Skipton Town Hall, North Yorkshire

2024 RIBA Yorkshire Award

Skipton Town Hall, Skipton 
LDN Architects for North Yorkshire Council 
Contract value: Confidential
GIA: 1228 m² 

The Skipton Town Hall redevelopment has brought an old but much-loved historic building back into the centre of Skipton’s cultural life. As well as restoring and enhancing the 1860s concert hall and remodelling the 1970s museum building, the project has provided a contemporary extension with support areas and spaces for a broad range of community activities. As a result, Skipton Town Hall now offers a first-rate cultural experience with an exciting programme of events, activities, and high-quality performances including theatre, dance, music and live-stream transmissions. With a brief including work to listed structures, different building elements and a wide variety of functions, the architect worked closely with North Yorkshire Council and the different stakeholder groups. The resulting design unifies these disparate elements to create a cohesive, co-ordinated building that supports the whole community.

 

North Yorkshire Council’s aspiration was to develop the historic Skipton Town Hall as an arts, culture, heritage and community hub. The building consisted of a series of disparate elements including a Grade II-listed hall surrounded by ad hoc later additions including the museum. The design therefore needed to rationalise these spaces to create a coherent, easily accessible, flexible centre for the local community.

Due to its listed status, a methodical and cautious approach was taken, founded on solid understanding of the building, the location and the heritage significance. Detailed research was carried out to inform repair work and help make decisions on elements to be retained, remodelled or removed.

The 1860s concert hall has been returned to its original form by removing 1930s alterations, and its ornate plasterwork ceiling has been carefully restored. New elements such as a demountable stage, tiered seating, and new audiovisual equipment now provide much greater flexibility, attracting a wide range of touring shows and educational events. These changes have enabled the building to offer a much wider range of events, establishing it as a cultural hub in the region.

The 1970s museum has been remodelled to create an attractive visitor experience. A new contemporary wing has been constructed using reclaimed materials from the site to house education spaces, stores, and changing rooms for events in the main hall. The simple contemporary design of this new element complements but does not compete with the historic context of the main town hall building.

The social value that this thoughtfully designed project has added to the local and wider community is shown by the increase in visitor numbers and feedback from users.

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RIBA Regional Awards 2024 sponsored by EH Smith and Autodesk