The 'hot air factory'

Very little of the original fittings and fixtures of the magnificent room remain, but the few fragments that do are skilfully woven into the fabric of the 'new' chamber which was reconstructed on the ground floor.

The original wood on the ground floor was Austrian fuming oak and only two of the original panels remain in the chamber, the rest was replaced in both the chamber and in the hallway by Japanese larch which has been oak veneered.

The first thing that takes your eye is the stained glass windows, which continue the celebration of the London Guilds, namely the ironmongers, girdlers, pewterers, painter/stainers and carpenters and the window celebrating the scriveners and the turners, which flank the Faudel-Phillips' Window, one light of which depicts the Guildhall in London, from where the link between London and 'The Derrie', or 'Doire' (now Londonderry) is taken. The window 'light' between the carpenters' and stainers' window depicts Carlisle Bridge and the City's ancient toll house, dating back to 1878.

"All the Companies had their own halls in London, and you'll see some of them in drawing form as you go through the building," he tells me.

Some of the details on these windows are simply fantastic, but need to be viewed at close quarters. Again, they are restorations, as the bombing destroyed them all, but they have been put back as accurately and sympathetically as possible to the originals.

"Again, these are the Coats of Arms for the London Companies. The Governorship of the Honourable the Irish Society is held in very high esteem because to be a Governor you have to be a former Lord Mayor of London, and you can see some of their names commemorated here," Colin says, directing my gaze to the window 'lights' where a series of illustrious-sounding names are recorded for posterity.

The faces of former Mayors stare down from portraits that have spilled over from the Mayor's Parlour. They are taken out of the parlour four at a time to make space for the new faces elected to the chair for the in-coming term. But, what really catches my eye is the Mayor's 'throne' and dais. Colin explains that it's a bit of a cobbled together edifice with bits of the original wood carvings incorporated into the new design.

"These portraits date back to 1972 and the first Mayor after Government re-organisation, Dr Raymond McClean," he says going on to name the mayors in succession, including the City's first Lady Mayor, Marlene Jefferson and John Tierney, who was the youngest Mayor (at that time) to have ever been appointed.

I ask if all the panels in the room are Japanese larch too, to which Colin says: "Yes, they are, but there are two panels in here which are the original panels. This is one here, do you see? There is a very slight colour difference, and although this is very slightly faded, it is solid wood. The real McCoy.

"The Mayor's dais is probably the only original piece in the chamber and used to be up against the back wall and there used to be bench seating that came round in a horseshoe shape and carved in solid oak with red leather which was brass studded.The press sat in the centre and there was a fixed public gallery set in benches. The Dais is the only piece that survived along with four benches, and only because of a steel beam that fell and shielded it from the rest of the rubble. If you look carefully at the ornate panel behind you can see parts of the old mixed with the new.

Lions

"If you look on top you can see two wooden lions, these used to be the hand rests on the original Mayor's chair which had a canopy above. The chair the Mayor uses now was the former Town Clerk's chair.

"The original Mayor's chair was destroyed in the bomb. Made of oak and set with red leather it came up in a sweeping canopy with a lion sat at each side of it, and the only original piece of the original chair are the two lions that you see on top of the decorative panel."

I repeat rumours I'd been told about the ceiling having cost around 1m and that the work was all hand done...but Colin shakes his head...

"No. This is a replica of the original ceiling when it was downstairs. The main hall is above this chamber, but this was blown completely out in the bombing and this was just one large hole," he says, sweeping his arm across the room: "The ceiling was restored for the re-opening of the Guildhall in 1977. The building was closed for five years after the 1972 bombing.

"In fact, it took longer to rebuild than it took to build the Guildhall in the first place in 1887. Most of the work that was done in here after 1972 was done by local tradesmen. McLaughlin and Harvey would have been the main contractors and they would have sub-contracted specialist work.

"This ceiling was cast in four different moulds at a cost of 18,000. That's mid-1970s prices. Each section was lifted up into place separately. It is a very highly sprung ceiling because of the ballroom above. Sometimes it was not advisable to sit under the chandeliers. I have seen them bouncing four to six inches and jingling to the dancing above."

The only remaining item to tell you about are the chandeliers themselves: There were none in the original Guildhall prior to the bombing. These were put in for the reopening of the building in 1977. The glasswork is Checkoslovakian cut glass, bohemian style, which was the glass to have at the time apparently.

"When they were put in they were 1,800 each, but that's going back well over 30 years, so you wouldn't buy them for that sort of money now. There are five in total. Two in here, two in the main foyer and one in the Mayor's parlour. They are taken down once a year for a spring-clean prior to the Mayor's Ball in May."

Now that's a job I wouldn't want to do on my own...