Tickets are free, but spaces are limited. Book your spot here: www.theportico.org.uk/event-calend...

Ballads and broadsides sing out under the Portico Dome, moving between the worlds of the nineteenth-century street and the library of the elite. Jennifer’s handmade cloak, used in performance, and a copy of a vivid portrait of her by artist Ian Bruce will also be on display...

The Wilkinson family were wealthy progressives and supporters of women's suffrage - one of his daughters Fanny Rollo Wilkinson, became the first professional female landscape gardener.

Dickens' signature is second from the bottom!

This new evidence places him inside the Portico itself. Member Dr Matthew Alexander Eason Wilkinson signed him in to the library on 23 May 1843. Wilkinson himself became a prominent doctor in Manchester and President of the Cheshire and Lancashire branch of the British Medical Association.

Dickens’s name appears alongside that of prominent local members and dates from his visit to Manchester to see his sister, Fanny Burnett. Contemporary press reports and his biographer (and friend) John Forster confirm that Dickens was in the city at that time. ..

If you'd like more information about hosting your wedding at The Portico, you can contact Michelle directly at admin.assistant@theportico.org.uk, or fill in the form using the link below:

www.theportico.org.uk/weddings

Michelle, our brilliant Wedding Co-Ordinator, loves personalising the day to suit every individual wedding couple’s needs...

We invite you to explore books in a different way: to read through feeling a decaying book, to read through drawing the line of a book, to ask what is a hero – is Lucifer damned or damning?, to ask what can books can tell us about us? What is reading anyway?

www.theportico.org.uk/event-calend...

It also explores themes of neurodiversity, including dyslexia, by offering visitors an alternative way of approaching books and text.

Applying methods found in palmistry to lines found on the covers of well-read paperback books, this exhibition is an invitation to make art out of the everyday...

Together, they’ll explore the radical artistry of the Brontës and Elizabeth Gaskell, the detective work behind their research, and the surprising truths they uncovered about literature’s most fascinating family.

Book here: www.theportico.org.uk/event-calend...

If you would like to find out more about having your wedding ceremony at the Portico, then contact our wedding coordinator, Michelle, at admin.assistant@theportico.org.uk, or complete the form here: www.theportico.org.uk/weddings

As part of their wedding celebrations, Sophie and Joe made a donation to have one of the books from the collection restored. It was unveiled after the ceremony and contains a dedication plate commemorating their wedding day!

In return for adopting a single book, you'll receive a commemorative plate in the front of the newly repaired volume to memorialise your contribution, either in your name or on behalf of a loved one.

Find out more here: www.theportico.org.uk/adoptabook

You can help us preserve the Library’s historic collection by donating to our adopt-a-book fund, or even choosing an individual book to adopt...

Spend time learning about bees and their importance with beekeeper and author of A Bee Book, Natasha De Voe, Secretary of the Manchester & District Beekeepers’ Association.

More info: www.theportico.org.uk/event-calend...