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William Aston Hall wins funding to examine its future

A feasibility study will assess access, seating, backstage facilities and running costs at the Wrexham venue. Building work has not been approved.

Christine Jones ·

Wrexham University’s Mold Road campus in August 2021, when it carried Glyndwr University branding. Archive photograph, not a proposed refurbishment design. Photo: Alex Liivet from Chester, United Kingdom, CC0, via Wikimedia Commons; cropped.

Wrexham University’s Mold Road campus in August 2021, when it carried Glyndwr University branding. Archive photograph, not a proposed refurbishment design. Photo: Alex Liivet from Chester, United Kingdom, CC0, via Wikimedia Commons; cropped.

Original photographCC0

Wrexham University has secured funding to study how William Aston Hall could be improved and sustained as a theatre and university venue. The support comes from the Arts Council of Wales and Welsh Government’s Arts Capital Investment Fund.

What will be examined?

The feasibility study will assess access, audience arrival, seating, acoustics, stage and backstage provision. It will also examine energy and environmental performance, running costs, commercial viability, Welsh-language use and the hall’s role in graduations and civic events.

No building project approved yet

Paul Moran, the university’s interim head of estates and campus management, said the work would identify constraints, test options and prepare outline costs and phasing. He stressed that it was not a decision to carry out construction.

Possible recommendations range from targeted access or technical improvements to phased refurbishment or a larger capital project, if supported by the evidence. The announcement, published on 29 September, does not give the grant amount or a completion date for the study.

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