COUNCIL bosses have revealed that a loan in the region of £330m is being sought to secure the future of Manchester’s most iconic, important and majestic structure.
Ultimately it would have to close altogether. Such a situation would be unthinkable
A detailed eighteen month survey of the Grade I-listed Town Hall found that over 54,000 parts of the 139-year-old building require attention, of which 40% needed immediate action (a figure which could rise to 85% within five years).
The council state that significant works are required to replace electric, plumbing, heating and ventilation systems, whilst the building’s stonework, windows and roof also require swift intervention.
It is estimated the works – if granted approval by the Council Executive – could begin in 2018 and conclude in 2023.
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The Town Hall's Sculpture Hall Cafe
Deputy Council Leader Bernard Priest said: “The Town Hall is an icon of Manchester, conceived by our Victorian forbears as a proud symbol of the city’s confidence and cherished by Mancunians ever since.
“But it’s almost 140 years old and it is seriously showing its age. If we don’t act we will have to stop using, and start mothballing, significant parts of this much-loved building sooner rather than later. Ultimately it would have to close altogether. Such a situation would be unthinkable."
The report also concluded that large parts of the building remain underused on a 'precautionary basis', with only 250 staff to be based there from August. It is estimated that improvements would enable the council to treble the number of staff working in the building, delivering savings as workers were moved from offices elsewhere.
Mr Priest also believes the building and some 2400 artefacts need to be made 'more accessible' to visitors, which is likely to include the commercialisation of parts of the Town Hall to offset some of the costs, with mooted options including a 'small boutique hotel and a gymnasium'.
A progress report will be considered by the Council Executive on Wednesday 27 July, but no final decision will be made until autumn.
Confidential Editor-at-Large and Manchester tour guide, Jonathan Schofield, says 'if that’s what it takes it needs to be spent... but no gym please':
The total cost of Manchester Town Hall when it opened in 1877 was £859,000, including land, fees, furnishings and so forth. To repair it and make it an all-singing, all dancing modern venue is predicted to cost £330m. This inflation indicator site (which seems pretty trustworthy) says that £859k in 2016 terms works out just shy of £90m. Thing is, of course, the price of craftsmanship in 1877, the stonemasons, mosaicists and so on was much lower, so maybe £330m is correct, if eye-boggling.
But if that’s what it takes it needs to be spent. Manchester Town Hall is our iconic building. It is the one tourists always photograph. But the Alfred Waterhouse building means more than a tourist op. Its complex beauty lies at the heart of civic governance. Manchester was an upstart city in some respects in the nineteenth century and one that took on the London establishment and scored a notable victory with Free Trade. The idea of strong, independent, fair-minded, local leadership was cemented during that struggle. Of course the leadership from the Town Hall might not have always lived up to the ideal, but the Town Hall building has always been consistent, representing a civitas with an identity and an aspiration to be proud, vigorous and compassionate.
The Lord Mayor at the time of the 1877 opening was Abel Heywood. He had to face criticism over the cost of the Town Hall. He batted it away. ‘We cleared a vast area, and Mr Waterhouse’s beautiful design rose, stone on stone and pillar on pillar,” he said. “We spared no expense. Every detail we desired to have perfect. To have been parsimonious, to have neglected corners or recesses which were obscure, to have allowed ornamentation which was tawdry, would have been for ever to brand Manchester as a city given up to no higher thought.'
There seems no reason to betray the words of Heywood in 2016. And while talk in the report of a boutique hotel in the building seems a little tawdry, that might be just about allowable as long as most of the building remains the Town Hall and the home of the administration of Manchester. Mentioning the insertion of a commercial gym in the report however, does seem demeaning for this city flagship: what about a roller-disco, a nail-bar or perhaps a Wetherspoons? Citizens and media will have to maintain close scrutiny as the plans go forward to ensure we get the building not only the city deserves today, but one worthy of our forebears and our children.
