Tuesday 8 April 2014

Manchester Marriage

Don't you just love it when visiting a place you happen upon a marriage like I did with this one in Manchester.  They had chosen the Neo-Gothic magnificence of Manchester Town Hall to plight their troth. All the guests have boarded the motorised transport and all that is left is for the bride and groom to join them.
The photographs have all been taken including the 'kissing the bride', or in the pursuit of equality maybe it is 'kissing the groom'.
Now everyone is off to what is traditionally called the wedding breakfast, although as can be seen from the shadows the time is around 17.00. The bus is one of my all time favourites, a 1951 Leyland Royal Tiger and both it and the Guy Arab IV double decker shown in the first photo were restored by the expertise of Manchester's Walsh Brothers and are owned by Belle Vue Coaches
Manchester Town Hall was designed by Alfred Waterhouse and completed in 1877 and has many notable sculptures.  I think the marriages take place in the Great Hall outside which on the floor are mosaic patterns of bees (symbolising industry). The other pieces of magnificence inside are Ford Madox Brown's Manchester Murals.  I didn't get a full on photograph of the Town Hall but happily the building featured  on one of the 2012 "A-Z of Britain" postage stamps
The 250 ft Clock Tower is occasionally opened to visit. The three clock faces seen from Albert Square in front of the Town Hall apparently bear the inscription "Teach us to number our Days" but it's too far away for my myopia.
 An entry to ABC Wednesday, a journey through the alphabet this week sojourning at M here

7 comments:

Gerald (SK14) said...

Lovely photos of old buses in Albert Square Didn't see any of those last time I was there - just a broken down tram!

Roger Owen Green said...

How romantic!
ROG, ABCW

Hazel said...

"In the pursuit of equality..." sounds fun :) Gothic architecture takes my breath away!

AmitAag said...

Lovely pictures! Great M post!
http://amitaag.blogspot.in/2014/04/monolith.html

ellen b. said...

Beautiful images from Manchester. How fun to fall upon the wedding...

Susan Moore said...

Love those old buses! Marriage, not so much ;)

Gattina said...

What an excellent idea to hire buses for the guest transport !