Cathedral Gardens

Cathedral Gardens is an open space in Manchester city centre, in North West England. It is bounded by Victoria railway station to the north, Chetham's School of Music to the west, the perimeter of Manchester Cathedral and the Corn Exchange on Fennel Street to the south and Urbis to the east.Earliest historyUntil the Industrial Revolution, Manchester was little more than a small market town, and the town was centred on the cathedral. The area where Cathedral Gardens now stands was enclosed by small cottages. During the Industrial Revolution Manchester expanded rapidly, and its centre shifted further south. Cathedral Gardens is overlooked by Chetham's Library, part of the Chetham's School of Music, where Karl Marx and Friedrich Engels wrote.After Victoria railway station was built in the 1860s, the site housed travellers, hotels and shops until urban planning in the 1980s, demolished the hotel which faced south on Fennel Street and the Corn Exchange. The site was used as a car park until the regeneration of Manchester city centre.Manchester IRA bombingThe Provisional IRA planted bombs on mainland British cities for thirty years. Manchester was targeted in the 1990s, which culminated in the Manchester IRA bombing on 15 June 1996.