were often made loudly through spoken word and song. Those who could read and write, distributed their words as broadsheets or songsheets.

And the Sun Inn, for a few years (through the 1840s) became the meeting place for a group to recite their poetry, sing ballads and gather in a spirit of solidarity. Founders and major players in the group were John Critchley Price, John Rogerson and Robert Rose (self-styled as “the Bard of Colour”). Radical poems were not all they wrote. Their interest in poetry ranged broadly through numerous forms and styles. And though reports at the time speak almost entirely of the male members of the group, there were in fact a number of women who went along to the Saturday evening sessions at the Sun. One was Isabella Varley (Mrs George Linnaeus Banks) whose most famous novel The Manchester Man has become one of the “must-read” books documenting Manchester in the nineteenth century. Other women writers attending included Isabella Caulton, Eliza Battye and Eliza Craven Green.

Reading the poetry and songs of the time, sometimes from original documents held at Chetham’s Library https://library.chethams.com learning what poetry meant to working class people in Manchester has given me a genuine appreciation of how much poetry across the North has always favoured rhyming forms, traditional rhythms and song. This made recitation easier, helped memory to spread the word and their popularity lives on in the open mics in our cafes and pubs.

Sun Inn Poets circa 2026 includes a large group of poets and artists across an age spectrum (20s-70s) who are enthusiastically taking part in educational sessions e.g. the Chartist movement and their poetry and song; exploration of archives held at Manchester Cathedral and at Chetham’s as well as writing new works to allow the reputation of the 19th century group to rise again — as the sun always does.

https://www.the87press.co.uk/shop/p/volatile

https://www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/the-sun-inn-poets-reading-open-mic-tickets-2002998784283

https://manchesterhistory.net/manchester/gone/poetscorner.html