SJ8498 : Tree of Remembrance, Piccadilly Gardens
taken 4 years ago, near to Manchester, England

The sculpture, created by "Wolfgang & Heron" (Wolfgang Buttress and Fiona Heron), was commissioned by Manchester City Council as a memorial to the many hundreds of civilians who died in the Nazi bombing of Manchester in World War II, particularly during the “Manchester Blitz” Link
The memorial was erected on the site in May of 2005, on the 60th anniversary of V E Day. Its location at the south-west corner of Piccadilly Gardens is appropriate as the nearby Piccadilly Hotel and City Tower were built on the site of blitzed textile warehouses.
Piccadilly has been a focal point in the city of Manchester for generations. Prior to 1910, the site which later became Piccadilly Gardens was occupied by The Manchester Royal Infirmary. When the Infirmary was demolished, it was originally planned to build a new art gallery on the site but this plan didn’t come to fruition and in the end a sunken garden was created with a wide promenade around the statues.
Linkshows the gardens as they were laid out after the Second World War, following heavy bombing. It was painted by LS Lowry in 1954. SJ8498 : Piccadilly Gardens (1979) is a photograph showing the gardens as they were in 1979.
However, in 2002, the Piccadilly Gardens area was redesigned resulting in the removal of the sunken garden to be replaced by a grassed area and the building of a charmless concrete wall dividing the new "Gardens" from the busy bus and tram interchange. To pay for this redevelopment, an office building was erected, using the south east corner of the gardens. There is a fountain which provides a pleasant gathering point in sunny weather (SJ8498 : Piccadilly Gardens, Manchester) but the grassy area soon becomes muddy when it is wet.
