The Wesley Centre

Preliminary work has started to repurpose the historic Wesley Centre in Malton, North Yorkshire, into a revitalised community ‘Hub’, concert hall, event space and place of worship.

The affordable and well-provisioned new facilities will allow the Centre to open its doors every day, not just on Sunday.

This sympathetically designed scheme aims to re-instate the original 1811 building into a much-needed new community space that will serve a wide variety of public interest groups, including choirs and orchestras.

The new Wesley Centre includes the installation of a three-storey ‘East Wing’, including a professional catering kitchen capable of serving up to 150 diners, and cloakrooms. The 1990s glazed screen off Saville Street will be removed, opening the entire ground floor to accommodate a modern café and information / Hub reception. It will also allow space for the Ryedale Free Fridge to operate, providing free food to those in need.

The partial removal of the Victorian screen adjacent to the entrance doors will be replaced with a large, oak framed glass entrance lobby, creating a welcoming vista into the building for the first time in more than 150 years.

At capacity, the Church and Centre will accommodate 550 people, with up to 300 in the gallery and 250 on the ground floor.

The partial re-purposing of the building as a fine concert hall will see the reinstatement of a large historic pipe organ, originally built for the concert hall of the Royal Normal College for the Blind in South London in 1877.

We have been appointed to provide structural engineering services and advice for this regeneration project, including steel frame support, support structure for the lighting hoist and remedial works for the external envelope of the building.