Hull City Council is hoping to secure funding to transform the City Hall, as part of their plans to level up the centre.
As part of the government’s Levelling Up plans, funding is available for local councils to restore parts of their areas, and the next round of the Levelling Up funding is placing an emphasis on culture and heritage. The funding outlines that bids that will fall under the culture fund should involve maintaining, renovating or creatively repurposing existing cultural, heritage and creative assets and Hull’s plan is to turn the hall into a new venue for music and performance as well as providing facilities for youth and community music.
Hull City Council’s assistant director of Major Project, Culture and Place, Garry Taylor, said:
“Building on the legacy of UK City of Culture 2017, we want to transform the City Hall into a vibrant home for music at the heart of Hull. In order to achieve this, we are putting together a bid for the second round of levelling up funding, part of which is aimed at cultural and heritage assets.
The investment would provide seven new stages for people to experience, see, hear, learn, and participate in music, along with a wider range of other types of performance from across the world. At the heart of the bid is the provision of spaces for learning, rehearsal, and performance, focusing on facilities for youth and community music.
The proposals also include the restoration of the grand organ, as well as adjustments to acoustics, staging, seating, foyers, and audience facilities, providing a new accessibility to this grade two-star listed building, while contributing to the city’s target for achieving a net zero carbon footprint across its buildings by 2030.”
Net zero is also high on the government’s agenda, and it is becoming increasingly common for local councils to merge the two projects, as there is an opportunity to make funding go further and save on resources, rather than spend double the time on different projects.
