While researching something for a future blog post I recently came across something else of interest which I thought deserved a photo or two at the next opportunity. It was something which most people take for granted and will use or walk past without thinking twice about it, in fact without realising its significance I’ve walked past it myself many times over the last few years – a humble Royal Mail post box in Manchester city centre.
Back in 1996 Saturday June 15th in Manchester started in blazing summer sunshine. It was the day before Father’s Day, the televised Euro 96 match between England and Scotland was to be played at Wembley that afternoon, tv crews from across Europe were in the city for the following day’s match between Russia and Germany at Old Trafford, and by 9.20am the streets had already started to fill up with football fans and crowds of shoppers, none of whom had any idea of the disaster which would happen just two hours later.
Also at 9.20 two men in cagoules and sunglasses left a heavily loaded red and white Ford Cargo box van outside Marks and Spencer on Corporation Street – it was parked on double yellow lines with its hazard lights flashing and three minutes after it was abandoned a traffic warden slapped a parking ticket on it. Inside were 3,300 lbs of homemade explosive – a mixture of semtex and ammonium nitrate fertiliser – and as the men walked away they called an IRA chief in Ireland to tell him the bomb was in place before being picked up in nearby Cathedral Street by a third man in a burgundy-coloured Ford Granada which was later found abandoned in Preston.
Around 9.40am a man with an Irish accent called Granada TV to warn that a bomb would go off an hour later; similar calls were also made to Sky News, Salford University, North Manchester General Hospital and the Garda police in Dublin, with the man giving the location and using a special code word so police would know that the threat was genuine.
By 10am an estimated 80,000 people were shopping and working in the vicinity of the bomb and an immediate evacuation of the area was undertaken by officers from a police station half a mile away. It was a mammoth task though it was helped by having extra police on duty drafted in to control the football crowds, and while one group worked to move people away from the bomb area another group, assisted by firefighters and security guards from local stores, established a continuously expanding cordon around the area.
In previous years Mancunians had become used to bomb scares which invariably came to nothing so initially many people were reluctant to go – one hairdresser refused to let his clients leave his salon as they still had chemicals in their hair and a group of workmen wanted to stay put as they were on weekend rates, while a female police officer had to tell customers in Pizza Hut ”I don’t want to die because somebody won’t finish their pizza”.
By 11.10am the cordon had extended out to a quarter of a mile radius from the truck and 1.5 miles in circumference until there were no more officers to take it any further, and the heart of the city centre was completely deserted. An army bomb disposal squad, scrambled from Liverpool, set up a base 200 yards down the road and prepared to defuse the bomb by using a remote controlled robot to blow a hole in the side of the truck followed by a controlled blast to disable it – the first smaller blast went off at 11.16 but at 11.17 they ran out of time.
When the bomb exploded the blast issued a force so powerful it travelled round 90 degree corners, knocking people off their feet and blowing out almost every window within half a mile. It was the largest bomb ever detonated within the UK since WW2 and the blast, which could be heard from 15 miles away, created a mushroom cloud which rose 1,000 feet from the ground. Immediately after the blast there was a sudden and eerie silence then a wall of noise as every alarm in the vicinity started wailing.
Dust and shards of glass rained down from the sky along with a torrent of masonry, and even people behind the police cordon and as far as half a mile away were showered with falling debris. The cctv screens at the police station went black and within five minutes the ambulance control centre received 60 calls to every street in the area. Several people as far away as Kendal’s department store on Deansgate – now House of Fraser – had wrongly believed they would be safe under the store’s canopy but were injured when the windows blew out.
Five fire engines and 30 firefighters had initially attended the scene with that number growing to 20 fire engines, 11 special appliances, 115 firefighters and 26 supervisory officers, and under a controlled and co-ordinated operation ambulance crews toured the city centre to pick up the more badly injured victims and take them to hospital while firefighters searched buildings for anyone who could be injured or trapped. While police commandeered a Metrolink tram to take 50 walking wounded to North Manchester General Hospital many others were treated in the streets by paramedics assisted by a few off-duty doctors and nurses who happened to be in the area at the time.
Around 212 people were injured in the blast that day, many quite seriously, but incredibly, due to the police’s remarkable evacuation, nobody had been killed. Nevertheless, much of the city centre lay in ruins and along with many homes some 700 businesses were damaged in some way, disrupting or ruining thousands of livelihoods. The historic landmarks of Manchester Cathedral, Chetham’s School of Music, the Corn Exchange and the Royal Exchange theatre were all damaged and would take several years and millions of pounds to restore, while Longridge House, the office block next to Marks and Spencer, would be demolished and the bus station under the Arndale centre would never reopen.
Amazingly, in the midst of all the chaos and carnage, one of the few things left standing was the Royal Mail post box. Situated outside Marks and Spencer and only a few yards from where the bomb exploded it survived almost unscathed by the blast – the mail it contained was untouched and was eventually delivered as if nothing had happened. The box was removed for minor repairs while the destroyed parts of the area were rebuilt then three years later it was returned to its original position with the addition of a plaque marking the event.
Life In The Mouse House 
I didn’t know about the post box. Amazing that it survived, a symbol of hope I think. What a horrendous day it was for Manchester. X
LikeLike
It was a horrendous day and act of terrorism but on the flip side it was the catalyst for the regeneration of Manchester and what it is today. We have come on leaps and bounds since ’96 and I truly believe its the best city in the UK and one of the best in Europe
We have everything here, except a beach 😉
LikeLiked by 1 person
When you look at the photos of the devastation it’s amazing that no-one was killed. Amazing too that the post box survived as it was only a few yards away from the bomb – it was certainly a symbol of hope for the city 🙂
LikeLike
Nobody was killed as the IRA telephone ahead of the explosion and advise to evacuate the area
LikeLike
What an excellent post Eunice. I remember the event vividly, and whether it’s the IRA’s attack on the Arndale Centre or Islamist extremists killing innocent victims at the Manchester Arena, what do these people think they’re really going to achieve? But at least they didn’t get that post box.
LikeLiked by 1 person
I’m pleased you like the write-up Malc. This was supposed to be about something completely different but when I found out about the post box I knew I just had to write about it – I even made a special trip to Manchester earlier this week just to photograph it. It’s such an ordinary everyday piece of street furniture yet so very significant.
LikeLiked by 1 person
I recall this event vividly. We were in the city the day before…shopping in M & S! Our route to the city is via Corporation Street from Manchester Victoria station. Shocked isn’t strong enough to describe how we felt!
LikeLike
Good grief, you certainly escaped that one! Apparently the M & S staff were so professional that the evacuation of the store was very easy. I wasn’t aware of the event at the time as I was on holiday in Italy and though I heard about it later I didn’t go to Manchester for many years afterwards so researching this has been quite an eye-opener.
LikeLike
Nice bit of research there Eunice. Shall look out for that amazing post box next time I’m down there, whenever that will be.
A friend of mine’s two sons had gone shopping that day in the Arndale centre. He heard about the explosion but didn’t make contact with his evacuated sons till much later in the day, (pre mobile phones?). Scary. The police did a fantastic job getting everybody out alive.
LikeLike
I presume your friend’s sons were okay and not injured – your friend must have been really worried about them until he heard from them later on. If you do come across the post box sometime at least you now know its story 🙂
LikeLike
Yes and yes.
LikeLiked by 1 person
I remember this horrific event. It’s one of those that I can recall exactly where I was when I heard about it. It’s good to be reminded of the truly heroic life-saving operation that went on. These things aren’t usually so successful. However, I hadn’t heard about the post box, so that’s really interesting to know.
LikeLike
I guess many people don’t know about the post box as it’s just ‘there’, but it signifies so much.
LikeLiked by 1 person
Considering the amount of debris which resulted from the bomb, it really is a miracle nobody was killed. Sadly it wouldn’t be the last time Manchester was targeted in a terrorist attack.
LikeLike
Last night I watched a video taken by a member of the police force, filmed on a tour of the city’s streets and it’s amazing to see just how far the damage spread – even buildings you would think would have been too far away had windows blown out. As to what these terrorists hope to achieve by doing things like this, I really don’t know.
LikeLike
I don’t know either. I know it’s about making some kind of “statement”, but I really don’t know how any human can think it is OK to harm innocent people to make that statement.
LikeLike
Fascinating post. The shocking thing to me is I can’t remember this event at all. Memory is fickle. The postbox story is incredible.
LikeLike
I don’t remember the event either as I was away on holiday at the time. I hadn’t been to Manchester for two years before that and didn’t go again until 2019 so the rebuilt areas seemed very strange to me. Now with my interest in street art I don’t seem to be away from the place and I’ve passed that postbox several times without knowing its history.
LikeLike
That was not only an inspired piece of writing, Eunice, but a really well-crafted and compelling article too. Absolutely riveting. Those that planted the bomb were shits – of course.
LikeLiked by 1 person
Thank you for the compliment Mike, it’s good to know that my literary efforts are appreciated – now I need to crack on with a follow-up 🙂 That was a terrible day for many people but thankfully no-one was killed in the carnage.
LikeLiked by 1 person
Reblogged this on thisisourmanchester.
LikeLike