Albert Square Panorama, Manchester UK

Albert Square is a public square in the centre of Manchester, England. It is dominated by its largest building, Manchester Town Hall Grade I, a Victorian Gothic building by Alfred Waterhouse and previously in the opposite corner by the Square Albert, a Tetleys pub.

Albert Memorial, a monument to Prince Albert, Prince consort of Queen Victoria is in the square. The square, also named after the Prince, was originally laid out to provide a space for this memorial in 1863–67. Work on the new town hall began in 1868 and was completed in 1877. On the top of the clock tower is a golden cotton seed, the symbol of teh source of Manchester City and its cottonopolis prosperity.

The creation of the square arose out of a project by Manchester Corporation's Monuments Committee to erect a memorial to Prince Albert who had unexpectedly died of typhoid in 1861. After some initial proposals to create a memorial library, museum or botanical gardens, the committee decided to erect a statue in a decorated canopy. It was originally planned to place the monument in Piccadilly Gardens, but it was felt that its ornate design was not in keeping with the surrounding buildings. In 1863, land was offered by the Corporation which was cleared to make way for a public space.

The project won much public support; the Manchester Bricklayers' Protection Society donated 50,000 bricks towards the construction of the monument, "as an expression of sympathy towards our beloved Queen". When construction problems arose (the site was found to be riddled with drains and culverts) and these bricks were used up on the foundations alone, a further public subscription was launched in 1865 and a further £6,249 was raised, in spite of the hardships of the Cotton Famine.

The Memorial is topped with an ornate spire, and on each side a crocketed gable with canopied pinnacles on colonettes. Within the canopies stand symbolic figures representing art, commerce, science and agriculture. Below these stand secondary figures representing particular disciplines; The Four Arts: painting, architecture, music, sculpture
Commerce: the Four Continents ; The Four Sciences: chemistry, astronomy, mechanics, mathematics ; Agriculture: the Four Seasons.

In the town hall, despite its medieval styling, the building was designed to support the practical technologies of the 19th century. These included gas lighting, and a warm-air heating system, which provided fresh air drawn through ornamental stone air inlets placed below the windows and admitted behind the hot water pipes and 'coils' of rooms. Warmed, fresh air was also fed into the stairwells and through hollow shafts within the spiral staircases in order to ventilate the corridors. The pipes that supplied the gas for the lighting were ingeniously concealed underneath the banister rails of the spiral staircases.

While not quite as grand as the hotel de ville in Brussels or similar buildings in Europe, the town hall in Manchester proclaimed that the city had 'arrived'. A saying capturing this sense of innovation survives today: "What Manchester does today, the rest of the world does tomorrow. Although I do not think they were in fact refering to Bez of the Happy Mondays when they coined that :-)

(2010 week 19)

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(c) Hotpix / HotpixUK Tony Smith - Hotpix.freeserve.co.uk WDCC

Taken on: May 17, 2010

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Sets appears in: • Panoramas • Up my street

Groups appears in: • Manchester, UK • AutoStitch (& other stitching software) more » • Panorama Pics • Manchester Calling • Beautiful Capture • "This Photo Rocks!" (Post 7 - Award 3) • Royal Group - Have a Good Light ! • Historical and architectural gems • Manchester - The REAL side • Manchester Photographers • ***FLICKRPEDIA*** House of Knowledge/Please comment on 3 • PANORAMA`s & PHOTOSTICHING`s • **Super Best Shots on Flickr**/ P.1, A.5 ! NO COMMENT=BAN! • !*Flickr Award Group*! (GIVE 5 AWARDS) • Warrington District Camera Club ( WDCC ) • Post Process & Plug-ins • National Geographic Group • WONDERFUL WORLD OF BUILDINGS / ARCHITECTURE (P1 / A1 ) • Alfred Waterhouse • Zodiac Awards * Post 1 - Award 3 * *Sweeper Active* • Manchester The Good The Bad and The Ugly • Charnwood F64 • British Greats • * * * The House of Image Gallery (Post 1 and must Award 3) • A Photos **( POST 1 AWARD 5 )** • Joiner love • 106.1 Real XS - Manchester • _city in my hands_ • GREATER MANCHESTER UK. « less

Camera: Fujifilm FinePix S1500, f/4.0, 1/120 sec, 5.9mm, ISO 100 (more info) (hide info)

Camera:	Fujifilm FinePix S1500
Aperture:	f/4.0
Exposure Time:	0.008 sec (1/120)
Focal Length:	5.9mm
ISO:	100
Exposure Bias:	-0.67 EV
Flash:	Off, Did not fire
Exposure Program:	Aperture-priority AE
Exposure Mode:	Auto
Metering Mode:	Multi-segment
White Balance:	Auto
Color Space:	sRGB
Software:	Adobe Photoshop CS4 Windows
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