Inside Manchester Town Hall

Our civic cathedral is about  to be mothballed for restoration until 2024.  Built  in 1877, when Alfred Waterhouse won the design competition, it was state of the art High Victorian Gothic Revival.  Take a tour of its splendours here while you still can - from the courtyard, through the corridors, state room grandeurs and the bees, staircases and statues, see the Lord Mayor's ceremonial silver display, and come back out by the Venetian style link bridge to the later Town Hall Extension, finishing with a look up at the grand facade in Albert Square. There are no saints in its ecclesiastical seeming niches, but scientists, politicians, thinkers, nobles and benefactors populate its history within.  It has been the scene of many meetings on many projects and many celebrations of many triumphs, but overall, it has always been a place for its people.