ABSTRACT
The original Manchester Town Hall stood on King Street. It had served the people of Manchester since 1825, when the town was governed by Police Commissioners. When a decision was made to show off Manchester’s civic dignity with a new town hall building, the desire was not only to build a new Great Hall accompanied by state rooms for the city council and its committees, but indeed to provide space for a multitude of administrative departments. A site near the Infirmary was first considered for the new town hall, but the final decision fell on an open patch of land in the city center, used as a municipal depot. The significance and complexity of the task at hand led the city to launch a competition for the architectural design of the new Manchester Town Hall. From the Albert Square facade, the form of the town hall is seemingly very long and thin.
