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

Liverpool’s rare Minton tiles are once again on display this summer.

St George’s Hall’s floor, consisting of 30,000 beautiful hand-crafted tiles, has been revealed for the first time in four years.

Angie Redhead, Assistant Director, City Asset Operations Assistant Director, said: “In its entirety, it’s absolutely stunning, but when you speak to our guides, and they start picking out details and saying have you seen this, have you spotted that, that’s when you can really see that these tiles tell a tale.”

“We protect this floor. We take really good care of it, and we cover it all. When the Victorians made this floor, they made it for dancing on, they made it for partying. There were some quite lively events that took place on this floor. That’s quite Scouse as well, isn’t it? I love the fact that this floor has seen a really good time.”

The beautiful Victorian mosaic has been hidden under wooden flooring since the 19th century and is regarded as one of the city’s most beautifully preserved pieces of art. This will be only the tenth time the tiles have been unveiled in the past 16 years.

The mosaic was covered in the 1860s to provide a more hard-wearing surface for dancing. It took flooring specialists three days to remove the wooden protective cover.

The tiles originally cost £3,000 (the equivalent of around £250,000 today), although the true cost of recreating it today would be in the millions.

The theme of the design of the floor is the unity of the three kingdoms of the UK, with England represented by roses, Scotland by thistles and Ireland by shamrocks. The floor also includes maritime images of Neptune, dolphins, tritons, Nereids, triton centaurs and tridents, reflecting the importance of the sea to Liverpool’s 19th century prosperity.

The City Hall’s team has programmed some special tours and events to celebrate the tiles, which will be displayed until Friday, 18 August. All income generated will be reinvested in the Hall, with donations also made towards the refurbishment of the Willis Organ and the Mary Seacole Statue Fund.