Birmingham Town Hall
The Birmingham Town Hall is an entertainment venue in Birmingham , UK . The hall has a capacity of 1100 seats. The building was opened in 1834 and is now a Grade I listed building , the highest rating in the UK heritage site .
History of the structure
The Triennial Music Festival has been held in Birmingham since 1784 . In order to have enough space for this prestigious event, the plan to build the Birmingham Town Hall was made. After the announcement of a competition on the front page of the daily newspaper " The Times ", the decision was made in favor of Joseph Hansom as the architect. He had already made a name for himself by building churches in the style of historicism . Victoria Square in the center of the city was chosen as the location. The building was designed in the Roman style based on the ancient Castor temple in the Roman Forum . The external appearance is determined by Corinthian columns , 14 on each long side and 8 on each front side. The hall stands on a high base made of rusticated masonry . The interior is richly decorated with stucco and was originally partially colored.
The foundation stone was laid on April 27, 1832 . The construction time was 2½ years instead of the planned 1½ years and the construction costs were at 25,000 pounds sterling significantly higher than the originally planned amount of 8,000 pounds. The building was officially opened on October 7, 1834 , and the start of the three-year music festival. The hall has an organ with 6000 pipes. It was manufactured in 1934 by the William Hill & Sons company and was then considered the largest organ in the world.
In the following years, some expansion measures were carried out on the building under the architect Edward Welch. Further changes were made later, mainly inside. In 1991 the new Symphony Hall was opened in the city of Birmingham with a capacity of 2262 seats. The Town Hall lost its importance as a result. After more than 160 years of use, the city decided to undertake a comprehensive renovation with the aim of restoring the original condition as closely as possible. During the construction work, the hall was completely closed in 1996. Construction costs and schedule got out of hand again this time. The plan was £ 19.8 million and in the end it was £ 35 million. After twelve years on April 22nd, 2008, the renovated building was reopened by Prince Charles and his wife Camilla .
use
The Triennial Music Festival gained additional international attention in connection with the new hall. The hall's good acoustics were often praised from the start. Felix Mendelssohn Bartholdy conducted the highly acclaimed premiere of his oratorio Elias there in 1846 . Edvard Grieg , Jean Sibelius , Charles Gounod and Camille Saint-Saëns were other composers who presented their works to the public in Birmingham. Antonín Dvořák was an enthusiastic guest at the music festival. The world premiere of the oratorio The Dream of Gerontius by the British composer Edward Elgar took place in the Town Hall. The building was and is also used for other events. Charles Dickens read from his work " A Christmas Carol ".
Performers of popular music also performed in the hall: Buddy Holly , The Beatles , Led Zeppelin , Pink Floyd , Black Sabbath , The Rolling Stones and Bob Dylan A variety of other events take place in the building: dance, readings, lectures, political Speeches, fashion shows, conferences, meetings, celebrations, gala dinners, radio broadcasts, etc.
From 1918 to 1991, until the opening of the new Symphony Hall, Birmingham Town Hall was the home of the Birmingham Symphony Orchestra .
photos
North side of the hall
South side of the hall with main entrance
West side of the hall.
Design drawing (1831) according to a plan by the architect Joseph Hansom
literature
- Joe Holyoak: All About Victoria Square . The Victorian Society Birmingham Group, Birmingham 1989, ISBN 0-901657-14-X .
- Andy Foster: Pevsner Architectural Guides - Birmingham . Yale University Press, New Haven 2005, ISBN 0-300-10731-5 .
- Anthony Peers: Birmingham Town Hall - An Architectural History . Lund Humphries, Farnham 2012, ISBN 978-1-84822-074-4 .
- Nicholas Thistlewaite: Birmingham Town Hall Organ . Birmingham City Council, Birmingham 1984, OCLC 30721233 .
Web links
Coordinates: 52 ° 28 ′ 47 " N , 1 ° 54 ′ 13" W.
Individual evidence
- ↑ Historic England, Town Hall (Nr. = 1343161) ( en ) Retrieved June 15, 2020.
- ↑ Birmingham Town Hall ( en ) In: Visit Birmingham . Retrieved June 17, 2020.
- ^ A b c Graham Young: Celebrating the history of Birmingham Town Hall ( en ) In: Business Live . May 20, 2013. Accessed June 16, 2020.
- ↑ a b c Pull out all the stops ( en ) The Guardian. October 26, 2007. Accessed June 16, 2020.
- ↑ Justine Halifax: Town Hall is now a Grade I Listed feather in Birmingham's cap ( en ) In: Birmingham Live . June 23, 2015. Accessed June 18, 2020.
- ↑ Birmingham Town Hall ( en ) In: BBC . September 24, 2015. Accessed June 17, 2020.