The Bridgewater Hall is a
concert
A concert, often known informally as a gig or show, is a live performance of music in front of an audience. The performance may be carried by a single musician, in which case it is sometimes called a recital, or by a musical ensemble such as an ...
venue in
Manchester city centre
Manchester city centre is the central business district of Manchester, England, within the confines of Great Ancoats Street, A6042 Trinity Way, and A57(M) Mancunian Way, which collectively form an inner ring road. The City Centre ward had a ...
, England. It cost around £42 million to build in the 1990s, and hosts over 250 performances a year. It is home to the 165-year-old
Hallé Orchestra as well as to the Hallé Choir and Hallé Youth Orchestra and it serves as the main concert venue for the
BBC Philharmonic
The BBC Philharmonic is a national British broadcasting symphony orchestra and is one of five radio orchestras maintained by the British Broadcasting Corporation. The Philharmonic is a department of the BBC North Group division based at Media ...
.
The building sits on a bed of 280 springs intended to insulate it from external sound. The hall is named after the
Third Duke of Bridgewater who commissioned the eponymous
Bridgewater Canal
The Bridgewater Canal connects Runcorn, Manchester and Leigh, Greater Manchester, Leigh, in North West England. It was commissioned by Francis Egerton, 3rd Duke of Bridgewater, to transport coal from his mines in Worsley to Manchester. It was ...
that crosses Manchester, although the hall and waterside frontage is situated on a specially constructed arm of the
Rochdale Canal
The Rochdale Canal is in Northern England, between Manchester and Sowerby Bridge, part of the connected system of the canals of Great Britain. Its name refers to the town of Rochdale through which it passes.
The Rochdale is a broad canal be ...
.
History
Proposals to replace the concert venue in the
Free Trade Hall
The Free Trade Hall on Peter Street, Manchester, England, was constructed in 1853–56 on St Peter's Fields, the site of the Peterloo Massacre. It is now a Radisson Hotels, Radisson hotel.
The hall was built to commemorate the repeal of the Corn ...
were made after it was damaged in the
Second World War
World War II or the Second World War (1 September 1939 – 2 September 1945) was a World war, global conflict between two coalitions: the Allies of World War II, Allies and the Axis powers. World War II by country, Nearly all of the wo ...
,
but the hall, which was home to
The Hallé orchestra was repaired and renovated in the 1950s. Despite being a popular venue, the Free Trade Hall, built in the 1850s, had poor
acoustics
Acoustics is a branch of physics that deals with the study of mechanical waves in gases, liquids, and solids including topics such as vibration, sound, ultrasound and infrasound. A scientist who works in the field of acoustics is an acoustician ...
and outdated audience facilities. Throughout the 1970s and 1980s, several schemes to replace it were considered but the project became more likely in 1988 after the creation of the
Central Manchester Development Corporation.
In the 1990s, land east of Lower Mosley Street and north of Great Bridgewater Street adjacent to the G-Mex exhibition centre (now
Manchester Central Convention Complex) which was occupied by a former bus station and car park near the
Rochdale Canal
The Rochdale Canal is in Northern England, between Manchester and Sowerby Bridge, part of the connected system of the canals of Great Britain. Its name refers to the town of Rochdale through which it passes.
The Rochdale is a broad canal be ...
was identified as the site for a new hall. A competition inviting architects to present designs for the new concert hall was launched and a proposal by Renton Howard Wood Levin (RHWL) architects was chosen.
The development included the construction of a basin on a specially built short arm of the Rochdale Canal and part of the
Manchester and Salford Junction Canal
The Manchester and Salford Junction Canal was a canal in the city of Manchester. It was originally built to provide a direct waterway between the Mersey and Irwell Navigation and the Rochdale Canal. The canal opened in 1839 and was abandoned in ...
, providing a waterfront setting for the hall.
The Bridgewater Hall held its first concert on 11 September 1996 and was officially opened on 4 December by
Queen Elizabeth II
Elizabeth II (Elizabeth Alexandra Mary; 21 April 19268 September 2022) was Queen of the United Kingdom and other Commonwealth realms from 6 February 1952 until Death and state funeral of Elizabeth II, her death in 2022. ...
and the
Duke of Edinburgh
Duke of Edinburgh, named after the capital city of Scotland, Edinburgh, is a substantive title that has been created four times since 1726 for members of the British royal family. It does not include any territorial landholdings and does not pr ...
. The concert hall was one of a number of structures built in the 1990s that symbolised the transition to a new and modern Manchester following de-industrialisation and the
1996 bombing.
The Bridgewater was well received and won a number of awards. In November 1996, only months after opening, the concert hall won the
RIBA
''Riba'' (, or , ) is an Arabic word used in Islamic law and roughly translated as " usury": unjust, exploitative gains made in trade or business. ''Riba'' is mentioned and condemned in several different verses in the Qur'an3:130
North West award.
In 1998 the hall won the
Civic Trust Special Award,
which is given to a building which enhanced the appearance of a city centre.
Structure

Construction of the hall was a joint venture between
Manchester City Council
Manchester City Council is the Local government in England, local authority for the City status in the United Kingdom, city of Manchester in Greater Manchester, England. Manchester has had an elected local authority since 1838, which has been re ...
and the Central Manchester Development Corporation who obtained funding from the
European Regional Development Fund
The European Regional Development Fund (ERDF) is one of the European Structural and Investment Funds allocated by the European Union. Its purpose is to transfer money from richer regions (not countries), and invest it in the infrastructure and se ...
.
The architects were
RHWL
RHWL Architects (originally Renton Howard Wood Associates) was a British architecture practice based in London, Berlin and Qatar. It was created by Andrew Renton, Peter Howard and Humphrey Wood following the establishment of Andrew Renton & Associ ...
and the builders were
John Laing. The acoustics were designed by Rob Harris of Arup Acoustics; his colleagues at
Arup were the building engineers.
The Bridgewater Hall can seat 2,341 people over four tiers in the
auditorium
An auditorium is a room built to enable an audience to hear and watch performances. For movie theaters, the number of auditoriums is expressed as the number of screens. Auditoriums can be found in entertainment venues, community halls, and t ...
: the stalls, choir circle, circle, and gallery.
The main auditorium sits on a foundation of earthquake-proof isolation
bearings that insulate it from noise and vibration from the adjacent road and
Metrolink line. The hall's 26,500 tonne superstructure rests on 280 GERB isolation bearings consisting of rows of steel
springs between concrete piers. The Bridgewater Hall is the first concert hall built with this technology.
The structure is mostly formed from solid,
reinforced concrete
Reinforced concrete, also called ferroconcrete or ferro-concrete, is a composite material in which concrete's relatively low tensile strength and ductility are compensated for by the inclusion of reinforcement having higher tensile strength or ...
, moulded and cast like a vast sculpture.
The auditorium has a double-skinned roof with a stainless steel outer shell.
The lower part of the hall is built of deep red
sandstone
Sandstone is a Clastic rock#Sedimentary clastic rocks, clastic sedimentary rock composed mainly of grain size, sand-sized (0.0625 to 2 mm) silicate mineral, silicate grains, Cementation (geology), cemented together by another mineral. Sand ...
from Corsehill Quarry in
Annan, the upper walls are clad in aluminium and glass. The interior uses
Jura limestone
Limestone is a type of carbonate rock, carbonate sedimentary rock which is the main source of the material Lime (material), lime. It is composed mostly of the minerals calcite and aragonite, which are different Polymorphism (materials science) ...
.
Organ
Inside the hall, the focal point is a £1.2 million
pipe organ
The pipe organ is a musical instrument that produces sound by driving pressurised air (called ''wind'') through the organ pipes selected from a Musical keyboard, keyboard. Because each pipe produces a single tone and pitch, the pipes are provide ...
,
with 5,500 pipes and four
manuals, built by
Marcussen & Son, which dominates the auditorium, covering the rear wall with wood and burnished metal. At the time of construction, the organ was the largest instrument to be installed in the UK for a century.
Barbirolli Square
On the plaza outside is the "Ishinki Touchstone", a sculpture by Kan Yasuda made of polished Italian
Carrara marble which is white streaked with bluish-grey. The stone weighs 18 tonnes and was installed in August 1996. Its £200,000 cost was financed by the Arts Council, Lottery Fund, Manchester Airport and Manchester City Council. To prevent vandalism, the stone is coated with an anti-graffiti solution.
Beside the main entrance is a sculpture of Sir
John Barbirolli by Byron Howard (2000).
Usage
Since its opening on 11 September 1996, it has been the home of the Hallé Orchestra, the Hallé Choir and the
Manchester Boys Choir, and is a regular venue for concerts by the BBC Philharmonic and
Manchester Camerata
The Manchester Camerata is a British chamber orchestra based in Manchester, England. A sub-group from the orchestra, the Manchester Camerata Ensemble, specialises in chamber music performances.
The orchestra's primary concert venue is The Bridg ...
. From September 2002, it has been home to the Hallé Youth Orchestra and Youth Choir, founded for musicians under the age of nineteen who are not in full-time musical education.
As well as concerts, the Bridgewater Hall hosts conferences and events for external parties such as annual presentation evenings.
Manchester Metropolitan University
Manchester Metropolitan University is located in the centre of Manchester, England. The university has 40,000 students and over 4,000 members of staff. It is home to four faculties (Arts and Humanities, Business and Law, Health and Education ...
has held its graduation ceremony in the hall in July each year since the early 2000s. The
Open University
The Open University (OU) is a Public university, public research university and the largest university in the United Kingdom by List of universities in the United Kingdom by enrolment, number of students. The majority of the OU's undergraduate ...
also holds one of its Graduate Ceremonies at the hall each year.
References
Sources
*
External links
Bridgewater Hall, Manchester
{{Authority control
Concert halls in England
Music venues in Manchester
Music venues completed in 1996
Recipients of Civic Trust Awards
The Hallé