People’s History Museum - making a stand for democracy
- Helen Clarke
- Feb 21
- 2 min read
Helen Clarke
People’s History Museum in Manchester is currently displaying banners that have been on marches, campaigned for rights, and stood on picket lines for their 2025 Banner Exhibition.
Visiting the 2025 Banner Exhibition is free, but donations made support the work of the museum with most visitors donating £10 for entry to the museum.
The exhibition is running until 29th December 2025 and can be found within the main galleries with historical information and conservation insights shared on each item.
With the largest banner standing at over three metres tall and the oldest dating back to 1900, there are more than twenty banners on display.
Opening hours for the People’s History Museum are 10am to 5pm, every day except Tuesdays with the Open Kitchen Cafe & Bar open every day except Tuesdays, from 10am to 4pm.
The banner is about the housing crisis of 1946 that followed the Second World War, when tens of thousands of people, mainly ex-servicemen and their families, moved into empty military camps.
It was likely used by the Communist Party of Great Britain to show its support for the homeless people forced to squat.
To mark the 40th anniversary of the Miners’ Strike (1984-1985) two banners are on display, the Young Communists say Coal Not Dole banner (1984) and the Lesbians & Gays Support The Miners banner (1984).
As one of the most popular banners in the collection, it represents a story of solidarity between the activists who founded Lesbians and Gays Support the Miners (LGSM) and the striking miners and their communities.
Marking further anniversaries in 2025 - banners represent the passing of the Chronically Sick and Disabled Persons Act (1970) 55 years ago, as well as the Disability Discrimination Act (1995), and the 15 years since the Equalities Act (2010) was passed.
A banner made for the Triangle Club in 1985 formerly known as the Kings and Queens Club, hangs in the exhibit too - it was a social club for deaf gay, lesbian and transgender members based in The Rembrandt pub in Manchester.
On loan from the British Deaf History Society, this banner features a pink triangle - a symbol that went from being used to identify LGBTQIA+ people in Nazi concentration camps in WWII to being reclaimed by LGBTQIA+ groups and campaigns from the 1970s onwards.
The Fakenham Labour Party banner (after 1987) is an early example of the Labour Party’s use of the red rose as its symbol.
It was said to have been introduced to improve the image of the party under the leadership of Neil Kinnock and now hangs in the exhibit.