Town Hall : Attraction of Manchester

Manchester Town Hall is a building in Manchester, England that houses the city’s government and administrative functions. Completed by architect Alfred Waterhouse in 1877, it is a fine example of Victorian Gothic revival, featuring imposing murals by Ford Madox Brown.

As filming is forbidden in the Palace of Westminster, Manchester Town Hall is frequently used as its “body double” in British political dramatisations.

The Town Hall was listed as a Grade I listed building on February 25, 1952.

Old Town Hall

Manchester’s original civic administration was housed in the Police Office in King Street. It was replaced by the first Town Hall, to accommodate the growing local government and its civic assembly rooms. The Town Hall, also located in King Street at the corner of Cross Street, was designed by Francis Goodwin and constructed during 1822-1825, much of it by David Bellhouse.

The building was designed in the Grecian style and Goodwin was strongly influenced by his patron John Soane. As the size and wealth of the city grew, largely as a result of the textile industry, its administration outstripped the existing facilities and a new building was proposed. The King Street building was subsequently occupied by a lending library and then Lloyds Bank. The facade was removed to Heaton Park in 1912 when the current Lloyds TSB building was erected on the site (No 53 King Street).

Design and construction of the new building

The site chosen for a new town hall was an oddly shaped triangle and, of the 136 entries in open competition for the design, Waterhouse’s expoiled the constraints in the most practical and imaginative way. Despite its medieval styling, the building was designed to support the practical bureaucratic technologies of the 19th century. There was even a warm-air heating system.

The building exemplifies the Victorian Gothic revival style of architecture, using themes and elements from 13th century Early English. The choice was influenced by the wish for a spiritual acknowledgement to Manchester’s heritage in the textile trade of the Hanseatic league and also an affirmation of modernity, the fashionable gothic style being preferred over the classical architecture favoured in neighbouring Liverpool. The exterior, of spinkwell stone, is decorated with carvings of important figures in Manchester’s history. The interior is made of multi-coloured terracotta produced by the famous Gibbs And Canning Limited of Tamworth.

Construction started in 1868, at a cost of GBP one million, comprising fourteen million bricks.

The new building had been championed by radical mayor Abel Heywood and his notoriety entailed Queen Victoria’s refusal to attend the opening.

The bell tower

There is a 280-foot (85-metre) bell tower, housing a carillon of 23 bells manufactured by John Taylor Bellfounders. The clock bell, Great Abel is named for Heywood. It is inscribed with the initials AH and the Tennyson line Ring out the false, ring in the true. The clock is by Gillett and Bland (predecessor of Gillett and Johnston) and its face bears the inscription Teach us to number our Days.