Halfway through the construction stage - update film transcript
A transcript of the Our Town Hall Project update film, November 2022
Paul Candelent, Our Town Hall Project Director
“We’re just about approaching halfway through the construction stage of the Our Town Hall project. Over the course of the last two years we’ve been heavily engaged in stripping out old redundant services in preparation for the replacement of new mechanical and electrical installations. We’ve undertaken some heavy engineering works to create cores for the installation of five new lifts. We've restored and refurbished hundreds of leaded and timber sash windows and we’ve undertaken extensive stone repair works, including the dismantling and rebuilding of 34 chimneys.
We’re currently partway through the complete replacement of the roof slates and are approaching the final stages of that stone restoration work. It means we can turn our attention now to the restoration of the exquisite internal building finishes and all of the work that will bring the internal spaces back to life.
This project has always been about more than creating a functional workspace for the council to deliver its services from, and looking ahead to when the building reopens, a massive part of what we’re doing will open the building for the people of Manchester, with everything that that has to offer.”
Jamie Coath, Lead Architect
"It was a major objective of the project to provide inclusive access to every part of the building. We’ve got main lifts going all the way up the building in each corner, so they’re serving every level and they’re also acting as evacuation lifts in emergencies, but also to make sure that everybody can get to all the interconnecting spaces.
So before we made this structural opening in the floor we very carefully lifted all the mosaics that were on the floor here, and that included five panels of cotton flower design, which are then going to be reset in the floor of the new lift that’s going in this hole. So this, as I say, just takes us from the vestibule level up to the principal level really, of the entrance, which is the Sculpture Hall here.”
Councillor Luthfur Rahman OBE, Executive Member OTH Project
“This much loved, magnificent Town Hall of ours is getting ready to welcome you back and retake its position at the heart of our city’s civic centre. Thanks to an army of people; so many proud Mancunians who have been involved restoring the building’s fabric, bringing it up to 21st century standards, bringing its internal spaces back to life, opening up the building for more people, putting more of its treasures centre-stage.”
Jamie Coath, Lead Architect
“So it’s very difficult to appreciate where we are now, but we’re in the Great Hall. It’s absolutely full of scaffold because we’ve been repairing the ceilings, putting new windows in and cleaning the stonework. Most of that work is complete now and we’re just about to start dropping the scaffold in this space.”
Steve Hannon, Building Logistics Lead
“So we’ve got our Ford Madox Brown murals thoroughly protected, and we’re measuring and monitoring the environment. Attached to the face we have Japanese tissue paper. Attached to that we have a probe, and that probe measures temperature and relative humidity: we are micro-monitoring these at the moment. I don’t think they’ve ever been monitored to this level, so there’ll be a record of how we’ve kept them, and that record will stand us in good stead when we bring this Great Hall back to full public events use.”
Councillor Bev Craig, Leader of Manchester City Council
“We’ve been clear from the beginning that we wanted to have a restoration project that did justice to the beautiful building, but also delivered to the people of Manchester. And that’s why social value has been so important, and at the heart of everything that we do. From the spend that we have in our local economy right through to the creation of over 200 new jobs, over 100 apprenticeships, and thousands of opportunities for people in Manchester to learn from what we’re doing. Social value runs at the very heart of what we do. Everyone in our city is proud of Manchester Town Hall and I’m proud of how the work to restore Manchester Town Hall is delivering for Manchester people.”
Paul Candelent, Our Town Hall Project Director
“Personally, I can’t wait to see how the refurbished and rejuvenated Town Hall will once again play its part in the heart of the city. The Town Hall has been at the heart and soul of Manchester and its people for a hundred years and it will continue to do so into the future.”