Glorious Gothic

Glorious Gothic

The Gothic roots of Rochdale Town Hall, juxtaposed against the secular messages within, provides the backdrop to a remarkable interior, finds Andy Marshall

Previous page: The Great Hall overlooked by a magnificent carved heraldic lion. Most of the wood carving was carried out by Thomas Earp from London who worked for leading Gothic architect George Edmund Street.

This page, Top: Rochdale Town Hall with Alfred Waterhouse's clock tower. Above: A portrait of William Henry Crossland situated in The Exchange.

whilst walking head down, along the glassy sheen of the civic paving in Rochdale, most will find themselves drawn to what looks like a giant, bejewelled casket shimmering beyond the tungsten lamplight. What they will conceive, as the mirage becomes reality, is the warm, welcoming pattern and hue of the stained glass of Rochdale Town Hall.

Surprisingly the Town Hall is a little known building which has an international architectural and artistic pedigree. Completed in 1871 it was built upon the back of decades of success in the textile industry. It was commissioned by proud citizens, who saw their success to be on a par with the medieval merchants of Venice. The architect was William Henry Crossland from Leeds, who had been articled to George Gilbert Scott. He was the winner of a competition announced in 1864.

The original estimate for the building was £20,000, but over the next seven years this was to rise to over £150,000. In his opening speech on the building's inauguration, the Mayor vindicated the massive outlay with the words "we cannot have beauty without paying for it".

With the benefit of hindsight, the outlay pales into insignificance against the rich pedigree of artists associated with the interior and exterior decoration. It was built in a period when architecture gripped the national conscience in the same way that popular film and music does today. The main protagonists in the design, construction and decoration of the Town Hall were 'A' list celebrities, whose rise and fall depended upon the articulate wit and patronage of social commentators and critics such as John Ruskin and William Morris.

Beneath the oak rafters of the Great Hall, almost spanning the full width of the gable, is a mural depicting the signing of the Magna Carta.

It was completed over a period of 12 months at a cost of £450 by the artist Henry Holiday. The flowing garments of the participants in the mural are reminiscent of his most famous work 'The meeting of Dante with Beatrice'. Holiday, often stayed at Brantwood in Cumbria which was the home of John Ruskin. It was Ruskin who introduced Holiday to the Pre-Raphaelite brotherhood, in the form of Edward BurneJones, whose studio he worked in for a time.

The Exchange was originally intended to house the business transactions of the town's woollen merchants.

The vaulted ceiling is supported by columns of polished red and grey granite. The floor by Minton & Co features the Royal Coat of Arms interspersed with the Duchy of Lancaster and the Borough of Rochdale

The Grand Staircase leads from the Exchange upto the Great Hall. The side w and Yorkshire as well as countries and ports linked with the trade. The top lig developments of the day including the steam ship, railway and electric telegr

windows contain the arms of major textile manufacturing towns of Lancashire ghts of the east and west windows represent the latest technological raph.

Beyond the Great Hall, the Grand Staircase is emblazoned in stained glass by Heaton, Butler and Bayne. This band of innovators and artists were one of the most prolific Victorian stained glass manufacturers in the West. Robert T. Bayne was a disciple of Dante Gabriel Rossetti, and later completed schemes as far away as the Church of Saint Ignatius Loyola, New York in the United States.

The exterior boasts a unique later addition from an eminent architect. When the original tower burnt down in 1883, it was the architect behind London's Natural History Museum, Alfred Waterhouse, who re-built the imposing clock tower we see today.

Not only the best artists, but also the highest standard of decorative materials were used. The spectacular floor in the Exchange, for example, consists of brightly coloured heraldic motif's made from encaustic tiles manufactured by the 'Puginian' leading light of ceramics, Minton & Co. Added to the significance of the Town Hall's artistic pedigree is the surprising juxtaposition of traditional values with cutting edge and topical issues. Whilst the stylistic fabric harks back to the golden age of medieval Gothic, the subject matter belies the innovative epoch of the British Victorian renaissance.

The building is a secular temple to the Victorian work ethic and the cotton industry of the north. Instead of stories from the Bible we have the parable of the textile revolution writ large in flat relief on a frieze in the Reception Room. Lift up thine eyes towards the lancetted stained glass and you will be enlightened by the laisses-faire light of cutting edge technology in the form of Stephenson's steam locomotive. The visual surprise of a locomotive expressed in stained glass is tempered by the formal surroundings of heraldic devices. Even so, such devices relate to the arms of the major textile manufacturing towns; of countries supplying raw materials; and British ports from which its products were shipped throughout the world.

The whole building comes together within the spatial zenith of the Great Hall. Loosely based upon Westminster Hall, the roof is supported by 16 massive hammer beams which are decorated in gilt and the Royal Livery colours. On the deal panels between the rafters are painted the liveries of Great Britain and Ireland. The hammer beams visual strength is softened with the introduction of

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Opposite page, top: Detail of the Minton & Co encaustic floor in the Exchange. Middle: Stained glass detail highlighting global commerce. Bottom: Stone carving at the top of the Grand Staircase. This page, top: Detail from the mural depicting the signing of the Magna Carta by Henry Holiday. Bottom: Stephensons locomotive depicted in windows of the Grand Staircase.

Opposite: The massive hammer beams in the Great Hall are softened by angelic figures with gilded wings. This page, top: The Great Hall ceiling supported by hammer beams interspersed with deal panels decorated with heraldic motif's. Bottom left: Ornate access to organ and stage in the Great Hall. Bottom right: Hammer beam corbel detail of beast with coat of arms.

angelic carvings with feathered wings in gold relief. The walls are punctured with traceried lights with the traditional theme of English Kings and Queens. To the gables two rose windows incorporate Queen Victoria and her beloved Albert, Prince Consort - forever in structural antithesis.

If the Great Hall is the spatial zenith, the stained glass is the visual consummation of the interior space. The complete scheme remains, and is regarded as one of the finest civic collections of secular stained glass in Europe. The subject matter is vast: from the animated forms of animals, through to religious and heraldic iconography and finally unique stylistic depictions of the latest technology. Fixed between the sandstone tracery of the north facade of the Grand Staircase is one fine example. Here, the age of communication is represented by an exquisitely idyllic rural scene, crossed by the sharp parallel wires of the telegraph pole.

Walking around the building, the combination of visual chutzpah and spatial audacity gives a real feeling of being on an architectural roller coaster. When you finally step out, dizzy headed and slightly vexed, you finally get to the palpable truth behind the buttressed walls: the Town Hall is not rooted at all in the medieval past, but is a clear beacon of Victorian values; a stakeholder in the exponential advances of science and art witnessed during the period. Infused into this are many decorative devices which highlight Rochdale's links with the textile industry. They may be patterns and colours to the abstract eye, but look a little further and you will find a story being told of international, national and local prowess all as one.

The tension between ecclesiastical form and secular semantics is palpable and gives the building a tangible cultural fizz, and surely must make it a true icon in the history of architecture and art in the British Isles.

Regular guided tours of the Town Hall are available, which usually take place on Friday's.

Contact 01706 864797 for more information, or visit www.rochdale.gov.uk

Opposite page, top: Detail of the decorative frieze from the Reception Room which collectively shows the evolution of the textile industry. Middle: Gothic carved oak door to the Reception Room. Bottom: Musically inspired corbel detail in the Mayor's Parlour with a ceiling decorative scheme based upon Greek mythology. This page, top: A medley of images showing the rich detail and subject matter of the Town Hall's stained glass. Bottom left: Albert Prince Consort is the subject matter of the stained glass in a rose window in the Great Hall. Bottom right: Stained glass detail, Grand Staircase. The age of telecommunications is represented here with the electric telegraph forming part of an idyllic rural scene.