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Text-only version of these pages for regular e-updates and ticket booking |
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 Click image to see larger view Facts and figures A rare and visionary gesture Construction Plant tower Artworks Auditorium Organ Exterior |
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| Interiors Inside, the planning of the building is impressively clear, public at the front, private at the back; noisy and bustling on the side facing the road, calm and reflective above the canal. On every level, two grand doorways of flamed bronze in patinated bronze surrounds are set in the limestone walls, signalling the way to the auditorium. To reach them one must cross the foyers, where pure white walls, cool stone, limpid light and carpets blue as a chain of inviting lakes, form a minor 'rite of passage' before entering the expectant silence of the auditorium. The achievement and splendour that is The Bridgewater Hall would be a rare and visionary gesture in any age, but rarer still in the closing years of the twentieth century. Manchester's concert hall has been designed, built, engineered and crafted to last; a secular temple to the art which gives voice to humanity's highest aspirations. It ought perhaps to be thought of as the first triumphant gesture of a new millennium. |
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