St George’s Hall Minton floor tiles unveiled to the public

National World - LocalTV

Liverpool's rare Minton Tiles are once again on display this summer. St George's Hall floor, consisting of 30,000 hand-crafted tiles, have been revealed for the first time in four years.

Transcript

00:00 Liverpool's rare mint and tiles are once again on display this summer.

00:06 St George's Hall's floor, consisting of 30,000 handcrafted tiles,

00:11 had been revealed for the first time in four years.

00:14 I keep staring at this floor. I mean, there's 30,000 tiles,

00:18 and I think in its entirety, it's absolutely stunning.

00:22 But when you speak to our guides and they start picking out details

00:27 and saying, "Have you seen this? Have you spotted that?"

00:30 That's when you really can see that these tiles tell a tale.

00:35 The Victorian mosaic has been hidden under wooden flooring since the 19th century

00:40 and is regarded as one of the city's most beautifully preserved pieces of art.

00:45 This will only be the tenth time the tiles have been unveiled in the past 16 years.

00:50 The mosaic was covered in the 1860s to provide a more hard-wearing surface.

00:56 It took flooring specialists three days to remove the wooden protective cover.

01:01 We protect this floor. We take really good care of it, and we cover it up.

01:05 When the Victorians made this floor, they made it for dancing on and made it for partying.

01:11 There were some quite lively events that took place on this floor,

01:15 so that's quite scouse as well, that, isn't it?

01:18 So I love the fact that this floor's seen a really good time as well.

01:24 The tiles originally cost £3,000.

01:28 That's the equivalent of around £250,000 today,

01:32 although the true cost of recreating it would be in its millions.

01:37 St George's Hall is the people's hall. This hall belongs to the people of Liverpool.

01:42 I think although people can come into this building,

01:45 they can't see all of the building at the same time.

01:48 So actually, when you come into the Great Hall, like today,

01:51 you don't get to see the mints and tiles because it's covered.

01:54 Giving people the opportunity to actually see what they own,

01:58 this is their hall, and see it in all its glory.

02:02 And so it's quite exciting for people to come and see that

02:05 and take this opportunity because it's not always on show.

02:08 The theme of the design of the floor is the unity of the three kingdoms of the UK.

02:12 This hall is the emotional heart of Liverpool.

02:15 If you think this is the place that people, you know,

02:18 we come to spontaneously congregate, celebrate and commemorate here, don't we?

02:23 So we are all custodians of this building.

02:26 But you know, the other thing which I love when we reveal this floor,

02:30 even though it's been four years since we did it,

02:32 it changes the acoustics of this space completely.

02:36 This hall was designed with this organ behind you now in it,

02:42 so that this organ sounded incredible with this floor.

02:46 To celebrate the tiles which will be on display until Friday 18th August,

02:50 the City Hall's team has programmed some special tours and events.

02:54 All income generated will be reinvested into the hall,

02:57 with donations also made towards the refurbishment of the Willis Organ

03:01 and the Mary Seacole Statue Fund.

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