[Image: Vaulting over the Grand Staircase]

I am posting this article to coincide with the publication of February’s UK Lancashire Life ,for which I have written a 4 page article illustrated with my photographs, on the remarkable and mostly unknown Grade I Gothic masterpiece of Rochdale Town Hall.

The Town Hall at Rochdale (1871) is one of the most notable buildings of its type in Europe.

It  was built by William Henry Crossland in a period when architecture gripped the national conscience in the same way that popular film and music does today.

The main protagonists in the design, construction and decoration of the Town Hall were ‘A’ list celebrities, whose rise and fall depended upon the articulate wit and patronage of social commentators and critics such a John Ruskin and William Morris

It is also significant because it has one of the most remarkable collections of secular stained glass in Europe and a notable and untouched late Victorian decor with a frieze by Henry Holiday

I am currently working on a commission to photograph the interior and exterior of the Town Hall. If you see the article let me know what you think. I will post more information and images about the Town Hall next month.

The Town Hall is open to the public.

Andy Marshall is an architectural photographer and commentator – more here

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