The Big Horn or the Tib Street Horn is a

trombone The trombone (, Italian, French: ''trombone'') is a musical instrument in the Brass instrument, brass family. As with all brass instruments, sound is produced when the player's lips vibrate inside a mouthpiece, causing the Standing wave, air c ...

-shaped public sculpture in the Northern Quarter of

Manchester Manchester () is a city and the metropolitan borough of Greater Manchester, England. It had an estimated population of in . Greater Manchester is the third-most populous metropolitan area in the United Kingdom, with a population of 2.92&nbs ...

, England. It is some tall and is displayed on the remains of a building that once housed a hat factory. A proposed redevelopment in 2017 of this once industrial and commercial area resulted in the sculpture being taken down and put into storage, it was subsequently installed on Afflecks Palace.

Location

The sculpture is located on the corner of Tib Street and Church Street, on a site also bordered by

Joiner Street Joinery is a part of woodworking that involves joining pieces of wood, engineered lumber, or synthetic substitutes (such as lamination#Wood, laminate), to produce more complex items. Some woodworking joints employ mechanical fasteners, bindings ...

and

Bridgewater Place Bridgewater Place, nicknamed The Dalek, is an office and residential skyscraper in Leeds, West Yorkshire, England. It was the tallest building in Yorkshire at the time of being topped out in September 2005, but is now the second-tallest after ...

, in the Smithfield conservation area of the Northern Quarter of Manchester. Surrounding buildings include the Black Dog Ballroom, the Sachas Hotel, the Debenhams Building,

Afflecks Afflecks (formerly Affleck's Palace) is an indoor market in Manchester, England, in the city's Northern Quarter (Manchester), Northern Quarter on the junction of Church Street/Tib Street and Dale Street with Oldham Street. Dozens of independent ...

, The Light Hotel and the Birchin apartments.

History

Mill

The site was originally occupied by a number of buildings, including the Rylands and Co. warehouse which was demolished in the early 1990s.

Sculpture

The sculpture resembles a trombone or serpent-like musical instrument, with attached objects. It was designed by David Kemp, a Cornish artist, and built around the corner of a former Victorian factory that produced hats. Constructed from welded

steel Steel is an alloy of iron and carbon that demonstrates improved mechanical properties compared to the pure form of iron. Due to steel's high Young's modulus, elastic modulus, Yield (engineering), yield strength, Fracture, fracture strength a ...

and

galvanised Galvanization ( also spelled galvanisation) is the process of applying a protective zinc coating to steel or iron, to prevent rusting. The most common method is hot-dip galvanizing, in which the parts are coated by submerging them in a bath o ...

ducting, it is tall and long. It was built as a gateway sculpture to symbolise the growth of the city's Northern Quarter. The sculpture was funded by the

Arts Council An arts council is a government or private non-profit organization dedicated to promoting the arts; mainly by funding local artists, awarding prizes, and organizing arts events. They often operate at arms-length from the government to prevent pol ...

through the

National Lottery National Lottery may refer to: *National Lottery (Ireland), the state lottery of Ireland *National Lottery (United Kingdom), the lottery franchise in the United Kingdom *South African National Lottery, established in 2000 *A number of countries con ...

Manchester City Council Manchester City Council is the Local government in England, local authority for the City status in the United Kingdom, city of Manchester in Greater Manchester, England. Manchester has had an elected local authority since 1838, which has been re ...

National Car Parks National Car Parks (NCP) is a private car park operator, with car parks in towns, cities, airports, London Underground and National Rail stations. History NCP was founded in 1931 by Colonel Frederick Lucas. In October 1948 Sir Ronald Hobson ...

and the Northern Quarter Association. Some changes were made to the design from the originally planned version, but it follows the artist's signature style by using

scrap metal Scrap consists of recyclable materials, usually metals, left over from product manufacturing and consumption, such as parts of vehicles, building supplies, and surplus materials. Unlike waste, scrap can have monetary value, especially recover ...

. and is part of his series of sculptures on "Unsound Instruments". The sculpture was commissioned in 1996 and finished in 1999. It took 10 days to install on the site, with a welcoming ceremony held on 10 June 1999 that featured a piece of music that was commissioned for the event. Known as the "Big Horn" or "The Tib Street Horn", it was one of two sculptures on Tibb Street, with the other being Toy Boy, a

neon light Neon Light or Neon Lights may refer to: __NOTOC__ * Neon lighting, a form of lighting Music Albums * ''Neon Lights'' (album), a 2001 album by Simple Minds EPs * ''Neon Lights'' (EP), a 2021 EP by Annie Songs * "Neon Light" (Blake Shelton son ...

tower designed by Peter Freeman in 1998. The section of the wall that supports the sculpture was retained when the rest of the building was demolished. The cleared area was used by

for the parking of around 100 cars. The artist described the artwork as: It has been described as "one of the most recognisable of the modern public art works installed in the city".

Redevelopment

Planning permission was granted in 2017 to construct 183 apartments on the site that currently hosts the sculpture. The proposed "Citu NQ" development by Salboy (a company owned by

Fred Done Fred Done (born March 1943) is a British billionaire businessman and the owner of the bookmaking chain Betfred, which has more than 1,600 betting shops in the UK. Early life Done grew up with three siblings in Ordsall, Greater Manchester. Done ...

) will also include shops and rooftop gardens on the 7th floor (open to all residents) and the 10th floor (private gardens). The sculpture was initially offered back to the artist, but he did not want it returned. It was instead donated to

, and was removed and put into storage, while the remains of the building that supported it were demolished. Although there were rumours that it might be installed at a university in Manchester, it was subsequently announced that it would be installed on the Tib Street entrance to Afflecks Palace.

References

{{Reflist, 30em, refs= {{cite news, last1=Fitzgerald, first1=Todd, title=Northern Quarter's Big Horn to go, replaced by Fred Done flats, url=http://www.manchestereveningnews.co.uk/news/greater-manchester-news/big-horn-nq-fred-done-12590871, work=

Manchester Evening News The ''Manchester Evening News'' (''MEN'') is a regional daily newspaper covering Greater Manchester in North West England, founded in 1868. It is published Monday–Saturday; a Sunday edition, the ''MEN on Sunday'', was launched in February 20 ...

, date=11 February 2017 {{cite news, last1=Walters, first1=Sarah, title=Is it bye-bye to the Big Horn in Manchester's Northern Quarter?, url=http://www.manchestereveningnews.co.uk/whats-on/arts-culture-news/big-horn-northern-quarter-manchester-12008323, work=Manchester Evening News, date=11 October 2016 {{cite news, last1=Coyle, first1=Simon, title=Manchester public art: The Big Horn on Tib Street, url=http://www.manchestereveningnews.co.uk/news/nostalgia/manchester-public-art-big-horn-8054515, work=Manchester Evening News, date=14 April 2015 {{cite web, title=The Tib Street Horn, url=http://manchesterhistory.net/manchester/tours/tour4/area4page37.html, website=manchesterhistory.net, accessdate=12 February 2017 {{cite web, last1=Forde, first1=Keir, title=Six Stunning Outdoor Sculptures in Manchester, url=https://theculturetrip.com/europe/united-kingdom/england/articles/six-stunning-outdoor-sculptures-in-manchester/, website=Culture Trip, accessdate=12 February 2017, archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170213163829/https://theculturetrip.com/europe/united-kingdom/england/articles/six-stunning-outdoor-sculptures-in-manchester/, archive-date=13 February 2017, url-status=dead {{cite web, title=PMSA, url=http://www.pmsa.org.uk/pmsa-database/4709/, archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170213163854/http://www.pmsa.org.uk/pmsa-database/4709/, url-status=dead, archive-date=13 February 2017, website=www.pmsa.org.uk, accessdate=12 February 2017 {{cite book, last1=Wyke, first1=Terry, title=Public sculpture of Greater Manchester, date=2004, publisher=Liverpool Univ. Press, location=Liverpool, isbn=9780853235675 , pages=64 , url=https://books.google.com/books?id=mFOhWSH9B6wC&pg=PA64 {{cite web, title=Place North West {{! THING OF THE WEEK, url=https://www.placenorthwest.co.uk/news/thing-of-the-week-10/, website=Place North West, accessdate=12 February 2017, date=10 February 2017 {{cite web, title=toy boy – manchester – Peter Freeman, url=http://www.peterfreeman.co.uk/tibstreet.htm, website=www.peterfreeman.co.uk, accessdate=27 January 2018 {{cite news , last1=Rucki , first1=Alexandra , title=The Big Horn will return to the Northern Quarter , url=https://www.manchestereveningnews.co.uk/news/greater-manchester-news/big-horn-return-northern-quarter-13837676 , access-date=20 June 2021 , work=Manchester Evening News , date=2017-10-31 {{cite news , last1=Butler , first1=Katie , title=The Big Horn could be staying in the Northern Quarter after all... , url=https://www.manchestereveningnews.co.uk/news/greater-manchester-news/big-horn-could-staying-northern-13437072 , work=Manchester Evening News , date=5 August 2017 Outdoor sculptures in Manchester 1999 sculptures 1999 establishments in England