On Thursday 21st January, planning permission was approved for a “calm and peaceful” memorial to honour the 22 victims of the Manchester Arena bombing. The Glade of Light will be a living memorial with a white stone ring “halo” at its heart bearing the names of those who lost their lives on May 22, 2017.
Construction of the centrepiece, which will include personalised memory capsules for friends and family to share mementos of their loved ones, will begin in March.
Manchester council leader Sir Richard Leese, in a statement to the Manchester Evening News said, "This memorial at the heart of our city promises to be a beautiful tribute to those whose lives were so cruelly cut short on May 22, 2017. Their memories will endure and Manchester will never forget them.
“The Glade of Light will become part of the fabric of our city, a calm and peaceful place which will blend seamlessly with the regeneration of the wider Medieval Quarter in which it sits.”
Survivors of the terror attack, and the families of those who died, helped with the memorial’s design and is wheelchair accessible. The memorial will form a part of a wider transformation of the area between Manchester Cathedral and Chetham’s School of Music on Fennel Street and Victoria Street.
A new public square is also planned outside the entrance to the Manchester Cathedral to provide opportunities for civic and ceremonial events. Chetham’s, which had raised concerns around security and crime in the Cathedral Gardens area, withdrew their objections earlier.
