Geograph - photograph every grid square

Completed in 1887, this most impressive neo-Gothic building cost a million pounds and is acknowledged as a masterpiece in its own right. It rises as a Victorian edifice - a monument to the civic pride of the city fathers, reaching 286 feet above Albert Square below. Designed by Alfred Waterhouse. It is a Grade I listed building. Link

The creation of Albert Square arose out of a project by Manchester Corporation's Monuments Committee to erect a memorial to Prince Albert who had died of typhoid in 1861. The area in which the square is situated was once derelict land and an area of dense housing near the Town Yard and the River Tib. The square, named after the Prince Consort, was laid out to provide a space for this memorial (SJ8398 : Manchester, Albert Memorial) in 1863–67. Work on the town hall, which now dominates the square, began in 1868 and was completed in 1877.

The centre of Albert Square was originally laid out in the form of a traffic circle and a group of bus stops occupied the western part. In 1987 the square was redesigned and the eastern side in front of the town hall was pedestrianised. The square was laid with fan-shaped granite setts, York stone paving and 'heritage'-style cast-iron street furniture.