MAVIS DEAN

I knew the Town Hall initially through my father. He worked there in the 1930’s as an architect’s clerk based in the Town Hall Extension. For a period of time, he went away to fought in the war, but on his return came back and carried on in the Town Hall. As a child he would take me to the Hallé Concerts which at that time were in the Free Trade Hall.

When I went to college as a mature student, our class would walk to the Town Hall, sandwiches in our hands and into the Great Hall. Every Friday at lunch the Hallé Orchestra would rehearse, and we were allowed to sit in.

We used to sit on the carpeted floor in the Great Hall and listen to Sir John Barbirolli conducting. While the main performances were in the Free Trade Hall, they needed a space to rehearse and the Great Hall inside the Town Hall was perfect.

And so, all of us students on our lunch break every Friday, would sit and listen to the music echoing and bouncing off the walls, murals by Ford Madox Brown and worker bees on the frieze watching with us - a captivated audience!

I’ve learnt a lot about Ford Madox Brown and the links to the pre-Raphaelites since then, and now when I do tours at Manchester Art Gallery, I make sure to mention the paintings and murals in the Town Hall as an example of the cultural offer Manchester has.