The Friedrich Engels & Karl Marx Tour
10.30am Saturday 3 May and Saturday 29 Nov 2025
The Engels and Marx PUB Tour
6pm Friday 28 Nov 2025
Friedrich Engels and Karl Marx were the fathers of communism. Engels lived, on and off, for 22 years in Manchester and during this time Marx would stay with Engels for long periods. The city appeared in the 1840s to confirm for both of them the truth behind their ideas of how society was ordered and where it was inevitably headed. It seemed clear to them how the tensions being created in this new industrial society between 'bourgeoisie' and 'proletariat' was creating such overwhelming pressure a crisis must come leading to the dictatorship of the proletariat and thus on to full communism.
It would probably not be clear to them that present commemorations in Greater Manchester would include a climbing wall in the shape of the beard and face of Engels. Still, the fact they filtered their ideas as young men through the experience of Manchester was crucial. As the well-known historian Asa Briggs wrote in Victorian Cities, ‘If Engels had lived not in Manchester...his conception of class and his theories of the role of class might have been very different. In this case Marx might have been not a communist but a currency reformer. The fact that Manchester was taken to be the symbol of the age in the 1840s was of central importance in modern world history.’
There are two tours in November, the first, a walking tour through the city on Saturday 25 November, visiting the places that Engels would have been familiar with. The second is on the actual occasion of his birthday, 28 November, in the evening, in pubs. Engels and Marx were very clubable men.
Meet: Outside John Rylands Library, Deansgate, City centre, M3 3EH, 5 minutes before your tour time.
Tickets £15. Please pay on Paypal below or Eventbrite. If you wish to pay by bank transfer please contact me on [email protected]
Duration: most tours last between ninety minutes and two hours
Fully accessible
Totally fascinating
The Paypal receipt is your ticket. If you ordered from Eventbrite you will be sent an electronic ticket. Please check the email, from which you ordered your tickets, 24 hours before each tour, in case circumstances have arisen which affect the tour, especially if the tour includes access to a space not owned by Jonathan Schofield Tours. If there is no change to the plans, you will not be sent an email. And as usual, if you don't have an informative and entertaining tour please ask for a refund.
It would probably not be clear to them that present commemorations in Greater Manchester would include a climbing wall in the shape of the beard and face of Engels. Still, the fact they filtered their ideas as young men through the experience of Manchester was crucial. As the well-known historian Asa Briggs wrote in Victorian Cities, ‘If Engels had lived not in Manchester...his conception of class and his theories of the role of class might have been very different. In this case Marx might have been not a communist but a currency reformer. The fact that Manchester was taken to be the symbol of the age in the 1840s was of central importance in modern world history.’
There are two tours in November, the first, a walking tour through the city on Saturday 25 November, visiting the places that Engels would have been familiar with. The second is on the actual occasion of his birthday, 28 November, in the evening, in pubs. Engels and Marx were very clubable men.
Meet: Outside John Rylands Library, Deansgate, City centre, M3 3EH, 5 minutes before your tour time.
Tickets £15. Please pay on Paypal below or Eventbrite. If you wish to pay by bank transfer please contact me on [email protected]
Duration: most tours last between ninety minutes and two hours
Fully accessible
Totally fascinating
The Paypal receipt is your ticket. If you ordered from Eventbrite you will be sent an electronic ticket. Please check the email, from which you ordered your tickets, 24 hours before each tour, in case circumstances have arisen which affect the tour, especially if the tour includes access to a space not owned by Jonathan Schofield Tours. If there is no change to the plans, you will not be sent an email. And as usual, if you don't have an informative and entertaining tour please ask for a refund.
