The preferred site in Albert Square would have required the removal and relocation of other statues and monuments, and was opposed by the city's artistic bodies.

The next choice was Piccadilly Gardens, an area already identified for a possible art gallery and library; but in the interests of speedier delivery, the memorial committee settled on St Peter's Square.

Having picked a site, it was originally proposed to choose an architect by open competition, but the memorial committee was criticised in the local press when it reserved the right to overrule the judgement of the independent assessor.

The cenotaph is topped by an effigy of a fallen soldier and decorated with relief carvings of the imperial crown, Manchester's coat of arms and inscriptions commemorating the dead.

The memorial was unveiled on 12 July 1924 by the Earl of Derby, assisted by Mrs Bingle, a local resident whose three sons had died in the war.

It is a grade II* listed structure and in 2015, Historic England recognised Manchester Cenotaph as part of a national collection of Lutyens' war memorials.

The Manchester Regiment and the Lancashire Fusiliers, which largely recruited from the city and towns to the north, were swollen by pals battalions drawn from local employers, social groups, and neighbourhoods.

[3] The committee limited the budget to £10,000 and very rapidly raised this sum; donors being assured that local firms would benefit from the construction and resulting employment.

The dispute was only partially resolved, as although the trustees consented to the construction of the cenotaph they refused to allow the removal of the cross while the burials remained in place.

Conveniently, Lutyens assured the committee in August 1923 that his design could accommodate the cross and crypts remaining in place, while clearly distinct; and so this whole issue was deferred until after the cenotaph had been completed and dedicated.

The Stone of Remembrance that he designed in 1917 appears in all large Imperial War Graves Commission (IWGC) cemeteries and in several of his civic memorials, including Manchester's.

[10] His Cenotaph on Whitehall in London became the focus for national Remembrance Sunday commemorations and one of the most influential designs for war memorials in Britain.

Below the catafalque, on the front and rear, are moulded swords and imperial crowns, and to the sides are Manchester's coat of arms surrounded by laurel wreaths.

The cenotaph bears inscriptions below the coat of arms: "TO THE HONOURED MEMORY OF THOSE WHO GAVE THEIR LIVES FOR THEIR COUNTRY" (on the north-west side) and "O LORD GOD OF OUR FATHERS KEEP THIS/FOREVER IN THE IMAGINATION OF THE THOUGHTS OF THE HEART OF THY PEOPLE" (on the south east).

The stone, a monolith in the shape of an altar, is 12 feet (3.7 metres) long and subtly, aesthetically curved; it is devoid of decoration and inscribed, "THEIR NAME LIVETH FOR EVERMORE".

The sculpture's position high above eye level gives the soldier anonymity, complementing the abstract shapes of the structures and allowing an onlooker to project an image of their own choosing onto it,[21][22][23][24] and distances the viewer from the fact of the death and focuses on an idealised sense of self-sacrifice.

[28] The controversies that arose during the memorial's gestation largely disappeared after its unveiling; the Manchester City News praised the design for its "simplicity of forms and rhythmic beauty of proportion".

In 1949, the dates for World War II were added as inscriptions on the obelisks, and the surrounding area was laid out as a garden of remembrance designed by the city architect, L. C.

The suitability of St Peter's Square re-emerged in 1925 during discussions about the proposed art gallery and consideration was given to moving the cenotaph to Piccadilly.

From 1992 St Peter's Square became the location of one of the main city centre stops for Manchester's Metrolink tram system; such that stanchions and overhead power lines increasingly intruded on the cenotaph, and platforms abutted directly onto the low wall around the post-WWII garden of remembrance.

In March 2011, Manchester City Council began a public consultation on moving the cenotaph to an alternative site (within the 1980 extension of the square), to allow for further expansion of the tram network.

In 2014 the cenotaph was reconstructed in a new memorial garden on the opposite side of the square aligned with Manchester Town Hall's southern entrance.

The city council commissioned conservation architects Stephen Levrant Heritage Architecture to manage the relocation and design the new setting which places the cenotaph, obelisks and stone on a plinth in an oval surrounded by a low wall.