Faz Barber with his drain cover design
Competition winners are leaving a small but significant mark on Albert Square as part of the Our Town Hall project.
Work is taking place to transform the square into a world-class public space in front of what will be a repaired, restored and more accessible Manchester Town Hall. For all its epic scale, the project is taking care with every detail.
And one new detail which five Mancunian designers can take particular pride in will be part of the fabric of the city, beneath the feet of people visiting the square, for many generations to come.
Their entries triumphed in a public competition to come up with decorative designs for five new circular cast iron drain covers in Albert Square.
The first of their creations, realised in 3-D form by Manchester-based jonmalestudio, have now been installed in the square with the designers given the chance to see the results in situ.
“It was quite overwhelming seeing it, knowing it is going to be a permanent fixture,” said poet, writer and architect Faz Barber whose ingenious spiralling design is intended as a message of hope for the city.
Faz, 27, originally from Whalley Range but now living in London although he is still actively involved in Manchester’s arts scene, said he was inspired by the phrase ‘circling the drain’ and used it as a metaphor to write a poem about finding hope in the city when people feel hopeless and are going round and round, getting nowhere.
He added: “I was not necessarily writing it for myself, although I do understand the feeling of hopelessness. I was thinking of what the city would want to say to its people in a poetic form, that hope is all around and it can show up when you least expect it. I love that people will have to circle around the drain to read it which brings the metaphor to life and becomes a mini performance in the middle of Albert Square.”
The full poem reads: If you’re circling the drain, Just know we feel your pain. But better days are coming, I swear you’ll see them again. Just look around you…The hope in our city is yours to regain, Manchester is here for you Rkid, So long may your spirit remain.
Freelance illustrator Barney Ibbotson of Whalley Range, 51, took a much more visual approach with a design celebrating Manchester’s remarkable history of innovation.
His winning design, evocative of one of the Town Hall’s stained glass windows, is rich in artistic references to Manchester firsts – from the first passenger railway and first transatlantic flight by Alcock and Brown (who both had Manchester connections) and the first stored-program computer ‘Baby’ to more recent achievements such as the UK’s first indoor Velodrome and the discovery of supermaterial graphene. There’s even a football referencing the formation of the English Football League, the world’s oldest, in a Manchester Hotel in 1888.
The inspirations for pattern motifs within the design are drawn from notes in pioneering scientist John Dalton’s notebook from his work on atomic theory, and the world’s first standardised screw thread which made Victorian industrialist Joseph Whitworth his fortune.
Barney said: “Designing something like this which will be a fixture in the city is not an opportunity that comes up very often. When I saw a post on Facebook about the competition I knew I badly wanted to win it.
“I’m very interested in Manchester and its history and spent a lot of time doing research at the Science and Industry Museum to help inform the design.”
Other winners whose designs have already been installed include Eddie Campbell and Olivia Clermont, both from Didsbury. A final design, by Unity Arts and Dan Birkbeck based in Chorlton will be installed towards the end of the project.
Deputy Council Leader Cllr Garry Bridges said:
“This project is all about leaving a lasting legacy for Manchester. It’s safeguarding the Grade I-listed Town Hall for the next century, making Albert Square one of Europe’s finest public spaces and equipping people with heritage skills which will enable them to build careers in the construction industry.
“This is another legacy. It’s great that these talented individuals have been given the chance to make a mark on the city and that Manchester people will be able to appreciate their designs for many decades to come.”
Matt Stirton, Principal Landscape Architect at Planit who have led on the design vision for the transformed square, said:
“The drain cover competition was designed to capture the public’s imagination and provide a chance for people to leave their artistic mark on this historic project for generations to come. The response from the public was incredible! It’s wonderful to see the individuality and creativity in the winning designs created by a range of designers from different ages and backgrounds.”