Rivers clogged with excrement and decomposing bodies. Factories vomiting toxic fumes changing the colour of the horizon for miles around. Rampant crime and riots on the street. But this was also the Manchester that gave us Free Trade, the Town Hall, the John Rylands Library, Mrs Gaskell and Richard Cobden.
The atom bomb is hot news right now, thanks to this summer’s big blockbuster film, Oppenheimer, named after J. Robert Oppenheimer, organiser of the Manhattan Project which dropped the bombs on Japan in 1945.
Ed Glinert of New Manchester Walks, who has hosted countless local tours that include stopping at the atomic bunker on Chinatown’s George Street, and gives talks on the story of the atom bomb on cruise ships, relates the full atomic story to coincide with the release of the film and as the 78th anniversary of the dropping of the bombs in August 1945 to end the Second World War approaches.
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