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The Portico Library @porticolibrary.bsky.social · 2h

💕 Congratulations to Melanie and Patrick, whose wedding we were lucky enough to host here in The Portico last month!

The Portico Library @porticolibrary.bsky.social · 30/09/2026

🏛️ Last chance to see... We're sadly down to our final few days of Everything and Nothing: What Makes a 220-Year-Old Library. This has been such a special exhibition at what is a truly historic time for our building, and the response to it has been so wonderful...

The Portico everything and nothing display case

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The Portico Library @porticolibrary.bsky.social · 29/09/2026

On display now: Ledger of Liberation - Portico Ubuntu: African-American abolitionists and activists in Manchester in the 1840s & 1850s...

The Portico Black History Month exhibition poster

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The Portico Library @porticolibrary.bsky.social · 28/09/2026

⏳ This Saturday, we'll be hosting our Time Capsule Closing Ceremony... Over the last few months, we've been collecting your memories of The Portico Library, and this weekend, we'll finally be locking them away, not to be opened for 50 years!

A stack of postcards featuring people's Portico memories

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Reposted by The Portico Library

Philippa Vishnyakov @revealmcr.bsky.social · 21/09/2026

This week in 1792 the Assembly Rooms, Mosley Street, Manchester were opened. From there grew an area of fashionable clubs and societies centred on ‘the handsomest street in Manchester’, with @porticolibrary.bsky.social built opposite and the Theatre Royal behind.

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The Portico Library @porticolibrary.bsky.social · 22/09/2026

🎤 This Thursday, we're thrilled to be welcoming Heard Storytelling to the library for a special collaborative evening with Voice ESEA, celebrating East & South East Asian Heritage Month...

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The Portico Library @porticolibrary.bsky.social · 18/09/2026

Well, what a couple of days it has been! The response to our funding announcement has been incredible, and we've been overwhelmed by all the wonderful comments and feedback...

The Portico interior and exterior expansion renders

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The Portico Library @porticolibrary.bsky.social · 16/09/2026

A plot twist 220 years in the making. 📖 The Portico Library has been awarded £6.4 million from @heritagefunduk towards Portico Reunited, thanks to National Lottery players...

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The Portico Library @porticolibrary.bsky.social · 15/09/2026

🫛 The Portico Kitchen's Pea and Basil Gnocchi is always a big hit at lunchtime. Handmade Italian-style potato dumplings are pan-fried and served with our delicious house pesto. Give it a try next time you're in!

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The Portico Library @porticolibrary.bsky.social · 14/09/2026

Great to see our recent Peterloo walking tour, led by Matt Stallard from the Global Threads Team, featured in The @theguardian.com...

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The Portico Library @porticolibrary.bsky.social · 09/09/2026

💍 Our Manchester Jewellery Week pop-up exhibition, ‘Bound, Fabricate, Worn’, is now open and ready for you to explore! We'll be hosting a little celebration launch this Friday at 5.30pm, which is free for all to attend...

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The Portico Library @porticolibrary.bsky.social · 04/09/2026

We're thrilled to be collaborating with poet, playwright and theatre-maker Faye Draper on Habitué, a new exhibition opening at Manchester Poetry Library later this month...

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The Portico Library @porticolibrary.bsky.social · 03/09/2026

💍 Next Friday, we'll be launching a very exciting pop-up display to mark the arrival of Manchester Jewellery Week!...

Manchester jewellery week portico poster

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The Portico Library @porticolibrary.bsky.social · 01/09/2026

🌙 This Thursday, we'll be hosting a special Relaxed Late in celebration of ESEA Heritage Month...

ESEA Heritage Month relaxed lates poster

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The Portico Library @porticolibrary.bsky.social · 28/08/2026

🔎 Come in. Sit down. Explore. The Unbuilt Room is part performance, part game...an interactive journey where the Portico creates memories. After the success and huge popularity of last year's events, we're thrilled to have The Unbuilt Room back at The Portico this October...

The Portico reading room with Unbuilt Room graphic

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The Portico Library @porticolibrary.bsky.social · 26/08/2026

🌙 Kick off your bank holiday weekend early with our penultimate Relaxed Late of the summer tomorrow evening... No need to book; pop in, play some chess, see our latest exhibitions, join a short tour of the library and see some mystery books from our historic collection!

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The Portico Library @porticolibrary.bsky.social · 23/08/2026

♥️ This is the current stack of postcards that we'll be storing inside the Portico Time Capsule, all featuring memories of the library shared by visitors to our Everything and Nothing exhibition. Look how tall it is! We've got more than 500 so far, and still counting...

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The Portico Library @porticolibrary.bsky.social · 21/08/2026

Last Saturday afternoon, Matt Stallard from the Global Threads Team led a fascinating and incredibly insightful Peterloo walking tour, setting off from The Portico after a viewing of historic books linked to the massacre...

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The Portico Library @porticolibrary.bsky.social · 17/08/2026

♟️ Next month, join us for a relaxing night of chess and music beneath The Portico dome... We're super excited to have Jasper Cheng DJing, spinning a soundtrack of bebop jazz, and the wonderfully talented Hattie Kongaunruan will be running a 'Design Your Own Chess Piece' workshop...

A game of chess happening at The Portico

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Dr Stephen Curtis @earlymodernhorror.bsky.social · 14/08/2026

Had a fantastic conversation in the museum and found out about this amazing exhibition coming to this October. Managed to go from the Pendle witches to heavy metal and classic civilisations in under 10 minutes :) will make sure I get along.

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The Portico Library @porticolibrary.bsky.social · 14/08/2026

☀️ In the interest of safety, we'll be closing a little earlier today, at 3pm, due to the heat, and reopening tomorrow at 12pm. We apologise for any inconvenience this might cause.

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The Portico Library @porticolibrary.bsky.social · 14/08/2026

🍃 We're thrilled to unveil some early details of a new exhibition heading to The Portico this autumn... Opening this October, Witches & Healers draws on Rosie Reed Hillman’s groundbreaking project, Something That Was Ours, which explores what it means to be a witch today...

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The Portico Library @porticolibrary.bsky.social · 12/08/2026

☀️🌕 Excited about (safely) catching today's solar eclipse? To celebrate the historic event, we brought out a gorgeous 1871 copy of Richard A. Proctor's The Sun: Ruler, Fire, Light and Life of the Planetary System, which explores the eclipse of 1868...

A copy of The Sun: Ruler of the Planetary System

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The Portico Library @porticolibrary.bsky.social · 10/08/2026

This Saturday, we invite you to join a free Peterloo walking tour beginning at The Portico... The event is inspired by research carried out by Manchester's Global Threads team, supporting the Portico Reunited project, which helps reposition Peterloo in its global context as a Transatlantic Moment.

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The Portico Library @porticolibrary.bsky.social · 07/08/2026

⚓️ That's right, we're still obsessing over The Odyssey (we were doing it before it was cool, too), so we're hosting another Slow Reading Club inspired by the epic...

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(Dr) Debbie Challis @poisonchallis.bsky.social · 06/08/2026

Great slow reading with people of Xenia / Zeus’ law in The Odyssey @porticolibrary.bsky.social yesterdays. And a treat to look at and talk about Chapman’s Homer. Thanks all for coming!

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The Portico Library @porticolibrary.bsky.social · 05/08/2026

💫 Have you had the chance to visit our latest exhibition yet?

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The Portico Library @porticolibrary.bsky.social · 03/08/2026

🚨 BREAKING NEWS: We’ve just performed emergency surgery on a book suffering from an acute episode of stapled rebinding...

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(Dr) Debbie Challis @poisonchallis.bsky.social · 29/07/2026

Put together some recommended reading for the #Odyssey & its world: translation, women, a retelling, an archaeologist view, wellbeing, translation, Caribbean, modernist etc Any profits go to support @porticolibrary.bsky.social. Of interest @alexpodyssey.bsky.social uk.bookshop.org/lists/the-ma...

uk.bookshop.org

The Many Takes of The Odyssey In Print

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The Portico Library @porticolibrary.bsky.social · 28/07/2026

☀️ Heading into town through the summer holidays? We've got plenty to keep readers of all ages entertained!..

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(Dr) Debbie Challis @poisonchallis.bsky.social · 24/07/2026

Want to actually read it re-read The Odyssey (or bits of it)? Join me in a couple of weeks to read around Xenia / hospitality / Zeus’ law @porticolibrary.bsky.social. I’ll be using Emily Wilson’s translation but we’ll have others available to see at the end. www.theportico.org.uk/event-calend...

theportico.org.uk

Slow Reading: The Odyssey and Zeus' Law (Xenia) — The Portico Library

A bookclub but with a difference - a few passages to read & discuss in a relaxed environment. Explore the Odyssey ahead of the film...

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The Portico Library @porticolibrary.bsky.social · 20/07/2026

♟️ This September, join us for a relaxing evening of chess under the ambience of the Portico Georgian dome, with a soundtrack of bebop jazz from DJ Jasper Cheng...

A game of chess and drink at The Portico

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The Portico Library @porticolibrary.bsky.social · 17/07/2026

🌙 Join us for Relaxed Lates at The Portico... Running every Thursday from 23rd July - 27 August, these after-hours events offer the unique opportunity to explore The Portico and our collection outside of our regular opening hours...

Relaxed Lates at the portico event poster

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The Portico Library @porticolibrary.bsky.social · 14/07/2026

🫖 We had a fabulous time hosting our latest Literary Afternoon Tea on Saturday! Thank you again to our incredible kitchen team, who, as always, put on a splendid spread, and to our wonderful guests who made it such a joyful afternoon!

Cakes and scones from afternoon tea at The Portico

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(Dr) Debbie Challis @poisonchallis.bsky.social · 08/07/2026

The obsession with Homer & the #odyssey is nothing new. A 19thC Prime Minister wrote volumes on Homer, arguing that the epics were based on fact. This was one of his pretty volumes. Find out more @porticolibrary.bsky.social www.theportico.org.uk/event-calend...

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The Portico Library @porticolibrary.bsky.social · 10/07/2026

✍️ We're delighted to have teamed up with the @royalliteraryfund.bsky.social for a special event dedicated to championing the art of writing and publishing...

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The Portico Library @porticolibrary.bsky.social · 09/07/2026

🏛️ Who needs the film when you can search for Ithaca among the books in the Portico collection? Next Wednesday, take a tour of translations of the Odyssey, from Chapman to Emily Wilson, and discover how the Victorians actually discovered Bronze Age Greece in excavation and text...

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The Portico Library @porticolibrary.bsky.social · 07/07/2026

🎊 A massive congratulations to Marta and Arthur, who tied the knot at The Portico over the weekend!

Marta & Arthur cutting wedding cake at The Portico

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The Portico Library @porticolibrary.bsky.social · 03/07/2026

💕 Closed for a wedding... We apologise for any inconvenience, but the Portico will be closed tomorrow as we have the pleasure of hosting a wedding! Curious about holding your big day at The Portico? Find out more here: www.theportico.org.uk/weddings 📸 Cassandra Lane

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The Portico Library @porticolibrary.bsky.social · 03/07/2026

🪉 Imaginary Landscapes... Coming to The Portico later this month, Imaginary Landscapes unites the spellbinding poetry of Chris Tutton with the semi-improvised harp brilliance of international award/winning harpist, Lucy Nolan...

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The Portico Library @porticolibrary.bsky.social · 30/06/2026

🫖 Join the Portico Kitchen team on Saturday 11th July for a literary afternoon tea celebrating Rebecca, Daphne du Marier's gothic classic of love, loss and betrayal...

Afternoon tea stand field with scones at the portico

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The Portico Library @porticolibrary.bsky.social · 25/06/2026

🙌 The brilliant Susana Sánchez-González has published a fascinating new article, The Ordinary Numinosity of the Book...

Susana Sánchez-González at The Portico Library

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The Portico Library @porticolibrary.bsky.social · 19/06/2026

🔎 Tours at The Portico... We're delighted to announce that group tours of the library are now available to book, taking place on Wednesdays from mid-September...

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The Portico Library @porticolibrary.bsky.social · 18/06/2026

🏳️‍🌈 This Saturday, we invite you to a special Pride-themed instalment of our Mysterious Book of the Month. The relaxed event will offer the rare chance to explore, hold, and dive a little deeper into a selection of mysterious books chosen from our 25,000-strong historic collection...

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The Portico Library @porticolibrary.bsky.social · 17/06/2026

⚽️ Inspired by all the excitement surrounding England's first World Cup game against Croatia this evening, we've been digging through our archives... First up, a couple of brilliant images from The Badminton Library of Sports and Pastimes...not sure why 'The Dribling Game' didn't quite catch on...

the badminton library of sports and pastimes football illustrations

the badminton library of sports and pastimes cover

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(Dr) Debbie Challis @poisonchallis.bsky.social · 11/06/2026

Join fellow siren @alexpodyssey.bsky.social Dr Amanda Potter to think about libraries past, present & future @porticolibrary.bsky.social w a screening of Dr Who in a library in a library, so to speak. Only a few places left & free - part of Reuniting the Portico www.theportico.org.uk/event-calend...

theportico.org.uk

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The Portico Library @porticolibrary.bsky.social · 08/06/2026

📖 Why join The Portico? Portico members enjoy many fantastic benefits, ranging from access to our collection of more than 25,000 Georgian and Victorian books, to use of our stunning reading room. 🔗 You can find out more about all of our membership packages here: www.theportico.org.uk/membership

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