Hundreds of people have gathered in Manchester to remember “Britain’s Tiananmen Square”, as calls grow to include the Peterloo massacre on the national curriculum.

An estimated 18 people were killed on 16 August 1819 when government troops, plus local yeomanry, charged into a crowd of 60,000 protesters who had gathered at St Peter’s Field in central Manchester to demand the reform of parliamentary representation. Over 650 others were injured, some stabbed with sabres, others trampled by horses.

The aftermath led to an acceleration in the progress of suffrage in Britain – and, two years later, to the formation of the Manchester Guardian. At the time of the massacre, just 2% of the population had the vote.

These people were murdered by the state but it’s taken almost 200 years for their stories to be properly told Christopher Eccleston

The former Doctor Who actor Christopher Eccleston, who is from Salford in Greater Manchester, addressed the crowd in Albert Square on Sunday from an upstairs window in the neogothic town hall.

Playing the role of Charles W Ethelstone, a 19th-century magistrate who presided over Peterloo, Eccleston read the riot act, warning those gathered to disperse in order to prevent “tumults and riotous assemblies”. He signed off with “God save the King!” – an exultation met with a broad “bugger off!” from one gruff Lancastrian in the crowd.

Talking beforehand, Eccleston said he supported the campaign for a permanent memorial to the massacre. Currently it is just marked by a small red plaque, which notes the deaths but fails to point the finger of blame at the government for sanctioning the violence. “These people were murdered by the state,” said Eccleston, “but it’s taken almost 200 years for their stories to be properly told.”

He said all children should be taught about Peterloo, a term which came about in jest, when survivors made sarcastic parallels with the battle of Waterloo four years previously.

Jonathan Reynolds, Labour MP for Stalybridge and Hyde, agreed. He had walked from Hyde to the memorial event, and read out the story of one of the victims from his constituency. “Of course children should be taught about the Peterloo massacre in schools,” he said. “Along with all of that phase in our industrial history.”

Manchester city council has agreed to support a permanent memorial and has commissioned the Turner prize-winning artist Jeremy Deller to create it, said Pat Karney, a Manchester city Labour councillor: “It’s part of Manchester’s socialist history and we can’t let that slide from memory.”

The Peterloo Memorial Campaign Group unveil their Peterloo Tapestry in Albert Square Photograph: Christopher Thomond/The Guardian

The names of the dead were read to the crowd by well-known local figures, including the lord mayor, Eddy Newman, and the actor Maxine Peake. Peake was taking a break from filming Mike Leigh’s film about Peterloo, due for cinematic release next year.

She delivered a message from the director, who said: “Putting this important piece of political history on the big screen has been a mammoth task for us all, and we only hope that our modest efforts will succeed in awakening the wider world to the event that becomes more relevant with every new episode of our crazy times.”