Alan Turing Memorial

The Alan Turing Memorial is a life-size bronze by Glyn Hughes of Turing sitting on a bench holding an apple, in Sackville Gardens. The site was picked on purpose: university buildings on one side, Canal Street's gay bars on the other. Turing did pioneering computing work at the University of Manchester after the war. In 1952 he was convicted of gross indecency in this city and sentenced to chemical castration, and he died of cyanide poisoning in 1954. The statue was unveiled on 23 June 2001, his birthday, paid for largely by public donations. It is free to visit at any hour, and flowers often appear around anniversaries and Pride.