Description of the attraction
Manchester City Hall is a beautiful neo-gothic building located in the city center.
In the 19th century, Manchester grew and developed rapidly, and the city began to miss the old town hall, located on King Street. The new town hall was designed by the architect Alfred Watrehaus. Construction began in 1868 and was completed in 1877. The building was built in the neo-gothic style with elements of the early English gothic of the 13th century. Outside, the town hall is decorated with sculptures of people who have played a significant role in the history of Manchester. Inside you can see beautiful ceiling paintings and tiles.
The building was built taking into account the urban atmosphere of Manchester at the time - air pollution, smog, overcrowding and a lack of building space. This, first of all, determined the choice of the material for construction - hard Pennine sandstone, and not the soft red, from which most of the Georgian houses are built. In addition, this was reflected in the interior layout of the building, where daylight and light, but washable finishing materials are used to the maximum.
Waterhouse practically did not use carved decorations and various colors in his project, which was the reason for accusations that the town hall turned out to be “not Gothic enough”.
Despite the fact that the exterior of the building is stylized in the Middle Ages, it contains the most modern engineering communications at that time, gas lighting and heating. Pipes, vents and similar technical details are cleverly hidden in decorative elements, stair railings and the like.
The building is crowned with a tower 85 meters high, on which there is a clock and a carillon of 23 bells.
The Town Hall Tower is very similar to the Palace of Westminster, which is why it is sometimes filmed in films and television programs in the "role" of Westminster.
