The following February, a compromise was reached when the Council voted to allow "a form of roof construction which might eventually permit the erection of a tower "if at any time it should be thought desirable to do so". It was not until March 1856 that a tower (for £5,500) was formally approved by a majority of nineteen. It would take the form of a cupola supported on columns akin to the Corinthian columns of the south facade. It is likely that Brodrick designed a tower before building even started, as suggested by such facts as its support from influential lobbyists from the outset, and the foundation walls being enlarged prematurely so that one could be added. Charles Barry too had suggested a cupola or small tower in early stages, to divert attention from an arched glazed roof which showed above the parapet. A firm named Addy and Nicholls was appointed contractors for the tower and interior work. The tower was not completed until after the Town Hall's official opening, with a bell cast by John Warner & Sons hung in 1860, closely followed by the clock mechanism, installed by Dent of London (the dials designed by Edmund Beckett Denison, installed by Potts) one storey above the bell. The grand entrance hall originally envisaged, with a screen of columns leading to the great hall, had to be abandoned in favour of a cramped vestibule to support the tower above, but this was considered a worthy price for the extra drama and power a tower would provide.