Date: 18/12/2008
High Peak Borough Council has commissioned architects who specialise in historic buildings to look at two of Glossop's most important listed buildings.
Glossop Town Hall is in need of internal refurbishment and has limited use at present, due to the poor access to the main hall on the first floor. Architects have been brought in to advise the Council on solutions to improve the access and to improve the interior, so that the Town Hall offers facilities that are fit for purpose. In this way, it is hoped that the building will attract a greater use.
The current work is looking at the technical aspects of refurbishment -- the costs of repair, the need to upgrade internal facilities and the new access arrangements. Once this is known, it is proposed to look at ways of bringing it back into full use, in consultation with the public.
As part of the same commission, the architects are looking at the possible restoration of the original roof in the adjoining Market Hall. This project was part of an earlier consultation in 2005, when projects were put forward for lottery funding, under the Glossopdale Townscape Heritage Initiative.
Tony Kemp, Executive Councillor for Regeneration, is looking forward to the outcome of the present work: "The Town Hall is an iconic building at the heart of Glossop. It is vital that its future is assured but we need to undertake some detailed technical work to fully understand all of the issues and the scale of the costs involved. Once we have this, we can look at possible solutions to bring the building back into use and ask the public for their views."
On the Market Hall work, Councillor Kemp said: "There was a lot of support for this project when we consulted the public on suitable projects in the town centre. As a consequence, we now have the promise of lottery funding, but we need to look into the details of how we will go about undertaking the work."