A Grand Opening

Plans for opening

As the building work came to a conclusion, a grand opening was planned for September 1871. The committee granted a sum of £1,000 to be spent on these celebrations.

True to form, this again was not without much debate. The guest list consisted of 600 of the great and the good from across the borough and beyond. The invite list included county members, borough members, mayors, town clerks, magistrates, councillors, clergy, nobility and gentry and guardians of the poor.
If you weren’t on the list, you could pay for an invitation and that’s probably what the ordinary members of the general public had to do.

Opening day celebrations

The Town Hall was opened by the new mayor, George Ashworth, on Wednesday 27th September 1871.

A procession two miles long included seven bands, 30 Troopers of the Rochdale Yeomanry, around 3,000 Members of the Rochdale Equitable Pioneer’s Society, Sunday Schools, Friendly Societies and four fire brigades. VIP guests banqueted in the Great Hall, heard speeches and made toasts.

For the general public, a range of other events were planned. A firework display took place on the park slopes alongside the building on the Saturday and was repeated the following weekend due to bad weather.

A concert for schoolchildren with a choir of 500 was held in the Great Hall and there was a banquet for tradesmen.

Letting the public in

The building was finally opened to the public in October and in the first three days over 4,000 people visited to have a look.
Souvenirs were sold by local shops and well wishers bought paperweights, pin cushions and commemorative medals.

Open for business

Ten years in the planning, the Town Hall was finally open for business.

The Rochdale Observer reported that ‘a richly ornamented edifice like the Town Hall cannot but exercise a wholesome effect in promoting taste.’ It gave all its readers an illustration on it to celebrate and wish it well for the years to come.