Back Home. Definitely Maybe

I first saw this on blip (here) and as I parked nearby this morning en route to my meeting, I had a look.

He is Friedrich Engels, and he arrived in front of HOME mid July as part of the Manchester International Festival.

Formerly he had stood at a crossroads somewhere in the Ukraine, but with the demise of the Soviet Union was taken down, cut in half and left in some backyard. He was brought to Manchester via Wuppertal (where Engels was born) and Berlin (where he spent some time).

Why is he here ? Well, Engels arrived in Manchester (or more correctly, Salford) in 1842 where his father had a mill (it must have been an early international business). A radical he published his big tome, "The condition of the working class in England" in 1845 (it took 50 years for it to be translated into english, mind). And he spent time in Manchester with Karl Marx. Sitting studying together in Chethams library, they wrote "the Communist Manifesto" there.

There is a link to yesterday's blip. I heard today that "The Crescent" pub on Salford Crescent closed yesterday (reputedly bought by Chinese investors). Myth has it that Marx and Engels drank there. It all sounds a bit too Citizen Smith to me. It's a bit difficult to imagine their evenings being a a barrelful of laughs !

The question is - will Engels now stay at Home ?