THEY have borne witness to many glittering occasions, both public and private, in their near 200-year long history.

Now three of Liverpool town hall’s magnificent chandeliers have received a much-needed clean-up, just in time for last night’s civic event to raise cash for Haiti.

The Georgian chandeliers are in the main ballroom and involved each piece of cut glass being painstakingly cleaned – around 60,000 pieces in total.

The whole operation took five days for a six-man team to complete, and involved temporary scaffolding being put up.

The ballroom is used for the town hall’s major official functions, including state visits and Royal lunches and dinners, and can also be hired out for wedding receptions.

It is not known how long it has been since the chandeliers were last cleaned, but one of the workers, electrician Alan Hughes, remembered cleaning them when he was an apprentice 30 years ago.

He said: “It’s amazing the dust this place accumulates, and up top the chandeliers were filthy with dust and smoke.

“It’s a painstaking and labour-intensive operation to clean them because every bit of glass has to be taken off the chandelier, cleaned, and put back up.

“You’ve got to take your time and you can’t rush it.

“But it’s worth it because when the chandelier is re-assembled it looks brand new.”