HIGH-END WORK!
M.E.N. GOES 280FT UP TOWN HALL TO SEE HOW £300M REFURB IS PROGRESSING
THE M.E.N. has been behind the scenes to see how the £300m refurb of Manchester town hall is getting on.
The six-year makeover is expected to be completed in 2024.
Our tour took us up the spire, where construction company LendLease is overseeing specialist renovation and restoration work.
After riding a lift up to the clock tower, there are a series of metal stairs and then 11 sets of ladders, some within incredibly tight gaps, that take you up to the top of the building 280ft up.
Although the scaffolding is covered with netting for safety reasons, the views across Manchester and further afield are spectacular.
The spire has had scaffolding erected around it to allow for detailed close inspection on repair work after drone surveys revealed damage to the stonework – caused by corroding iron cracking the stone. A gold spiked ball tops the spire and this has been carefully dismantled to expose the heavily corroded iron rod beneath.
Work will soon take place to replace the rod, repair oak beams and the stonework, before eventually restoring and repointing the finial (the gold spiked ball). Although the finial looks tiny from ground level, it is huge upclose and the effects of the spire not being repointed since 1889 are much easier to see, with the gold losing its sheen through years of wear and tear. Incredibly, though, names that were inscribed into the ball can still be seen some 133 years on.
Even when the town hall is fully open, the opportunity to visit the spire is extremely special.
Manchester council’s deputy leader and lead for the Our Town Hall project, Coun Luthfur Rahman, said: “The extensive works which are taking place to repair and restore Manchester town hall require access to parts of the building few people have ever been up close to – like the clock tower spire.
“It is a privilege for everyone involved in the project and we’re glad we’re able to share some of the unique views which are being opened up and give an insight into the care and attention which are being devoted to protecting this wonderful building for future generations While few will ever get to visit the top of the spire, we look forward to welcoming people back into the building when it reopens in 2024 and improving access to its architecture and historic artefacts.”
On the way back down the spire and the clock tower, there was the chance to spend some time looking at the intricacies of the building such as gargoyles and stone angels that you may just about see from the ground but never with this level of detail. All of the clock faces are being renovated and a crawl space within the tower leads to Great Abel – the bell named in honour of Victorian Lord Mayor of Manchester Abel Heywood.
The bell, which weighs eight tonnes, is also inscribed with ‘ring out the false, ring in the true’; a line from 1850 Alfred, Lord Tennyson poem ‘Ring Out, Wild Bells.’