Manchester’s historic Shakespearean Garden celebrates Rosa Grindon’s vision.

What connects Shakespeare, a 104 year old sunken garden in Platt Fields’ Park and a remarkable suffragist? Our Shakespearean Garden is one of the city’s hidden treasures; a formal, sunken, intimate walled garden divided into four geometric quadrants, surrounded by deep banks and with a backdrop of magnificent mature trees. Created as a Shakespearean Garden, it contains plants mentioned in Shakespeare’s works and reflects the formal design principles of the Elizabethan garden. Today, this curious survivor is one of very few remaining Shakespearean gardens in the country, and in April 2026, it was featured in the Smithsonian Magazine’s survey of Shakespeare Gardens around the world.

But behind our garden is a story that’s just as remarkable as the garden itself.

Rosa Grindon was a botanist, Shakespearean scholar, lecturer, suffragist and passionate advocate of education. Born into relatively modest circumstances in rural Derbyshire, she moved to Manchester after her marriage and built a remarkable life around these passions, sharing her knowledge and interests in the hope of enriching the lives of her fellow citizens.

In 1916, as chair of Manchester’s Shakespeare Tercentenary celebrations, Rosa proposed creating a Shakespeare Garden in Whitworth Park as a central part of the city’s commemorations. At the time when the country was at war and money and resources were scarce, she argued that a garden could be created reasonably quickly and ‘at little cost’.

This garden was short lived but provided the inspiration for the larger and more fully realised Shakespearean Garden created in Platt Fields’ Park in 1922, after the war was over.

The story of the garden also takes us back to a particular moment in the history of our cities. Shakespearean Gardens belonged to an era when Britain’s expanding municipal parks were intended as places not simply for recreation, but also for education, culture, beauty and social improvement. There was a growing belief that ordinary people should have free access to things previously associated with privilege.

Rosa embodied this civic ideal

Sadly, until recently, both Rosa, her extensive work and the garden were largely forgotten.

This talk will uncover their fascinating story and ask why these ideas remain important and relevant today.

Practical Information

Booking is essential.

Accessibility Information

The venue is wheelchair accessible with an accessible toilet on the ground floor. Please contact us regarding any specific accessibility requirements you may have by emailing events@manlitphil.ac.uk

Description supplied by the event organiser.