Public Monument and Sculpture Association National Recording Project
FOUR SEASONS
Region ID | MR | |
Work ID | 50 | |
Manual Reference | MR/BOL05 | |
Type | Statue | |
Title | FOUR SEASONS | |
Architect | Hill, William | |
Architect | Woodhouse, George | |
Architect | Hodkin and Jones | |
Date of design | 1859-1873 | |
Year of unveiling | 1873 | |
Unveiling details | 5 June 1873 | |
Road | Victoria Square/Le Mans Crescent | |
Precise Location | Bolton Town Hall, Albert Hall at each corner | |
A to Z Ref | p.39 F1 | |
OS Ref | SD657063 | |
Postcode | ||
Work is | Extant | |
Listing Status | I | |
Duty of Care | Bolton MBC | |
Commissioned by | Town Hall committee | |
Notes | ||
Four sculptured panels depicting allegories of the four seasons. They were positioned in the corners of what was originally the Albert Hall. After the fire of 1981 the great hall was divided and the panels whilst remaining in their original positions, are now in the new Albert Hall. | ||
The Albert Hall was built as the central part of the new Town Hall and opened in 1873 (for a full account of the building of the Town Hall see entry on Calder Marshall tympanum figures BOL04). It was originally intended to be 50 metres by 22, but owing to the cost of the building and the need to reduce the amount of land it occupied its size was reduced in 1870 to 33.5 by 19 metres. The original hall was intended to seat 1,800 people. The decoration in the hall was carried out by W. B. Simpson and Sons of London after the classical style.(1) In November 1981 the Albert Hall was gutted by fire. The walls remained structurally sound however, and the hall was renovated. The poor acoustics and enormous size of the original hall had made it an awkward venue, one which, according to the council's own report, was "unsuitable for most types of entertainment."(2) It size meant that neither was it commercially viable. As a result it was decided, after a period of consultation, to put in a floor, thus making two new halls, an upper Albert Hall for concerts a lower one (the Festival Hall) for public and community events. Some of the plasterwork was obliterated in the fire but the four seasons panels in what is now the lower hall withstood the heat. All the plasterwork in was restored by Hodkin and Jones as part of a £3 million restoration carried out between April 1983 and December 1984. The restoration fof the hall itself cost £1.6 million.(3) | ||
Allegory of the four seasons. | ||
circa | ||
raw year | 1873 | |
Condition | Fair | |
At risk | No known risk | |
Inscriptions | ||
Signatures | none visible | |
Elements
Element Details
Part of work | Material | Dimensions |
|---|---|---|
Figures | Plasterwork | |
Assessment of Condition
Surface Character: nothing recorded Structural Condition: nothing recordedVandalism
Vandalism | Comment |
|---|---|
None | |