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Birmingham Town Hall

Phil said:
Viv

Here is a copy of the official picture of the opening of the first Triennial music Festival to be held at the Town Hall in 1834. Next is a drawing of the Company arriving outside the hall. Finally a painting of the Town Hall illuminated by moonlight and gaslight for Wendy, does it look as good as the modern illuminations?

Phil
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Excellent painting and drawings Phil. The first drawing gives the impression it was jam packed with people. It was originally built to accommodate 3,000 people. Am I right in thinking the central lower level was for standing only? And the balconies all look like they could contain far more people in the 1830s than today. Here's the seating plan from the THSH site. My calculations make it capable of seating up to 1,051 today, just over a third of the original audience. Now very civilised seating.

https://www.thsh.co.uk/mmlib/includes/sendfile.php?id=272

One of the many changes made to the place was to create a crush hall in 1891. They certainly looked like they needed it! Viv.
 
Just saw the Midlands news with outside broadcast in City centre.
The Town Hall and the Council House looked brilliant,looked BIRMINGHAM.
 
Phil said:
Viv

Here is a copy of the official picture of the opening of the first Triennial music Festival to be held at the Town Hall in 1834. Next is a drawing of the Company arriving outside the hall. Finally a painting of the Town Hall illuminated by moonlight and gaslight for Wendy, does it look as good as the modern illuminations?

Phil
Click to expand...
Phil it looks lovely by gas light and fits the time it now looks equally lovely by flood light!
Viv I commented about the seating which Phil suggested was a bit of artistic license. The coffee bar is lovely as is the bar and when attending performances the artists often come down and join you at the bar.
I am sorry Rupert feels so strongly about the Town Hall but then again so do I but I love it!.
 
Just trying to get you conversing about something other than the weather. It worked. You can describe this tombstone to antiquity in other ways but beauty is not one of them I would think. Maybe Imposing or Gothic or Built or something. Lighting can make any pigs pudding look great, it's only columns, but does not change the reality. Perhaps the lower facing could be made a bit more presentable. Heck the inside resembles the old fish market except for the roof. We rave on about the old fish market but that too was gruesome but we became used to it and accostomed to it being there and finally missed it when it was gone. Methinks it would still be gone even if the roof had not burned off. The City Arcade was a different matter though and this combined with Union Passage and other parts could have been a honycomb of element free shops. The concept was great and it did not have to be ditched just because it was bombed. The good could have been kept and expanded upon. I guess people just wanted something better but ended up with just new.
 
To me it's encouraging that we can discuss a building with such emotion. A strength of this forum is recording the range of views, in a civilised manner where no-one gets hurt. :cry: :) Viv.
 
I think most people love the TH, I started a post a couple of years ago about my singing in the Youth Choir. It was there also that my Grandfather was presented with his silver medal in 1908, for helping in the attempted rescue of fellow miners at Hamstead Colliery.
Well done Rupert !!
 
A few snippets about the Town Hall from the Arcana of Science & Art Journal 1835 (an annual register of inventions etc) to help us visualise a little its construction:

"The structure is of bricks, which were made on the spot, of the earth excavated for the foundation. The walls are faced with Angelsea marble, of which material the columns and their accessories are composed. The stones were cut and worked by machinery with steam power, and the columns were fluted by the same means, an invention it is understood, of one of the contractors ..... "

"Another ingenious contrivance, consisting of a species of craning lever beam on rollers, was applied for the purpose of hoisting the framed tie-beams and principals of the roof from the ground up to the walls"




The article also mentions that the Hall could accommodate between 3,000 and 4,000 people sitting and 10,000 standing! Viv.
 
Here is a Epitaph in St. Paul church yard to 2 builders killed building the Town Hall. It is a segment of one of the Town Hall pillars....
 
I found that thanks to one of the books on Birmingham I've got (Birmingham Up Town).


Memorial for Birmingham Town Hall accident victims by ell brown, on Flickr
https://www.flickr.com/photos/ell-r-brown/5317734386/
It is in memory of John Heap and William Badger. They were killed on January 26 1833. John Heap was 38 and William Badger was 26.
Click to expand...
It is Grade II listed as Lower Part Of A Fluted Column.

Intended for the town hall during the building of which, in 1833, John Heap and William Badger were killed and to whom it was erected as a monument.
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Like the photos John. Good to see the area around the Town Hall put to good use.

A bit of info about the accident. During construction, on January 26, 1833, Heap and Badger, two workers were lifting roof beams onto the roof and were killed when a 70 foot crane constructed to install the roof trusses broke. The pulley block failed and the lifting equipment smashed into the scaffolding that the men stood on. John Heap died instantly and Win. Badger died a few days later from his injuries. The pillar base memorial in St. Philip's churchyard was made by one of the workmen. Viv
 
They are always using Victoria Square for various events. Recently it was used for Armed Forces Day. Think a Food Festival was on before that. At the moment there are Table Tennis Ping Pong tables in various squares across the city centre. And of course the Frankfurt Christmas Market each year.
 
I believe that it was to be demolished for the road development 50s/60s but it was thought to be un-wise politically...it being The Town Hall and all. So a different route was taken and the Central Library and Mason's College went under the wrecking ball. Since the area was opened up by the development the TH does have much better aspects...being less crowded, it's strong features are viewed to better effect, but the lost buildings were every day functional...period, practical and more design efficient for interior space not to mention beautiful. It's not that the TH is not striking; it is and is obviously more of a landmark than the other buildings mentioned. Still, if anything had to go, I personally would have chosen differently. It still looks in great nick so maybe it could have been moved to another more open space. I would have thought that the Council House was more of a town hall in every day reality. What are town halls like in other cities? Don't the Lord Mayors have offices in them. Are the Mayors and councilors offices in this one. Anyway it's there and a visual delight seemingly.
 
Paradise Circus Queensway does go quite close past the Town Hall though.

Fletcher's Walk and the Birmingham Conservatoire are architectually not as good as the Victorian buildings they replaced.

I expect those will be demolished post 2013 for the redevelopment of Paradise Circus.

The Town Hall is safe though, being Grade I listed, and recently fully restored.
 
These 3 drawings from the Architecture Magazine Vol 1 (1834) might be of interest.



https://birminghamhistory.co.uk/for...4/TownHallCongreve_St_Side_Elevation_1836.JPG

https://birminghamhistory.co.uk/forum/images2/userpics/10014/TownHallCrossSection_1836.JPG
https://birminghamhistory.co.uk/forum/images2/userpics/10014/TownHallfrom_Paradise_Street_1836.JPG


The second drawing shows the hoisting of the roof rafters using ropes attached to the ends of the tie beams and passed
And this is another 1830s drawing of the Hall with houses still alongside. Viv.
Town_Hall___Christ_Church_1834.JPG
 
This picture belongs here. It is also on the Paradise Street thread. Sketched from the raised forecourt of Christchurch. Allin's old curiosty shop is on the extreeme right on the corner of Congreve and Ann Street. On the far corner are the houses that were demolished to make room for the Town Hall. The row houses on the left would be a continuation of the ones next to the Town Hall on the previous post. Congreve St. runs up to the left of Alin's. There are other drawings on here in which you can just catch a little glimpse of the same far corner. On the last post in the last picture it looks like a load of coal going up towards Ann St. but not the usual two wheel carts...a four wheeler.
 
ellbrown said:
I found that thanks to one of the books on Birmingham I've got (Birmingham Up Town).


Memorial for Birmingham Town Hall accident victims by ell brown, on Flickr
https://www.flickr.com/photos/ell-r-brown/5317734386/
It is Grade II listed as Lower Part Of A Fluted Column.
Click to expand...


A little more info about the Town Hall accident from the Mechanics Magazine & Journal of Science, Arts & Manufacture Vol. 19:

Badger was a Stonemason. The section of the column on the memorial in St. Philip's churchyard was part of the last workmanship of Badger. The pedestal beneath it was voluntarily wrought by his fellow workmen. The marble used was the gift of his
employers.

John Heap was a Mason & Architectural Carver. He was working as a volunteer on the Town Hall construction.

The verses on the St.Philip's memorial were composed by Miss L A Twainley, "a young lady of considerable talent, and great poetical celebrity in Birmingham".

I get the impression that this was a very shocking and significant incident at the time. Viv.
 
Wondering if anybody would have any idea how I could trace when or if King George V visited the Town Hall,one of my relatives may have played the piano there for him.
 
Hi Alan: It seems that King George visited Birmingham many times along with Queen Mary during the King's reign. Doesn't seem to be any obvious mention of him visiting Birmingham Town Hall, however, there may be some record in the Birmingham Archives if he did attend.
 
Queen Mary spent a lot of holiday time at Castle Bromwich Hall, Lady Bridgeman was one of her 'handmaidens'. Not sure whether Kig George visited the Town Hall but the Prince of Wales did and some of the pen factories in the Jewellery Quarter too.
 
glynis said:
Queen Mary spent a lot of holiday time at Castle Bromwich Hall, Lady Bridgeman was one of her 'handmaidens'. Not sure whether Kig George visited the Town Hall but the Prince of Wales did and some of the pen factories in the Jewellery Quarter too.
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King GeorgeV and Queen Mary visited Birmingham on 22rd May1919, not sure if they went to the Town Hall. Bernard
 
I wonder if this 1850 Warren Blackham painting of Hill Street, looking towards the Town Hall is a view that would be possible today? It's a reminder of how high up the TH is. I think the first road across in the middle of the picture is probably Navigation Street. The painter must have been painting from a buiding quite close to where New St station would be built 4 years later. Viv.



https://birminghamhistory.co.uk/forum/images2/userpics/10014/normal_HillStreet1850.JPG
 
It is possible to take a photo from this spot, but the Town Hall would not be visible because the buildings opposite and down Hill Street, are too tall. I have not seen this painting before, what a beauty it is. There are many of us on this Forum who's gt gt grandparents would know this scene very well. How lovely it would be just to spend an hour or two going back to 1850 so we could have a first-hand view. Something that will never happen, but it's one at the top of my wish list.
 
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