Souvenirs: A Guide to Manchester Town Hall, Manchester, Date Unknown.

Tags

Alfred Waterhouse, architecture, bee, bees, Gothic Revival, Manchester, Manchester Town Hall, Neo-Gothic, Souvenirs

A remarkable building.

Here are some interesting facts from the guide for your consideration:

• Over the main door is a statue of the Roman General Agricola, who founded Mamuciam in 79 AD.
• [Alfred] Waterhouse designed the ‘easy tread stairs’ to enable Victorian ladies in their finery to ascend the stairs without having to look down.
• The landing area outside the Great Hall is known as “The Bees”. Its mosaic floor features a pattern of bees, a symbol of Manchester’s industry which is found on the City’s coat of arms.

Bee.

I remember “The Bees”! …but what I’m left with is a general impression of the Neo-Gothic grandeur of the place and the feeling that it was very well designed. To quote the guide again, “Waterhouse successfully combined the ceremonial and workaday requirements. The Town Hall was designed in the thirteenth century Gothic style but it was, in Waterhouse’s words, a building ‘essentially of the nineteenth century'”. 

Photo Archive: The “Bee Lady” Telephone Box, Hull, 23rd October 2013.

Tags

Bee Lady, bees, charity, fundraising, Hull, Jean Bishop, Telephone box

The “Bee Lady”, more formally known as Mrs Jean Bishop, is famous for her charitable work for AgeUK, shaking her collection tin and wearing her distinctive bee costume for almost 20 years. She won a “Pride of Britain” award back in 2013 and this telephone box was painted as a local tribute. You’ll find it on Carr Lane in the city centre. You can read more about the Bee Lady here: http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-humber-24444646

Souvenirs: Free Promotional Literature, Aesthetica Art Prize Exhibition, York St. Marys, May 2014.

Tags

Aesthetica Art Prize, Art, bees, contemporary art, Song for the last Queen, Souvenir, Sybille Neumeyer, York, York St Mary's

York St. Mary’s is a great contemporary art venue and has become a regular stopping point on my walks around York over the years. I never plan my visits to St. Mary’s in advance and I had not heard of the Aestetica Art Prize before my visit, but all of the entries on display were very inspiring, especially “Song for the last Queen”, an installation by Sybille Neumeyer, which is featured on the cover of the leaflets above. Neumeyer’s work is about bees, a subject very close to my heart. You can get a closer look at the work on her website. If you’re in York before 22nd June I recommend you go and have a look at it for yourself.

The exhibition guide, pictured above, can be downloaded from the Aesthetica website: http://www.aestheticamagazine.com/art-prize-exhibition

http://www.yorkstmarys.org.uk/Page/Exhibitions.aspx