Rising beside The Bridgewater Hall, the Tower of Time was no ordinary technical plant tower. Conceived in 1996 as part of the building’s original design, its purpose was purely practical – housing the Hall’s technical equipment – but its presence was transformed into something far more imaginative: a luminous, abstract clock that told time not with numbers, but with light.
The lighting design, created by Jonathan Speirs and his team at Jonathan Speirs & Associates, turned the tower into a vertical, colour-changing timepiece. The glass façade glowed with washes of light that shifted to represent both the seasons and the signs of the Zodiac. Inside, lines of illuminated tubing on each of the tower’s five floors indicated the day of the week, lighting up incrementally from Monday through Friday. At the quarter hours, a rapid sequence of colour changes ran through the tower, a kind of visual “chime” marking the passage of time.
This poetic use of light earned the Tower of Time a Special Citation from the International Association of Lighting Designers in 1999 for “Innovative Use of Light & Colour.” Judges praised its ability to communicate time while inspiring “wonder and awe.”
The installation has since been decommissioned, and the tower now stands unlit. But for those who saw it in its full nocturnal glory, the Tower of Time remains a memorable part of The Bridgewater Hall’s early years – a playful, ever-changing companion to the music performed inside.