Our Town Hall Heritage Lectures
Our series of Heritage Lectures shines a light on the fascinating work behind the scenes.
Next dates
Our next Heritage Lectures will be on Thursday 26 September and Thursday 21 November 2024. Tickets and details of these lectures are always made available to the Our Town Hall mailing list first. Sign up now if you'd like to receive these eBulletins.
Heritage Lectures to date
So far we’ve heard from:
- Hirst Conservation about their work on internal paint finishes, including the fabulous Ford Madox Brown murals in the Great Hall.
- The Mosaic Restoration Company about their work on the building’s many mosaic-tiled floors, including the famous Bees Landing.
- The Cumbria Clock Company about how they’ve removed the clock from the building to give it a full MOT, testing and repair before relocating it once building works to the tower are complete.
- Recclesia and Shepley Engineering, two of our stained-glass contractors, spoke about their work on the 4,000+ windows that needed repairs and/or restoration.
- Nicholson & Co, one of the two firms charged with removing, restoring and repairing our magnificent Cavaille-Col organ before reinstating it into the Great Hall
- Caesar's Conservation and Hatfields Conservation, two of the firms charged with the restoration and repair of the Town Hall's furniture collection
- Purcell and Bullens Conservation, describing the restoration and repairs of the albert Memorial in Albert Square.
All of these lectures focus on elements of the job that won’t show to the untrained eye when we reopen the building. They’re preserving the heritage, not replacing it or changing it. These works are what we’re calling the 'Invisible Story' of the project: the painstaking attention and long-learnt skills that are conserving the historic parts of the building to safeguard it for future generations of Mancunians.
We're very grateful to the Archives+ Team, who are joining us at each of these lectures and selecting a range of relevant materials for each session.