Manchester’s Town Hall clock tower is finally back on display

Manchester Town Hall’s newly restored clock tower has been revealed, marking a major milestone in the ongoing heritage project that started back in 2018.

It’s the first time the 280-ft tall clock tower, and Great Abel, the tower’s eight-tonne hour bell, have been visible since June 2021.

Since they were last on display, the clock’s four dials and four sets of hands – which had been suffering from the effects of 140 years of Mancunian weather – have been meticulously restored to their Victorian glory.

The cast iron dials, which were rusting and deteriorating with their paintwork worn away, have been restored. The glass panels which were cracked and damaged – including by the shockwaves of a World War II bombing raid in June 1941 – have been repaired, with the original glass retained wherever possible.

The 9ft 8ins long minute hand and 6ft long minute hands have been cleaned, treated and their ironwork repainted in its original colours, and the intricately-patterned dial and hour markers have also been re-gilded in 23-carat gold.

For now, the hour and minute hands are connected to a temporary drive while work to clean and repair the original clock mechanism is completed off-site ahead of its reinstallation.

The clock, made by master clockmakers Gillet and Bland, is the largest of its design ever made and remains one of the country’s biggest. It will be reinstalled once works to the rest of the clock tower are complete.

Work is also concluding on the clock tower’s Carillon, a set of 23 bells with which tunes can be played. This had previously not been working reliably, and was restricted to playing a small selection of tunes automatically controlled by a pianola-style punchcard. Once complete, it will be possible to play any tune on it.

Over the coming months, the council says the Town hall will begin to emerge from behind the scaffolding that has surrounded it for years.

Cllr Garry Bridges, Deputy Leader of Manchester City Council, said: “The town hall clock has been keeping the time for Mancunians since New Year’s Day 1879 and its prominent tower has watched over the city for even longer.

“As part of the once-in-a-century Our Town Hall project to repair and restore the town hall and safeguard it for future generations, we’ve taken the opportunity to bring it back to its original glory.

“It’s great that we’ve now reached a stage where we have been able to remove the scaffolding and restore the view of the clock tower, giving a foretaste of the whole building being returned to the people of Manchester in magnificent shape. It’s a milestone moment.”