Albert Square to be ready for Christmas programme, says Manchester
With full completion expected in summer 2026 on both the square and the Town Hall, the council said “a civic square to rival the best in Europe” will host festive events this year.
This would be the first time since 2019 Albert Square has hosted festivities, having been closed through the Our Town Hall redevelopment project.
Manchester City Council’s resources and governance scrutiny committee meets on Thursday 6 March, and will hear the latest report on the Our Town Hall project, described by the local authority as the largest and most complex heritage scheme in the UK. Lendlease is the main contractor.
According to this report, the project is continuing to operate within the revised £429m budget, adjusted upwards by £76m in October last year, although “some residual risks remain”.
The update confirms that most of the transformed and enlarged Albert Square will be made available to support 2025’s Christmas programme for the first time since 2019.
While works to the square will not be completely finished, the programme is being re-sequenced and accelerated to allow the space to be used for the city’s ever-busy Christmas programme.
MCC said that the project team is now 80% of the way through works in the project’s construction phase. While negotiations with contractors around financial claims and other issues are ongoing, a programme to completion has been developed which would see the main programme of works conclude in August 2026 on both the square and the town hall.
This should not be seen as the reopening date for the town hall, which from that point will still require some further works and testing before reoccupation.
There are plans in the works for a major programme of events in Albert Square and the Town Hall itself running up to and including September 2027, which will mark the 150th anniversary of the building’s original opening.
The original reopening date had been summer 2024.
Cllr Garry Bridges, deputy leader of MCC, said: “We know Mancunians and visitors alike are looking forward to having their town hall and their civic square back and better than ever and it’s great that we can now look ahead to that.
“We are developing a civic square to rival the best in Europe and it will be exciting to see it pilot Christmas events this year ahead of a full permanent opening next year.
“We look forward over the course of this year to announcing more details about Christmas in Albert Square and how people in Manchester can help us celebrate the reopening of their magnificent town hall.
“We’ve overcome so many challenges to get to this point and while the unique nature of the project is such that some inevitably still remain, we believe the end result will be something special.”
The committee report also details how a milestone was reached this month, with the restoration of a permanent power supply to the town hall
MCC said that a further update report will be issued this summer once negotiations with the management contractor have concluded and the completion date is confirmed.
