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00:00Britain's history is recorded in its monuments.
00:04Even before the Normans came and built their castles across the country,
00:08successive generations have left their mark on the landscape,
00:11in the landmarks they've left behind.
00:14But now those landmarks are crumbling.
00:17You can see there's a section there which is quite vague.
00:20Centuries of wear and tear have taken their toll on these precious buildings.
00:24More of the structural members were suffering from corrosion than we expected.
00:27There's moss growing inside, so then the water backs up, then falls internally.
00:33They need constant care and maintenance in all kinds of conditions.
00:38You can see dust coming up. A hundred years old dust.
00:42Revealing treasures that have been hidden for centuries.
00:45We're unearthing the original bridge.
00:47All over the country, teams of highly skilled people are dedicating their lives to keeping our heritage standing.
00:54We need to be aware that we are a part of a cycle that's been going on for centuries.
00:59These are Britain's landmark fixers. And this is not just their story.
01:04They took me nearly 6,000 holes to drill.
01:07How marvellous.
01:08But the story of the buildings they look after.
01:11Manchester Town Hall.
01:23This iconic neo-Gothic masterpiece has stood at the heart of the city of Manchester for over 140 years.
01:30When you compare it with other cities, this is by far the most influential building from the 19th century.
01:37Designed by successful Victorian architect Alfred Waterhouse, this engineering marvel is one of the most important Grade 1 listed buildings in England.
01:47It was an opportunity for the council to say, you know, this is Manchester, look at us. We're doing absolutely fantastically.
01:54It's opened its doors in 1877 and has played host to royalty, Lord Mayor's, weddings and civic celebrations, as well as being a key stage set for television and film.
02:06Peaky Blinders, Sherlock Holmes, Iron Lady, all filmed in Manchester Town Hall.
02:14But after 14 decades centre stage, the building is showing its age and now is an urgent need of repair.
02:21It's a historical building and it's just really important that we preserve that history and the original craftsmanship of the artisans that put it there in the first place.
02:30In 2018, the town hall closed its doors for six years and is now in the middle of a colossal £330 million restoration project funded by Manchester City Council.
02:43I think apart from Notre Dame, this is one of the biggest jobs in the world.
02:47From suck covered chimney stacks.
02:49This is the first wash that I've ever had.
02:51To flaking works of art.
02:53The restoration work on this ceiling will take months.
02:57And rotten wood.
02:59You've got to preserve everything that you can so you can't just go in and smash everything out.
03:03A dedicated team are working hard to do this architectural giant justice to restore and renew it for Manchester and for the nation.
03:14In the 19th century, Manchester emerged as the world's first industrial city, growing from a small town to a massive conglomeration of factory production.
03:30It is where textiles start to be mass manufactured, where people are starting to get incredibly wealthy, incredibly quickly and it is seeing huge urban expansion.
03:40Disraeli said that what happens in Manchester today will happen in the rest of the world tomorrow.
03:46To exemplify this industrial progress, a competition was held to design a town hall that would represent Manchester at the height of its powers.
03:57And this competition was won by Alfred Waterhouse.
04:01Hidden deep within the hall's archives lie the secrets of how this architectural masterpiece was accomplished.
04:09And this precious artefact is an invaluable resource for architect Jamie Coth, who is leading the restoration of the town hall.
04:17That's amazing. Look at those.
04:19The original plans.
04:21So these plans were prepared by Alfred Waterhouse's office of the building as it was completed.
04:29Alfred Waterhouse, of course, was one of the most prominent Gothic revival architects of the 19th century.
04:35He had a large commission for the Natural History Museum in London and so he was at the top of his game.
04:42And these are really fabulous drawings for us because it has so much detail.
04:47So the building is a triangular shape.
04:50In each corner you've got these towers which contain a spiral staircase.
04:55It split the three areas of the building into the ceremonial frontage to Albert Square and the Great Hall.
05:03And then the administrative offices and facilities to the sides.
05:08And that gave this wonderful civic front to the new Albert Square in front of the building.
05:14Using these plans, Jamie has laid out a plan of works for the hall's restoration.
05:19We're getting involved in all the details, so the structural alterations, re-roofing, sorting out the repairs of the stonework, dealing with mosaic floors.
05:30There's an awful lot of smoke damage from gaslighting and people smoking.
05:35We're also taking out a lot of the windows and repairing those and also conserving the very decorative paintings on the ceiling.
05:44So I've really been trying, with my team, trying to get into the head of Warthouse and saying,
05:50well, how would he have done it if he was asked to do that now?
05:57Adorning the exterior of this grand city masterpiece is a magnificent mosaic of stained glass panels.
06:04In the 19th century stained glass really was a dead art.
06:09But the Victorian architects began to look back into the past and revived the stained glass art form.
06:18All of these architects and all of these designers wanted to bring back the feeling of medieval cathedrals.
06:25You know, this heritage, this idea that they're growing out of something old and creating something new.
06:30And so the techniques were relearned by the Gothic revivalists like Alfred Waterhouse in order to provide these beautiful stained glass windows.
06:41But after 140 years, Alfred Waterhouse's impressive stained glass panels are in urgent need of repair.
06:49Tucked away on an industrial estate four miles away lies the stained glass repair shop.
06:58Inside, a specialist team are carefully restoring each precious piece.
07:03Head Glazier Navin is responsible for all the stained glass repairs and restoration in the hall.
07:09Basically, we're doing a rubbing off the stained glass window.
07:12This is like the old fashioned rubbings that you used to do in cemeteries and stuff like that.
07:16This gives us a record of actually where the pieces go and also indicates where the cracks are.
07:21So we will just mark on here that there's a break there, there and there.
07:28And there's a break here, so we could highlight that.
07:31Any broken glass will have to be replaced.
07:34The rubbings are important because if you have a look at the rubbings that we did here, these are for when we take the windows apart,
07:43then we could actually put the pieces of glass here.
07:46This gives us the sizes of the leads, the tie bars.
07:50So there's a structural tie bar going across here, which keeps the window firm rather than it sagging.
07:55The tie bar is a piece of metal that's tied to the stained glass panel to give it extra strength and is concealed behind the lead.
08:03When all the stuff comes in, we unpack it downstairs.
08:07It comes up here and here where we do is we place it onto the light box and then we establish where all the breaks are and how dirty it is.
08:16So this is fairly dirty, probably 100 years of Manchester dirt on it.
08:21And the colours used by Waterhouse were chosen to complement the grime of Manchester.
08:26Alfred Waterhouse is a man from Liverpool.
08:29He knows the atmosphere of Manchester.
08:31He knows how dark and dull it can be.
08:34And so what he's doing is he's using these colours really carefully just to bring a bit of dazzle, a bit of excitement into the town hall.
08:42This would be the darker range red.
08:44These are the various greys that are in the town hall.
08:47This is a greeny grey and this is a browny grey.
08:50And we just try to colour match them as best we can.
08:53But colour matching isn't the only issue Navin and his team have to contend with.
08:59When the people are taking the windows, they haven't been removed for 100 years.
09:03So as they're taking them out, glass will break.
09:06If glass didn't break, I wouldn't be in a job.
09:09And so essentially we just have problems like different colours that someone's put in.
09:16So we've got to restore that.
09:18And if you could see this panel, it's sagged over the years.
09:21Lead is a soft material and it will sag.
09:24Once it gets into this big process, we have to take it apart and we have to re-lead it.
09:29Now that Navin has identified what needs to be done,
09:33it will be down to his team to put each of the panels he's marked for repair back together.
09:50Andrew Meyer is one of the glaziers entrusted with repairing and restoring the hall's stained glass.
09:56It's a meticulous process involving hours of work.
10:01So right now I'm just taking apart one of the panels from the town hall
10:06and replacing some of the broken pieces of glass and also repairing some damaged lead
10:12so that everything looks as it was originally.
10:15We don't want to replace anything that's unnecessary or change anything from the original spec.
10:21It's a historical building so it's just really important that we preserve that history
10:25and the original craftsmanship of the artisans that put it there in the first place.
10:30Part of the revival of the stained glass industry in the 19th century had been driven,
10:38not by glaziers, but by plumbers, by people who knew how to manipulate lead.
10:44And Waterhouse is able to capitalise on that, to be able to acquire industrial quantities
10:51that are going to be used in the pipes, on the roof, on the windows.
10:56It's used till today because of its malleability and its resistance to corrosion
11:02and it holds the pieces of glass together effectively.
11:06So it's a lot of small intricate little processes.
11:11The main thing is sort of cutting everything to the exact right size
11:14and then fitting it all together like a puzzle.
11:17This little bit of lead on the panel was damaged
11:20so I've taken the old lead off and replaced it with a new piece here.
11:24All of the glass here is from the original pane.
11:28So I'm just going to fit them back in place with a little bit of lead in between each one
11:33and we have to make sure all the pieces go back in the same way that they were oriented originally.
11:44The pieces of lead are shaped sort of like an I-beam, like a steel beam.
11:49So when we cut it, it kind of presses down the sides a little bit.
11:54So you'll see me just opening it back up because that's how the glass is going to slot right in.
12:01So if there's any kind of damage or unevenness to it, the glass won't fit nicely.
12:12So what I'm doing here, this isn't actually going to be a part of the window.
12:16This is just to hold this piece in place and to keep everything nice and tight while I work on it.
12:23These are horseshoe nails.
12:27So when this panel came into the shop, this top corner piece is missing.
12:31So we have to cut a new piece to fill it.
12:34So what I'm actually going to use is a couple of broken pieces from other windows in the town hall
12:40so it's still original glass from the project.
12:43We could use new glass but you can see there's a slight difference in the thickness
12:48and the way the light passes through it.
12:52Now Andrew only has one chance to make the right cut through the original clear piece of glass.
12:58So I just line up the piece of glass exactly how I want it to sit in the panel so I get my cut in the right place.
13:05And then just with one clean motion with the cutter, go right across where I need the new edge to be.
13:10The moment of truth.
13:15The slot's right in place.
13:20Once all the glass is in place, the last thing to do is seal it with lead solder.
13:27For Andrew, it's a fulfilling end to a dream job.
13:32I love it. It's really rewarding to work on something so historically significant and artistically satisfying.
13:44These windows let light and colour pour into the key central space of the building, the Great Hall.
13:52And as its magnificent painted roof shows, stained glass is not the only way that Waterhouse brought colour to the heart of Manchester.
14:00The Great Hall lies in the centre of Manchester Town Hall.
14:07But right now, it's filled with a labyrinth of scaffolding poles and platforms.
14:14With 56,000 metres of tube and 375 tonnes of materials in total,
14:21it takes nine men 12 weeks to raise the scaffold to the rafters so that important restoration work can be done.
14:28The Great Hall is in some respects the key to understanding the whole building.
14:35It's built at an enormous scale.
14:39It's ornamented with these stained glass windows and then on the roof are painted symbols of all the places across the empire that Manchester had trading links with.
14:52But these paintings are flaking away with age.
14:54So hidden high up at the very top of this complex web of scaffolding, Alison Ainsworth is carrying out a critical investigation.
15:02We're approximately 70 feet off the floor.
15:05And as you can see, to my right is actually one of the beams of the ceiling.
15:08The Great Hall was regarded as the absolute jewel in the Town Hall and it was an opportunity for the Council to say, this is Manchester, look at us, we're doing absolutely fantastically.
15:18It was described by John Rusking as the most magnificent Gothic chamber in Europe, so that's how prestigious and important it is.
15:26We're currently working on the 28 panels which are placed all along the ceiling.
15:30And they represent all the different fantastic trading partners that Manchester had in the time they were painted, which was 1876.
15:36If you look, you can see emblems of those. So this one is Dublin. So we've got shamrocks and we've got the red rose of Lancashire.
15:46And the ceiling is peppered with references to how Manchester made its money.
15:50All of these panels have many symbols of the cotton industry and shipping. So when we first looked at these, we thought, why on earth have they painted a load of strawberries on the border?
15:59But what they are actually is cotton plants. And that ties in very well with the shuttles, which are just here.
16:05They picked all their global trade links, which was quite forward thinking at the time, as a proud shout out for Manchester, and it remains that.
16:12But the ceiling panels dedicated to Manchester's global success need a lot of TLC.
16:17We're doing trials at the moment to find out what the best way forward is to clean and conserve the paintings.
16:25Every conservation programme is absolutely essential to do these tests. You can't just plough in and start cleaning a painting like this because you're likely to cause damage.
16:36And in the past, these have been damaged quite dramatically.
16:39We've already done a really extensive condition survey where we looked at all the areas of damage and found out exactly what needed to do.
16:45So, at the moment, we're using a chemical called Trimorium Citrate, and it's a very low solution, just removing the surface dirt that's built up over the years.
16:55And we think it's probably about 60 years since it's been cleaned.
16:58As you can see, I'm not actually touching these brown bits because they're original paint.
17:03A lot of it isn't original, but that is an original area, and it's very friable, which means if I touch it with this prior to consolidation, it could easily come off.
17:10Because if it falls off, that's that. So, I'm just avoiding that at the moment.
17:15During the conservation trials, Alison has uncovered tiny clues about how the original artists produced their work.
17:22We have things like this, little pin holes, and these were the original pins used to hold the stencils and the tracings.
17:30So, you can imagine them putting their piece of paper on, they put their pins in, in the corners, yeah, hold it up, and then you would draw around it and put your design on it that you'd made in the studio.
17:38And this cobalt blue background was copying the royal box that Queen Victoria had in the Albert Hall.
17:44So, again, it's a nice link saying, look how rich we are, look how, you know, fantastic we are as a town.
17:51And, of course, you've got the B of Manchester, which is on every single panel, and a motif that goes all the way through the town hall.
17:57The city fathers have to come up with a coat of arms for Manchester. They've got to symbolise the city. And what do they choose? They choose the icon of the bee.
18:09This is a brilliant exercise in market branding, because, you know, a bee will make a hive full of honey, and that's exactly what Manchester is. It is a hive of industry, full of money.
18:19What it does is to symbolise how the Mancunians see themselves, which is not like the soft south. Manchester is built on labour, and it's only through work Manchester's going to continue to grow in the ways they want it to.
18:38In 1781, Richard Arkwright opened a five-storey spinning mill in Manchester, powered by steam power.
18:45Which meant that he could produce a large amount of fabric very, very quickly using a spinning machine.
18:53This revolutionised Manchester. In under a century, it was doing 32% of the world's global trade in cotton. It became the place for cotton, hence Cottonopolis.
19:06These beautiful tributes to Manchester's work ethic are proving a labour of love in themselves.
19:12The restoration work on this ceiling will take months, unfortunately. It depends on the size of the team working on it.
19:19They were painted by a company called Heaton Butler and Bain, who are based in London, and they usually do stained glass work.
19:26You can see there's a very strong stained glass influence on them. So you've got the very dark lines.
19:32If you can imagine this as a stained glass window, it wouldn't be incorrect, because that's kind of the template they used.
19:37And the medium they used was a wax. We think it was a wax medium. We haven't analysed it, but all the research points to it containing wax, which is quite unusual.
19:47And the reason they might have done that is because it was being painted in a damp building, as they saw it, hoping that any moisture would just run off almost like a waxy surface.
19:56Once Alison has completed the preparatory work on this section of the ceiling, a specialist team will be brought in to restore all 28 panels using her recommended methods.
20:07We're really guardians. We're just looking after it for the future generations. And the last thing these need is to be damaged further. So hopefully they'll last for a long time after this.
20:15But Alison's ceilings aren't the only parts of the roof in need of attention. Up above, another specialist team is wrestling with the chimneys.
20:28Yeah, it's coming off that cloud.
20:31Hold on, guys. Still going.
20:33Still going.
20:42Up on the roof, work has begun on the colossal stone chimney stacks that adorn the Town Hall skyline.
20:49Manchester Town Hall really stamps its presence on the Manchester skyline, not just with the clock tower, but it has 34 chimneys for one building.
20:58And that's because chimneys symbolised industry. It symbolises not only can you afford to heat your building, but also you are a workhouse yourself.
21:09These are meant to be the best chimneys in the best Town Hall and the best city in the Empire.
21:16But before repairs can begin, the chimneys need to be cleaned.
21:19Today, Carl, if you can just clean this top section of the chimney, if you can make sure that we get this black carbonation off, and the algae, they tend to burn the stone when they respire and create an acid.
21:35Be careful when you're on the top so you don't undermine it, because we don't want that to lift off and go down the chimney, so we'll remove that by hand at a later date.
21:41Carl Bernal is a stonemason for restoration company Stone Edge.
21:48I'm using a low-pressure, high-heat thermotech machine, similar to a jet washer home, goes up to 150 degrees. We're operating at 130 today, using this type of motion to throw off the carbon and algae.
22:04carbon and algae.
22:05The heat helps soften the carbon and algae deposits, while the low pressure gently works them away.
22:12The heat kills the algae spores and stops them regrowing.
22:17This is Spinkwell sandstone quarried in Bradford. It's a really good, high-quality stone.
22:25The Victorians are fascinated by how to make industrial chimneys look even more impressive than they already do.
22:32And they're also, of course, the undoing of the building that they're serving, because the smoke, the particulates, bond with the rainwater, and the result is a chemical reaction.
22:45So that when the rainwater falls on the stone beneath, it rots it. You've got acid rain.
22:52In fact, the term acid rain was coined in 1859 by pioneering chemist Robert Angus Smith, because he observed that the stones and bricks in Manchester crumble more readily, due to the slow but constant action of the acid rain.
23:08And so Waterhouse knew that he needed to find materials that were going to withstand that kind of battering.
23:17This is why Waterhouse opted to use a denser stone from Spinkwell rather than a more local variant.
23:23Spinkwell stone is a Yorkshire stone that's brought to Manchester because it is simply harder wearing than the local materials.
23:34But after 150 years, even the tough-wearing Spinkwell is showing its age.
23:38It's important to do this job because the moss and algae will deteriorate the stone. It's been built since 1868. This is the first wash that it's ever had.
23:49You can't go too close to the joints or you'll blow the joints back in. You can't go too close to the stone or it'll go a different colour.
23:57As well as removing the hazardous deposits, the cleaning reveals any dangerous defects.
24:04With the weight of some of the stone, you get a lot of subsidence. With them being exposed to the elements up here, you get quite a lot of erosion on the stacks.
24:12Every stone in the chimney stacks needs to be looked after. It's a mammoth task, but it has its rewards.
24:18Job satisfaction at the end of it. Massive, massive satisfaction to see what we do to these buildings, bringing them to the form of glory.
24:29Throughout the construction works, clues about the original people who worked on the building have been uncovered.
24:36Today, building and logistics lead Steve Hannan is heading to the top secret storeroom with some important finds to show curator Meg McHugh.
24:45Come on, I've got some stuff for you. Really a good find.
24:51This is amazing, this shoe. Where did you find this?
24:54So, that was under the floorboards in the lower ground area.
24:58The thing that I always think of with shoes is the Victorian tradition, and probably a bit earlier as well, of hiding shoes in buildings for good luck.
25:07And it was quite often they'd put them over doorways or in floorboards.
25:10So, I think the other interesting item is that hat.
25:15Amazing. This looks quite fragile.
25:17Where did you find this?
25:18That was behind the heating box in the lower ground area.
25:21So, on top of the heating pipework.
25:24It's great to think of the person who was wearing this hat.
25:27Yeah, definitely.
25:28It was part of the uniform back in the day, wasn't it? Everyone had to have a hat to finish off their outfit.
25:33So, what we'll have to do now is let our conservators have a look at it and make sure that we look after it properly.
25:39Because all of these little things in this box can tell a story of something that was happening in the town hall.
25:44So, we want to bring it to life so that people understand all these different lives and people who were working and even living in the town hall.
25:53Steve's finds also give clues about the original technology employed in the building.
25:59Unfortunately, this is an item that we would have preferred to have kept in situ.
26:03But because of the works that were being carried out in that area, we had to have somebody remove it.
26:09So, what do you reckon?
26:11So, these are batteries from the original installation in the building.
26:15The town hall committee commissioned a company called John Lavender to install a communication system into the main rooms of the building.
26:23So that they were connected by a series of bells and it was electrically powered bells.
26:27So, this is before everyone had mains electricity.
26:30It's sort of quite cutting edge for this building.
26:33The fact that we've got one of these batteries is absolutely brilliant.
26:37So, when we reopen the building, we want to put some of these treasures on display for the first time.
26:42We'll get our conservator to make a judgement about how this should be stored and looked after.
26:47And hopefully, eventually, it can go on display in our visitor centre so that people can see it and find out this story.
26:54Good stuff. See you later.
26:55See you later.
26:58It's not just artefacts from inside the hall that are in need of conservation.
27:05150 years of Manchester weather has taken its toll on the hall's exterior and every last stone must be meticulously checked.
27:15In one corner of the building, apprentice stonemason Niall Smee is getting ready to make his mark on the building.
27:22So, you can see here the face of the stone has crumbled away, but rather than replace the whole stone, we want to try and preserve as much as we can because it's a heritage building.
27:31So, sort of feathered in here so we can't get any water on this ledge.
27:33What I'm going to be doing today is trying to match these lines. This is the batting here. I'm going to be trying to match those onto this piece here just by using a chisel and mallet and just chipping away at it slowly.
27:43Batting is a traditional Victorian finish, often used on prestige buildings to give them a distinctive look. It's quite labour intensive.
27:51Every stone sort of has a different angle depending and you can see where it's changed a lot depending on who's done it. So, I just want to try and match that.
27:58So, I'm drawing in pencil lines so I can use them as a guide. Just literally holding a ruler against them.
28:04Niall only has one chance to make his mark in the right place. Every hit in the chisel must be carefully executed.
28:12Sort of a case of bringing the chisel into line and when you hit it you want to pull it away so you don't take too much material.
28:25And the tools he's using haven't changed much over the centuries.
28:30This is sort of the mallet most masons are used. It's a nylon mallet. Originally they're made of wood so you get a good surface area.
28:36And then these are just mallet headed chisels that are tensed and tipped.
28:40It's interesting to think, you know, a hundred years or so ago someone was doing the exact same thing. The tools haven't really changed.
28:48So, I'm getting close to the end of it now. All I've got left to do now is making some finishing marks in here and fill in any parts that I've missed.
28:55This level of meticulous care and attention is applied to every stone in the building.
29:00Elsewhere, stonemason Keith Ojo has a more complex job on his hands.
29:06I'm just spraying some water. Basically this stone is bone dry and it acts like a sponge and it draws all the moisture out of the mortar.
29:16The next thing I'm going to do is apply some lime mortar as per the original building.
29:23Because lime mortar is more flexible. They allow the building to breathe better. They don't hold moisture in. They allow moisture to get out through the building.
29:36Lime mortar is millennia old.
29:38It's an extraordinary, almost miraculous product because it goes in soft and wet and then takes years, sometimes decades, before it finally sets.
29:53What that enables you to do is to deal with subsidence, to deal with the inevitable settling that a building has.
29:59And then as time goes on, it becomes harder and harder and harder.
30:06We use these tables for putting large stones in because we can get these up to the right height, get them level, just keep bumping these right up and then slide the stones in.
30:18This replacement stone is a sandstone quarried in Huddersfield called Crossland Hill.
30:25It's one of the most versatile natural stones available and has been used to re-flag Westminster Hall in London.
30:32At least 1,500 stones have been coloured green for replacement on the Restorer's plans.
30:38I'm going to apply some mortar to the back, which will help to bond the back of the stone to the internal brickwork on the building.
30:53So this stone is ready to go in.
30:57So I'll just put these two little fiberglass rods on the bottom bed, but it enables me to slide the stone just on these two points.
31:12The main thing you've got to do is just keep your eye on both ends and try and make sure that one end isn't going in before the other,
31:18because effectively, if you get it on the twist, it will jam.
31:21I'm now going to pack some more mortar underneath there now that the stone's partly in.
31:29The last important thing that we need to do is make sure that everything is lining up so there are no lips.
31:35So normally what we'll do, we'll get a piece of timber, nice flat square timber, and we'll tap the stone into position.
31:42These indents that we're putting in will easily last another 150 years, if not longer.
31:46So the stone that's going in is excellent quality, really good, hard weathering stone, beautiful colour match as well.
31:54So yeah, it'll last a long, long time.
31:58But the sash windows in the town hall haven't weathered so well.
32:03Over 700 old leaky glass and timber sashes must be taken out and restored.
32:16The sash windows of Manchester town hall have been in place for more than 140 years.
32:23But sash windows have been around much longer than that.
32:27The sash window is a remarkably clever piece of technology in which by having a set of weighted pulleys on either side of a window,
32:38you can open both the top of the window and the bottom of the window at the same time.
32:43And what that does is to let cold air in at the bottom and warm air out at the top and you get a form of passive ventilation that operates there.
32:51During the restoration in England, the Queen Mother, Charles II's mum, Queen Henrietta Maria, saw these sash windows in France and thought I must have them and brought them into England.
33:03And of course, once the Royal Family gets hold of an idea, it becomes popular and fashionable everywhere.
33:07By the 19th century, this is not a new form of technology at all.
33:13There are lots of people who know how to do this.
33:16And as the price of wood comes down and critically as the price of glass comes down,
33:23so you can see that sash windows start to move from palaces into country houses and from country houses into municipal buildings and from municipal buildings into the ordinary houses of the middle class.
33:36And one of the striking things about buildings by Alfred Waterhouse is you have a structure that looks medieval until you look at the windows.
33:47Today childhood friends Liam and Jake are part of a team tasked with repairing and restoring all of the sash windows.
33:56Today we're on the fourth floor and we'll be removing the two sets of sash windows.
33:59There's roughly around 700 windows, so there's two sashes per window, so that works out roughly about 1400 windows altogether.
34:07And you've got to preserve everything that you can, so you can't just go in and smash everything out, it's got to be done gently, nicely to keep everything in the best condition really.
34:15Just sort of documenting the sash itself, getting pictures of any sort of standout bits, ropes come off there, probably years ago that's happened.
34:25It's all sort of coming out of the wall and the screws somehow is bent down.
34:29Just gently come in between the beading and the wall itself, just trying to separate the paint so we can get in behind that and start pulling it apart.
34:40So you can see it's split sort of right the way up now, we won't have to go any higher.
34:43I came on this site just as doing work experience, started from the bottom doing labouring, to now taking out the windows, and Jake's also joined, he's now doing the same thing.
34:57All the tools have to be tethered in case we drop them, so these become a part of you almost.
35:02Each window is held in place by a thin strip of wooden beading.
35:06Try and ease the window off from the side.
35:10There you go.
35:12With a bit of perseverance, the old sash is freed.
35:17You got it? Yeah.
35:18All right.
35:21The next step is like an inner beading.
35:24There we go.
35:29That was a good one.
35:31As sashes go, that was fairly straightforward.
35:34We managed to get all the beading out in one, just the pulley systems now that need taken out.
35:39A couple more bits at the top.
35:41And on to the next one.
35:43Up on the fourth floor, window restorers Tim and Bernard are working to return the sash windows to their former glory.
35:51We're using Douglas fir, which is what these were originally made of.
35:54We've had to have Douglas fir brought in, especially to do the repairs.
35:58The sills are done in oak, so we've got to use oak, so we use two different types of timber.
36:02One of the windows requires a damaged section to be replaced with a small piece of Douglas fir.
36:09These windows have been stripped. All the paint has been removed.
36:14In this case, this has become damaged.
36:17We've taken the damaged section out and replacing that with a new piece.
36:21First, Tim has to prime both pieces of wood.
36:25So this is a two-part primer. Strengthens the wood.
36:31Also gives the resin that we're going to use later something to key to.
36:35And working in a place like this is an amazing building.
36:38I've been here four months and I still get lost in all the passageways.
36:42It's not like working in Hogwarts.
36:45Then he uses a resin-based glue to bond the pieces in place.
36:50Incredibly strong two-part resin.
36:53And we can apply that to both surfaces.
36:58I'll put that in.
37:00Once the windows are repaired, each one will have to be put back into place and repainted.
37:05It's an enormous task. As we work through the building, we're finding some of the windows are smaller, some are enormous.
37:12So each different part of the building presents different challenges.
37:15So, yeah, it's quite interesting work.
37:20Upon the roof, one of the newly cleaned chimney stacks is being dismantled, stone by stone.
37:27Construction manager Rob Odie is at the helm of this operation.
37:31The job we're doing today is a partial dismantle on one of the chimneys that we've got here.
37:37So we've got 34 individual chimneys constructed of solid stonework.
37:43The one we're working on today, it's been cleaned already.
37:46It's been individually referenced, stone by stone.
37:48We're utilising a 250-ton crane to lift some of these large stones off to the top of the chimney.
37:54Really heavy. Some of them go to about 750kg.
37:58Very heavy stones.
37:59With you being clipped on, would you be able to just put a wedge in that side for us and just ease it with the bar, mate?
38:05We're just breaking the bond between the stone and the stones below.
38:09Catching on the jog alone.
38:11Using some crowbars to just ease that stone up a bit.
38:14Some timber wedges and chocks to try and create that gap between the stone and the stone below.
38:17Just to enable us to then get the slings around and be able to lift that off.
38:24The sling on both ends has two slings on.
38:27So if anything went, it's got position so this level and it's not tipped or tipped backwards or forwards.
38:33The more slings you've got around it, the safer it is.
38:35The chimneys are one of the key features of this building really.
38:40Some of them are only a couple of metres high.
38:43Some of them go up to five, six metres in height and be seen from quite a distance away.
38:47We've got close knit debris netting, which will be wrapped around the stone, which will capture in the unlikely event that any fragments and things being dislodged when it's in the air.
38:59So we've got a number of different safety measures in place.
39:04He can jump down because he's got a harness.
39:07Yeah, we'll try it.
39:09The stones are 150 years old, so we need to try and do this with a lot of care.
39:14We've got an experienced stonework team here.
39:17So we want to try and get these stones off as much intact as we possibly can.
39:21But some of the stones are refusing to budge.
39:24We've got a delicate stage here where we've got a dowel that was fitted in 1986.
39:29What we found by finding newspaper scrunched up in holes around the dowels themselves, that's why we know the date.
39:34The dowel is stopping the stone being able to be lifted.
39:38That's actually creating more of a challenge than we previously expected.
39:41They've fitted it with a thixotropic resin which secured it to the stone, so you've got to bray that bond as best you can.
39:48It's coming off that glass.
39:50Hold on, guys. Still going.
39:53In some instances, we've had to take two stones down in one go.
39:57Given that we are on the roof, the access to these chimneys is one of our biggest challenges.
40:01Once they reach the ground, these majestic monoliths will be catalogued.
40:12Any damaged stones will be sent off to the stonemasons for restoration and repair.
40:17And everything will be held in storage until it can be returned to the roof.
40:21So, we've completed this activity now on this chimney.
40:25It's one bound, another 33 to go.
40:30Back in the stained glass repair workshop, Navin's specialist team are hard at work.
40:36Right now, Navin is overseeing the final phase of the repair process.
40:40Once the panel is leaded, what we do is we cement it. This process is called cementing.
40:47It makes the panel waterproof. And not only waterproof, but it will stop any sort of rattling or any moisture getting back into the town hall.
40:55The cement is worked into all the cracks of the panel, where it will form a watertight seal.
41:00So, once the panel is cemented, what Ben is doing now is coating it with a chalk in powder called whiting.
41:08It dries out the putty. And within two hours, that putty will be ready for us to polish it up.
41:13And within about two weeks, it will be ready to go into the town hall.
41:17The polishing removes the excess putty and provides a smart finish to the glass.
41:22Once that process is done, the panels are rested here for two weeks.
41:25They've not been polished yet, but they are ready to go in the town hall.
41:32So, this is the complete article. All the repairs and all the cleaning has been done.
41:36Apart from the tie bars, we'll put them in when we're installing.
41:40The glazing team will do that. The sizes are checked.
41:44And everything is hunky-dory. So, within two weeks now, we should be ready for this to go in.
41:49All the glazers here, all the people that work here have some sort of sensitivity towards the town hall.
41:58So, I'm so glad that we've got this job and we're working towards something that's going to stay there for another 150 years.
42:05The restoration of Manchester Town Hall has breathed new life into the local community, creating over a hundred new jobs and employing scores of local businesses.
42:18In the Great Hall, Alison is keen to bring the ceiling murals back to life.
42:22At the end of all this, it will be a splendid building and it will be exactly as it was originally intended, which is to shout about Manchester and to show how fantastic it is.
42:34For her, as for all the people working on the project, this is a job worth doing well.
42:39It's just very satisfying and it's quite relaxing to do, you know, once you've got your rhythm going.
42:46But when I was a very little girl, I got incredibly massively into trouble for scraping all the varnish off the dining room table.
42:52And I think it might have been an early indication of what I actually wanted to do in my life.
42:57So, yeah, it is very satisfying and it's a fantastic job.
43:00With three years of the restoration project still to go, the dedicated team entrusted with caring for this spectacular city centrepiece must pull out all the stops to restore and renew the building for Manchester and the nation.
43:19One final new and exclusive mission for the Great British Landmark Fixers next Monday evening at eight and catch up with the series so far on UK TV Play.
43:33Trains made tiny next, though, here on Yesterday, where access all areas to Hornby, a model world.
43:49Written by hier in the