Is it time to rediscover Wellington’s old Town Hall?

Ask most people living in Wellington today how to get to the Town Hall and they might look a bit puzzled. Is there a Town Hall in Wellington? The answer is that there was once a venue called the Town Hall and – although it hasn’t been called that for a very long time – the building that housed it still exists. What’s more, that building is vacant and in public ownership. It’s a huge opportunity.

The space I’m talking about sits alongside the Market Hall, above the Market Street Post Office and the market units (such as Top Fruits) behind. Stand in front of the Post Office, look up and you’ll see its five long sash windows. Walk around to Market Approach and you’ll see it from the other side, its tall eastern wall stretching back from Market Street until it meets the squat wood-clad market entrance that was added (I’m guessing) in around 1970. That modern frontage into the market provided a new staircase to the old Town Hall space, along with kitchen, toilets and vestibule area.

THE PAST

“THE NEW TOWN HALL, which was opened on Wednesday night last [13 February 1867] must of necessity prove a great acquisition to the town.

The occasion was marked by a grand amateur concert in aid of the funds for restoring the organ of the parish church. The attendance on the first evening was excellent, the spacious room being nearly filled. On no other occasion has there, we think, been so large a gathering of the elite of the neighbourhood at a public performance in the town such as this. The performance was repeated on the next night.

The room itself is handsome in form and proportions and is well lighted and ventilated. The ceiling is panelled and decorated. The size of the room, clear of the orchestra, is 596’ in length, 41′ wide and 20’6″ high.

At one end is an orchestra capable of accommodating nearly 100 performers. Below is a platform for lectures, etc. beneath the gallery are convenient retiring rooms, which are approached by private stairs… The offices in the basement are for the use of the Registrar and High Bailiff of the Court. The room is approached by a stone staircase of substantial build.”

The Wellington Journal and Shrewsbury News, February 1867 (as quoted in Allan Frost’s Histories of Wellington)

The Town Hall was built as part of the new Market Hall complex in 1866 and opened the following year. Able to accommodate a few hundred people, it became one of the town’s main social and cultural venues. This was where Victorian and Edwardian Wellingtonians went to see the touring stars of the day, like American contralto Antoinette Sterling and music hall comic Albert Chevalier. It was where they saw magicians and musicians, political speakers and slide shows by globe-trotting explorers. It hosted concerts and balls, public dinners and auctions and, between 1920-60, a cinema. Most Wellingtonians familiar with it today will know it as Barons, Flamingo or Rumours nightclubs (by which time it was accessed from a new extension fronting Market Approach), or most recently as House of Prayer church or Wrekin Star Judo Club. Today it stands empty whilst the extensive Market Hall renovations take shape around it.

This was the largest secular event space in the centre of Wellington – and were it to reopen now, it would be again. Because whilst other venues came along in the later 19th and 20th centuries – venues such as the YMCA, The Grand Theatre & Cinema, the ballroom at The Charlton Arms and Terry Heath’s Town House off The Parade – all are now long gone. Phase 2 of The Orbit is about to provide some excellent new community spaces – including a beautiful, light-filled dance studio – but Wellington will still be lacking a big ‘civic’ space. So if you want to host an indoor event for more than about 80 people in Wellington today, you have to look out of town. That means no big wedding receptions, civic dinners, conferences, dances or concerts – all events that could bring added footfall and vibrancy to the commercial and historic heart of the town.

THE PRESENT

Right now, the old Town Hall is being used as storage space in support of the multi-million pound Market Hall redevelopment project. With building costs soaring since the government funding for that project was initially agreed, existing budgets will focus on the Market Hall and Market Yard but will not stretch to renovating this upstairs space.

THE FUTURE

A restored Town Hall could be a dazzling new event space for Wellington – a uniquely large venue in public ownership and in a heritage building, bringing a whole series of community and private events back into the centre of Wellington – and generating an income in the process. If you’ve visited The Anstice in Madeley – a fantastic, versatile community venue – you can get an idea of what Wellington Town Hall could be like. Alternatively, it would make a great museum and exhibition space telling the story of the town and The Wrekin – the late George Evans imagined it being used in such a way and I’d love to see that. But a flexible, multi-use event space would more easily wash its face financially.

The interior would need substantial work: removal of the false ceiling and restoration of the original; new kitchen and bathroom facilities; installation of a lift; and probably all sorts of other things long hidden for decades.

Making it happen

A future like this for the old Town Hall is more realistic now that the building is in council ownership, but where could the money come from? National Lottery and Arts Council grant funding could provide a route, but they are highly competitive. Another potential funding source, recently announced, could be the Queen Elizabeth Trust – launched last month to coincide with what would have been the late Queen’s 100th birthday. Details are light at this stage, but from 2027 the Trust will be offering funding for community spaces ‘with an emphasis on restoring, renovating or updating existing spaces’ which bring people together. The old Town Hall could be a a great candidate for this.

Do we need another community space?

There are some brilliant and well-used spaces in the centre of Wellington, most notably The Belmont Hall at the top of New Street which just celebrated its 65th anniversary. Wellington Library – now under the management of the town council – is using its space more and more for small events and activities. And as outlined above, The Orbit – one of the most impressive community-run ventures in the region – is about to open its newly renovated upstairs rooms for public use. But all Wellington’s big spaces have been lost and they have never been replaced. The grand ‘civic’ venues that every town used to have and which many other towns still do are absent here. In a town centre that ticks so many boxes – its growing list of independent shops, its spruced-up market, its outdoor events, its places of worship, its leisure centre, its cinema – this remains a gap to be filled.

So just imagine, five years from now: smiling wedding parties walking from All Saints Church across the Square towards their reception at the Town Hall; packed Friday night gigs; seasonal craft fairs and antiques fairs augmenting the Market’s regular offer; civic dinners and ceremonies; jobs fairs; bingo nights; real ale festivals; and much more besides. We’ll look around at this rediscovered venue, first built 160 years ago, and wonder how we ever managed without it.