Bradford City Hall The Hairy Builder

Want to know about British history? You'd better get your hands dirty.

Don't bury your head in a guidebook. Ask a brickie...

a chippie...

or a roofer.

Ever since I were a boy, I've had a passion for our past, so..

I'm going to apprentice myself to the oldest masonry company

in the country.

Mastering their crafts and scraping away the secrets

of Blighty's precious piles.

From castles to cathedrals,

music halls to mansions,

palaces to public schools.

These aren't just buildings.

They're keys to opening up our past and bringing it back to life.

Today, I'm in Bradford, West Yorkshire,

helping to restore this jewel of Bradford's architectural heritage -

the spectacular Victorian City Hall.

I'll be getting up close and personal with Britain's monarchs.

There's about three or four kings.

-The end of the sceptres have been deliberately shaped as willies.

-No!

'I discover why the city became so wealthy.'

Look at that! It's like the gates of Mordor.

'And I meet an angel who's lost her horn.'

It's more like an episode of Casualty than Hairy Builder.

Bradford started life as a small market town.

But it was the Industrial Revolution in the 19th century

which put Bradford on the map.

They had an abundance of coal

to fuel the ever-increasing textile mills,

and Bradford became the wool capital of the world.

In short, it was loaded.

Bradford wanted to show the world just how rich it was,

so it spent 100 grand building this impressive Gothic-style City Hall.

Built in 1873,

City Hall is one of Britain's most distinctive Victorian buildings

and it's still the home of the City Council.

Today, it's undergoing

a massive £4 million, three-year restoration project.

It's largely external work,

focusing on its fantastic clock tower

and the 35 statues gracing the facade of the upper level.

-Hello, Mike. It's good to meet you.

-Good to see you.

'Before meeting the builders, Mike Cowlam from Bradford Council

'is going to give me a history lesson.'

I don't know any other building in Britain

that has every member of the monarchy

since the Norman conquest on it.

Absolutely right. We've got 35 of the monarchs,

-running from the Norman conquest right through to Victoria.

-God.

And are they all accurate depictions of the particular monarchs?

Yeah, they were all worked from paintings and drawings of the time,

so they're all fairly accurate reflections

of both what they were wearing

and also their height as well and facial features.

Gosh. And he's had quite a lot of restoration, hasn't he?

He has. Unfortunately,

the weather hasn't been kind to him but it's a real pleasure to see him

brought back to his former glory,

because the point about this gentleman,

which is Oliver Cromwell, is that he was never a monarch.

-So he was the Lord Protector of England.

-Right.

And so he's the only person out of the 35

who is not actually a monarch.

'After invading Ireland in the 17th century,

'Mr Cromwell wasn't too popular with the Irish masons

'employed to work on the regal statues.'

You can imagine Bradford City Council back in 1870,

debating whether to have him up here or not.

I think it must have been very difficult.

One thing we know from the record is that, when he was installed...

-Yes.

-..the Irish workers were sent home for the day,

and he was installed by the English workers,

because it believed there was a plot for him

to accidentally fall from the building and be smashed into bits.

And what was the reason for these statues?

Well, apart from celebrating the monarchy,

part of the reason was education.

So each of these statues has a feature about their particular reign

which can be used to explain to people who the kings were

and what they were particularly famous for.

So the people of Bradford would know their monarchy,

they'd know the dates and who came after who.

That's right, absolutely.

Oh, it's brilliant!

Probably one of the most recognisable monarchs.

Absolutely, Henry VIII.

He's got a very proud paunch.

It's like kind of a mental jog on who's who.

-Who's this, Mike?

-This is King John.

-Yes.

-The key thing about him, of course, is the Magna Carta.

Is that what he's clutching rather clumsily to him?

Yes, the somewhat crumpled document.

He didn't particularly relish the Magna Carta.

You can see down here the seal that he used,

because he couldn't read or write, so it was signed with a seal.

Do you know, this has been the most wonderful,

vivid sort of guided tour through history, do you know what I mean?

-I know.

-It's really delightful in a really special way.

A very unique way. I don't think we'll be able to do this

-for another 100 years, will we?

-Probably not.

I'm hoping that these repairs will last at least another 100 years,

because they're quite expensive.

Construction firm William Anelay's

have a team of highly-skilled craftsmen

working hard to bring this Grade I building back to its former glory.

-How do, Sam?

-How are we doing, Dave, all right?

-Yeah, champion.

-See you.

Give me an overview of the site.

What kind of work have you got on here?

Well, it's all masonry repairs, predominantly.

There are some roof repairs going on as well.

We started off at the far end of the building and worked our way round

and gradually worked from top to bottom.

Is that some new stonework on the chimneys?

It is, yeah. The chimneys throughout have been stripped down,

recorded each stone and then replaced what needs replacing

and rebuilt them back to their former glory.

You know, Sam, working on a building like this,

it was built in the 1870s,

have you found much evidence of prior restoration on the building?

Predominantly, all the ornate stuff

and the carving works and things that we've done,

-this is the first time round.

-Yeah.

-So it's lasted well.

This renovation project requires ten stonemasons

and already they've used almost 50 tonnes of local sandstone.

So far, the firm have restored ten 20-foot chimney stacks,

all of the brickwork joints have been re-cemented

and the gargoyles have been cleaned.

But it's not all about restoration.

Health and safety is just as important.

If it's not replaced,

it will fall off the building

and potentially fall on to someone, which would be a disaster.

So great care is taken in making sure

any stone which is failing is replaced.

We've got a term called belt and braces,

which means to really make sure that the stone's not going anywhere.

Matt's one of the masons

who's helping to bring this terrific building back to life.

How do, Matt? I'll tread carefully so I don't disturb you.

I've got to admit, I think stonemason

must be one of the most wonderful trades to have.

You just get better at it as you get older as well, surely?

Yeah, well,

I've obviously progressed over the ten years I've been doing it.

I'm still learning every day from blokes older than me.

'Stonemasons complete a three-year apprenticeship to get to this level,

'and they're a talented bunch.'

Do you do most of the carving on site in the stonemasonry?

Generally on this job we have done, yeah, sort of get it off the pallet,

work it, stick it in the wall.

'Matt's working on a decorative sphere for the cornicing

'and, for the past four months,

'he's been hammering away 25 metres off the ground.'

Do you prefer working like this, Matt?

I do, yeah, when it's on site,

cos I like being out in the elements as well myself.

-Yeah.

-So, yeah, you get a bit more feel for the work

and you can see where it's gone when you've done it,

rather than just making it in a workshop.

This team of stonemasons are taking local sandstone

and carving replacement pieces on site,

using the damaged stonework as a model.

Matt is working with a mallet and chisel,

the same tools used 150 years ago when the City Hall was built.

And that little bit of plastic

is his template for getting the curvature of his sphere.

And, I must say...

-..it's perfect, isn't it?

-It's getting there.

-You're good, aren't you?

-Getting there.

Can I have a go, Matt? I'll be very careful, I promise.

-Finish her, if you want.

-Well, I don't...

No, I would never claim to be able to do that.

I'll take off a bit of rough.

You know, I remember back to my art school days

and one of the tasks they used to get the Old Masters to do

was to draw an egg.

If you could draw it with perspective and correctly, freehand,

then they could go on to something else. You can imagine,

this is the equivalent of kind of carving an egg.

We want round, not egg.

I tell you what, mate, if I slip, you'll have the rings of Saturn,

I don't know about an egg!

Any tips, Matt? Am I doing all right?

-You're doing fine!

-Working on the principle

I can always take a bit off, but I can't stick it back on again!

I love it. I take great pride in the fact that, you know...

in this country, we've still got people like Matt

that can do these old skills.

Like, you look at the Canterbury Cathedral.

There are still the skills in Britain

to be able to do what you see,

kind of hundreds of feet up in the air that somebody did maybe,

you know, 700, 800 years ago.

-Respect!

-Thank you.

-Thank you, Matt.

'The craftsmanship on this building really is exquisite.

'The Victorians spared no expense building this magnificent beast.'

I mean, you know, civic building back in those days.

I mean, all these great northern cities

competed with each other to have the best, most grandiose.

But Bradford must be up there with the top ones.

Yeah, I think it is. I think if you look at the architecture

of Bradford itself, it just screams money from back in the day.

There's a lot of architecture within Bradford that's very grand

and very opulent, that was just showing off Bradford's wealth.

Bradford City Hall really is an example

of the city's boom time during the 18th and 19th century.

At the time when it was built, Bradford's population was rocketing.

It was a successful and thriving city.

But, unfortunately, that brought its own problems,

with an increase in crime.

To help deal with this rise of delinquents,

within City Hall a police station, prison and court room were built.

For 100 years, these cells were used to hold prisoners awaiting trial.

There is no restoration going on here, as it's now a museum,

and looks just as it did when it closed in 1974.

However, for those not banged up in prison, things were looking good.

This was the time of England's Industrial Revolution,

and Bradford became a major player

due to its lucrative textile and coal trade,

spurred by the city's cutting-edge canal and locks system.

When roads were just emerging,

and pack horses were the only means of transport,

these wonderful waterways played a vital role

in Britain's industrial growth.

-Hello, Liz!

-Hi!

-Hello, nice to see you!

-How are you?

-I'm very well, thank you.

'Historian Liz McIvor is going to give me an insight

'into the Leeds and Liverpool canal system,

'and the extraordinary Bingley Five-Rise locks.'

Well, it was the canals that was the lifeblood

that gave Bradford its prosperity, wasn't it?

It was, and it is partly due to the fact that Bradford was based on coal

and iron beds in the south part of what's now the city.

And what basically prompted industrialists to build this canal.

It's locks like the Bingley five, you know,

it's how you get the canal over a hill.

That's right. This is the steepest on the system.

It's a 1 in 5 gradient.

So it's really, it's an incredible feat of engineering.

Amazing engineering, isn't it?

-What were the barges carrying?

-Mainly, it was coal and limestone.

-Yes.

-Of course, there were other goods as well.

There was wheat and later on, for sweet factories in York,

there was chocolate and cocoa beans, things like that.

But the majority of the trade came from coal.

Yes. I remember reading somewhere

that there were 3,000 miles of navigable canals.

Yes, and of course, a branch canal

off the Leeds and Liverpool Canal

-led right into the city centre of Bradford.

-Right!

So really, you could get from this canal right to the city centre,

which of course explains why we have the prosperity

and that fabulous civic building that we're trying to restore!

I think we've got a queue coming up there.

Shall we see if we can do this without causing chaos?

We'll have a go.

I'm a bit of a canal geek.

This, for me, is real boating.

I love the lock system, I love the waterways of Britain.

It is the heart, it's the capillaries,

the lifeblood of the UK! So there you go.

'Now, there's a skill to this.

'Lucky I've done this before, eh?'

Right, so this bit, the first lock.

The bridge is opened.

The boat coming in.

You open the locks like this.

You use your back like this, as navvies have done for centuries,

thus enabling the boats to come in.

Now, the boats will go moor up there.

So what we do is, when the boats are in,

our job is to shut the gates behind them.

There's a logic to this.

Sometimes, the gates...

..can be heavy!

It doesn't half give you an appetite for your bacon sarnie!

You all right, Liz?

OK, thanks!

Wake you up in the morning!

So what we do is, we put the handle in.

Now there's sometimes a safety thingy.

Oh, it's off. Then we start winding this up.

And there'll be all sorts of a kerfuffle going on down there,

as the water comes out into the lower lock.

Look at that - it's like the gates of Mordor!

'The Bingley Five-Rise locks opened in 1774,

'and were built by John Longbottom,

'first engineer of the Leeds and Liverpool canal company.

'It's a staircase lock,

'in which boats are lifted or lowered through five stages.'

You could drop like 50 tonnes of boat and coal

off the top of what is effectively a 12-storey building.

That's really, really clever engineering!

Come on, Liz! Got more muscles in me spit!

-I can't go any more.

-Such was the life of a bargee's wife!

-Who's to say I wouldn't be the bargee?

-Eh?

Oh, not in those days!

Oh, good grief! You're miles off suffrage yet.

'In all fairness to Liz, this is tough work.

'But, in the 18th century,

'the Bingley Five-Rise was such a major feat of engineering

'that over 30,000 people turned out to celebrate its opening.'

One down, another four to go!

It keeps you fit.

Liz, obviously we're going downhill. We're using so much water as we go.

Where's all that water coming from?

If you need water to go up and down a hill,

you're going to need to supplement it with reservoirs,

man-made reservoirs.

And often on the tops of hills, you see what look like lakes.

And they're not lakes,

they have been dug out specifically to provide the canals with water.

And it was especially important as well

not to flood any farmers' lands.

So you had to make sure that, when you come through,

you set the lock properly at the right levels,

because you need water to go somewhere

when you get rid of it from an upper chamber.

And the same is true for not running the lock dry.

I feel quite a sense of achievement now, don't you?

Well, especially as we didn't break the locks, so...

No, we didn't break our locks. We didn't damage a boat.

We have transported, the pair of us, possibly 50 tonnes of boat.

At the equivalent of a 12-storey building, from top to bottom.

I think we've earned a cup of tea!

-Yeah, I think so too.

-You need a laundry as well.

-Cheers.

It's incredible to learn how clever engineering

played such a role in Bradford's wealth,

enabling them to afford a building as opulent as City Hall.

Standing for almost 150 years,

it's no wonder that most of its grand statues

have taken a bit of a beating.

-Boo! How do, Adam.

-Hello.

-Are you all right?

Yeah, I'm all right, how are you?

This is just the most wonderful experience.

Isn't it amazing to think that we can get up like this,

up so close to the sculptures and the public just rarely see them,

-they just glance up?

-Yeah. Definitely.

This is you work you're doing today, repairing these pieces?

Yeah, this is a pendentive canopy.

If the stone was to be done from new,

it would probably take about seven months.

Good grief! Do you worry it's a different colour?

No, cos it will weather.

Give it a year, and it'll be blended right in.

You won't notice, especially from the ground.

'And it seems lads' humour hasn't changed much

'since the Victorian days.'

You know, I've heard about the mason's mark -

the masons put their own little mark on, in perpetuity.

A bit of history left.

Do you find anything else peculiar up here?

Yeah, on this building there's about three or four kings that,

they're holding sceptres.

-Yes.

-And the end of the sceptres

-have been deliberately shaped as willies.

-No!

I don't understand...

I have a theory that someone's not been paid correctly,

so before they've sent the carving to site,

which has obviously taken months,

they've just put a finishing touch on there.

So they thought, "I'm not having this," and put a willy in there!

-So the willy's been there for 100 and odd years!

-Yeah, yeah.

Good grief! Do you know,

that's the sort of thing that my mate, Si King, would do.

There's all sorts of members of the anatomy that are carved into things,

and various hand gestures and things like that that you'll see.

'It's tradition that each stonemason has his own mark,

'which he carves into his work.

'Historically, it was a manager's way

'of knowing what job the tradesman had done.'

It can be as complicated as you want.

I suppose if you've done loads of stones, you don't want to be...

-ML.

-All right, ML! I'm doing a Dave.

D. But I'm in trouble going around corners.

There you are!

See, it's like a smiley face, a robot with a crooked smile.

I do that on every piece of masonry that I chip.

'There's intricate work to complete on these former beauties.

'And I hear there's a real artist on site.'

-Oh, wow.

-This extremely talented man

is Jan, our on-site carver.

-Hello, Jan!

-Hello!

And he's replacing the face

of King Stephen, here.

Yeah, because it's quite badly degraded down there on the chin.

Yeah, I mean, it's only a matter of time before that falls off.

You know, when you think about builders and building sites

and scaffold.

I mean, this is an artist's studio in the sky.

Yeah, it's a craft.

We're replacing everything as close as possible

to what was originally here.

Is that what this structure is that's around the head?

Yeah, this is a pointing machine.

This is to gauge depth.

-Right.

-So, if you look at all those marks on his face...

-The blue dots?

-The blue dots.

What he's done is, he's replicated that exactly

on to that stone there.

So, King Stephen. I mean, not only will he have a new face,

it will be the same face as he had when he was built?

Yes, yes, it will be.

That's wonderful. The attention to detail's incredible.

'Jan has been a mason for 30 years, and is a trained master sculptor.'

So, Jan, how long would it take you to do?

It is about one month.

-Gosh!

-He's a man who's worth following around.

-He's a very good teacher as well, so...

-Yeah?

..I try and stay close to him when I'm on site.

-You learned a lot?

-Yeah, a lot.

The lavish craftsmanship of City Hall

illustrates just how successful Bradford was in the 19th century.

But its thriving industry needed a workforce.

Attracted by Bradford's prosperity in the 1800s,

German and Irish immigrants flocked to the city,

finding work in the numerous textile mills.

Bradford's a city which has been built on waves of migration

over the decades, actually.

So the mills that you see in Bradford,

those were German emigres coming to this country,

building woollen textile mills.

The 1950s and '60s saw a second wave of immigrant workers -

this time, from India and Pakistan -

and they, too, were attracted by the work opportunities

in the textile factories.

As the immigrants came and settled,

they actually brought their food and culture with them.

It wasn't long before the Asian migrants opened their own cafes,

serving up traditional food and sweets.

And the Sweet Centre was Bradford's first.

Set up in 1964 by two brothers from Kashmir,

they created a home away from home, serving authentic curry.

Today, there are over 200 restaurants, and each year,

City Hall supports the Bradford Curry Festival.

It's their biggest event,

and Bradford's been voted the UK's curry capital

for the fifth year running.

Back at City Hall, another key job for the builders is not just

complicated masonry work, but also giving this place a good old wash.

Over the years, it's absorbed all sorts of dirt -

traffic pollutants, acid rain, and even bird droppings -

and it's in desperate need of a good clean.

This is where I come in handy!

Do you want a building that's full of 200 years

of northern grime and grit?

Look at that! Green, dirt, sooty!

Yuck! You need Scrub It Off Dave!

The City Hall bell tower stands 67 metres off the ground

and Joe's been given the job to give it a scrub.

How do, Joe? What are you up to?

We're just doing a test sample clean on the tower.

That's going to be beautiful. It's funny, though,

I can't get over the size and scale of this building.

It is, well, it's proper Gothic, isn't it?

-Very, yeah.

-How do you go about giving it a shampoo?

It's just a case of starting at the top

and working your way down, really.

In the words of Cher, if you can turn back time

and I can find a place,

we've got a chance of getting it clean, Joe!

-Would you like a go?

-I'd love a shot!

Better stand back. I'll blow me wig off!

Whoa!

There's a sense of vertigo, actually.

Now, I'm not too close, cos I don't want to damage the stonework.

Just work it left to right. Nice, smooth.

'Pollution has weakened the stone.

'So it's unbelievably fragile,

'which is why Joe is using boiling hot water to wash it.'

That is incredible.

Actually, this is quite satisfying, isn't it?

You do get instant gratification. You can see what you've done.

'It will take Joe three weeks to clean just the tower.

'I daren't even ask how long for the whole of the building!'

At the very top of City Hall,

and taking pride of place just beneath the clock tower,

stands a glorious five-foot angel made of sandstone.

And she's in need of a bit of TLC.

During the restoration of City Hall's magnificent angel statue,

a specialist decided that something was missing.

Anyway, a person at the council went through the archives

and found out something was missing, indeed.

It should have had a horn, a bit like a trumpet.

Now, Bradford City Council want to give the angel back her horn.

So a template has been made in wood,

and local conservator Pam Keeton has the job of making a shiny new horn.

We're going to use a technique called oil gilding today.

Gold's going to be used because it's a beautiful, soft, malleable metal.

It's not going to change colour, corrode, tarnish in any way,

so it doesn't need to be varnished.

Once the gold's hard and dry, it's going to stay bright for centuries.

Now the horn's finished, set and dried,

I get the honour of help putting it back in place with the angel,

where it belongs.

This is very high.

This is very exciting, if little bit scary, really!

Because we are very high up, Jamie.

-Yeah.

-Anyway, I've got the horn.

-And I've got the glue.

-Excellent. Shall we?

-Let's do it!

Right. This is very, very precious. It's been made, it's been gilded.

I'll take this. I'm just desperate not to...

Not to break it.

Look at that, it's beautiful!

This horn will sound over Bradford the next 150 years.

Hopefully, yeah. Shall we try this, then?

-Oh, fingers crossed.

-Get it in here.

It's more like an episode of Casualty than Hairy Builder!

-It's like a small operation.

-It is.

There we go, that's probably enough in there.

-That's why the tape's there.

-Yeah.

And then... quickly before it goes off.

-Over to you, Maestro.

-Thank you.

And of course, the resin will grip onto the threads.

-That's it.

-Yeah.

You know, there's not many people

who get the privilege of standing here,

up so close and personal,

in what is quite a momentous occasion.

I'm going to look up and say, "I was there!"

"What do you mean, you were up there?"

"Yeah, I was! I helped give the angel its horn back."

Bit on your chin, love.

Beautiful.

What do you think she'd say to us if she could speak?

She doesn't speak. I've been up here ages,

and I've not heard her say a word.

I'd be very worried if I heard her!

You'd mess yourself, wouldn't you, if you were up here on your own.

This beautiful angel sits proudly in front of the bell tower.

Its 13 bells ring every 15 minutes,

and can be programmed by computer

to play pretty much any song you fancy.

And I put in my request to send me on my way.

The kings and queens have had a face-lift!

The tower's had a scrub!

The angel's got her horn back!

Now it's time to sound the bells of Bradford.

BELLS PLAY "BRING ME SUNSHINE"

'Next time, I'll be at Lambeth Palace,

'discovering the human side of our greatest kings and queens.'

Richard III's put his own birthday.

Who hasn't done that on the calendar at home,

just to remind the others when's my birthday!

'Indulging in some Thames-side time travel.'

I always quite liked this little item.

This is like the top of a sceptre, but this was found near to here.

It's got some age to it, hasn't it?

'And preparing for a very special topping-out ceremony.'

It's going to look brilliant, isn't it?

It really is the icing on the cake.