As our recent phase at Stretford Public Hall completes, we spoke to those working and using Stretford Public Hall about how the building is a hub for the local community. Our work at the Hall included a restoration and transformation of the building into a flexible space for events and community activities.
We went back to the Hall to get a sense of the experiences of those using the building in their everyday lives.
This interview is with Kate McGeevor, manager of Stretford Public Hall.
I think I'm most proud of our success in creating a thriving community space that people can, you know, walk through the door, feel welcome, get support, and access space. If they're looking for a space to run an activity, get help, something they need help with...connect with people, volunteer, make friends. You know, it does all these things. We've saved a building that could have been lost and we've turned it into a thriving community space.
When the community took on the building in 2015, initially, the restoration of the ballroom was the main part of the project. That was the thing that the group were really trying to achieve. So there was a successful community share offering in 2017. That was largely about raising funds to restore this public space. But this is one of the very few buildings like this in Stretford.
So we sort of, you know, it's good that we've sort of restored that. I think the restoration and the redecoration of the room have had a big impact. We've restored a lot of the historic features. So things like the radiators, the lighting is much more subtle now than it was. It was quite a kind of ugly 1970s lighting. So we tried to restore it, sympathetically, I think, in a way that celebrates the history of the space. But mainly I think it's just a much, it's a more welcoming space for people to use. I would hope it would be seen as a thriving community space that is welcoming, to anyone who walks through the door.
We tried to make sure that people feel that they can access the space and use it for their own activities. So, you know, a lot of what we do has room here, and that's a community group coming in and using the space, whether that's for a yoga class or children's theatre or music lessons or, you know, whatever it might be.
But making sure that people feel that this is a space they can come and use themselves for their own sort of activities in their own groups. The important bit is about civic pride, restoring the building and protecting it for the community because of its heritage, which was really important, and because it was built as a public space by John Rylands.
It was a gift to the people of Stretford, and it was always intended to be a public space. So that's really important to kind of recognise that heritage and to protect that. I love that, that, that surprise that people had, like, oh my God, it's amazing. It's like, yeah, look what we've done.
