Poverty Stricken Rochdale spends £20 million on Town Hall
The three-year long, £20 million renovation, of poverty stricken Rochdale’s Town Hall, is finally complete.
In 2021, Rochdale Town Hall closed its doors, ahead of three long years, and £20 million worth of renovations. In March of this year, the stunning Town Hall reopened its doors to the general public, and now will include community-generated exhibitions, more disability access, a restaurant and displays of the Town Hall’s History.
The town hall, designed by William Crossland, was opened in 1871 and originally cost £154,000 to build.
There is a local rumour that Hitler thought the town hall to be so beautiful, Rochdale was broadly avoided by the German Bombers, as he wanted to take the building back to Germany.
(Photo Credits in Infographic: Image 1- Lily Mangan, Image 2- Ken Bromley Art Supplies, Image 3- Tim Green, Image 4- David Dixon, Image 5- Paul Balfe, Image 6- Lily Mangan, Image 7- Nick Chill)
Many of the locals have been eager to share their opinions online of the new town hall. Hugh Pemberton said: “It looks stunning — and deserves to be high on any sightseeing agenda for the Manchester area.”
However, some locals are not happy with the money that has been spent, especially considering Rochdale has one of the highest child poverty rates in the whole of the UK, according to statistics released by The End Child Poverty Coalition. This study found that 40.5% of children in Rochdale (12 out of 30 children in a classroom) live in poverty.
Maggie Allen said: “What a waste of money. Within the local area there’s poverty, housing problems, social troubles. Was it so high up on the council priority list?”
Over 500 volunteers were involved in the regeneration project of the town hall researching the history of the building, getting involved in archaeological digs of the Town Hall square, and even helping to restore some of the impressive carved angels in the Great Hall.
Some of the residents believe that this is money well spent. Alison Iveson, who became a volunteer two years ago, said: “I’ve cleaned one of the angels in the ceiling in the great hall, which was fabulous, I couldn’t believe someone was letting me do that.” The volunteers were taught how to properly restore the angels using the correct chemicals and techniques.
“This was always a council building until before lockdown when it closed… so we’ve got people who have lived here in Rochdale all their life and have never seen inside until now.”
Alison believes that the regeneration will have a large positive impact on the town, she said: “Rochdale’s not had a very good press of the last few years, you’re probably aware that there have been a few scandals of one thing or another, so this is a really good news story coming out of Rochdale.”
The regeneration has also included reducing parking spaces in the town, which some residents are not too happy about.
Local resident Elaine Rawstron, 64, said: “Us Blue badge holders are the ones that will struggle now, it was hard enough for us to get into town anyway, and now it’s even harder.”
So far over 12,000 people have visited the new town hall, including many people from outside of Rochdale.
The town hall will hopefully continue to attract new visitors as it is preparing to hold many events over the coming weeks, such as: town hall tours, the Mayor’s Charity Ball and over summer Rochdale’s Feel Good Festival where almost 10,000 attended in 2023.