This tower is what the new hotel will look like As we approach February 11th 2002, when the developers ares to begin the final destruction of the Free Trade Hall and thus complete the work started by Hitler's bombs, it's perhaps time to reflect on what might have been if the city council and John Prescott (who approved the planning application) had taken the words of the former Lord Mayor, Councillor William Collingson JP, into consideration. In a foreword to the brochure on the opening of the building in 1951, following its post-war restoration, he wrote: "The Manchester Free Trade Hall has for decades symbolised the traditional independence of Manchester people, their love of liberty, their tolerance and their fearless loyalty to great ideals. From the platform of the Free Trade Hall has flowed the high aspiration of philosophical wisdom in the realms of political and economic theory, music, scholarship and all those subjects stimulating and testifying to the cultural and intellectual progress of the people. "The physical resurrection of the Free Trade Hall, after its destruction by enemy action, is, to us in Manchester, the rededication of our efforts towards the promotion of all that is good in human relationship. That spirit of Manchester which has quickened so many noble causes still burns brightly in her people. The name of Manchester shines in the realms of culture, of music and of scholarship. Her name is great in the fields of religion, politics, industry, commerce and sport. These things go together to build up a healthy and well-balanced community and all have their part in the Free Trade Hall which belongs to them all. "We are deeply grateful to all who have helped to carry through the physical restoration of the Free Trade Hall, to the Committee of the COrporation who concieved the project, to the architect, to the engineer, and to the builders and craftsmen. All have contributed to the great work with splendid loyalty and energy. "As the prestige of the Manchester Free Trade Hall stood high in the past, so in the futrue may its fame be undiminished. May its rich and worthy tradtitions be forever upheld and the name of the Manchester Free Trade Hall be for all time associated with the peaceful advancement of life's most noble progress." Pause for hollow laugh. When the original hall was concieved in the 1850s, a joint-stock company - the Manchester Public Hall Company - was officially registered with a capital of £35,000 issued in £10 shares. The preamble to the company's deed of settlement provided a clear statement of its aims, all of them directed at creating a building that the people of Manchester could use. Music suprisingly, was well down the list... "The subscribers being of the opinion that the providing and appropriation of a large and permanent building in the City of Manchester for the purpose of affording accomodation for Meetings of Political Relgious, Literary and other Associations, and other meetings on public occasions and for public lectures and for concerts, exhibitions and other objects of public amusements or instruction would be of great convenience and advantage to the inhabitants of the said City and profitable to the promoters of such an undertaking, have agreed to form themselves into a Joint-Stock company for the purpose of erecting and so appropriating such a building..." (quoted in A Hall for All Seasons by Terry Wyke) Manchester Corporation bought the Free Trade Hall from the Manchester Public Hall Company in May 1921. There would, of course, have been a sale agreement, and it would be interesting to find if this contained a clause requiring the new owners to operate the building as a public hall in perpetuity. Sadly the council says the sale agreement has been 'mislaid'. http://www.manchestercivic.org.uk