On 13 September 1877 Manchester celebrated the opening of a new Town Hall - the Gothic masterpiece of the Liverpool-born architect Alfred Waterhouse.
' It is truly a municipal palace,' commented John Bright , ' whether you look at its great proportions outside or its internal decorations there is nothing like it that I know of in any part of the United Kingdom and I doubt whether there is in any of the great famous old cities of the continent of Europe.'
Sir Nikolaus Pevsner. Emeritus Professor of History of Art at Birkbeck College, London, marks the centenary with an assessment of the building and its architect. BBC Manchester