RAAC freezes Preston Guild Hall reopening
Curtins Consulting Engineers has confirmed that reinforced autoclaved aerated concrete is in the roof of the Grand Hall and Charter Theatre, necessitating the continued closure of the venues.
Preston City Council is now looking to appoint a contractor for scaffolding work to enable further investigation of the venues’ roofs and, hopefully, a solution.
“The news that the Guild Hall venues both have RAAC in the roof is disappointing, but not unexpected,” said Preston City Council Leader Cllr Matthew Brown.
“We now need to find the best solution and the funds to rectify the problem,” he continued. “Our ‘safety first’ approach remains a priority and we are proceeding with caution.”
With the two venues at the Guild Hall shuttered, the city council is working to turn the building’s foyer into a 500-person events space. The foyer is unimpacted by the RAAC issue at the Grand Hall and Charter Theatre – as are the building’s ground-floor trading units.
Brown said: “Although this is a blow to our plans to reopen the Guild Hall, hopefully we can use the foyer to support some smaller community, family and business events throughout the year as this lower level space remains unaffected by the RAAC and would be safe to open to the public.”
Preston could really do with a brand new multi-purpose area. The Guild Hall is pretty dated
By Jon P
Not my usual comment about Preston, but I agree, knock it down.
Not worth wasting money on. It’s not fit for purpose and the space is an unusual size for ‘proper’ shows.
There are long held ambitions for a small arena. I think effort should be put into those plans instead
By Katie