A NEW CULTURAL & COMMERCIAL CENTRE FOR GLOSSOP – OWNED AND MANAGED BY AND FOR THE BENEFIT OF THE COMMUNITY OF GLOSSOPDALE! NOW AND INTO THE FUTURE.
The town hall complex has been central to life in Glossop for well over 100 years, with the town hall building having been used from everything from a courtroom, to a music venue. However in recent history, whilst the municipal buildings have been fairly well maintained and used by HPBC, the indoor market has become dilapidated and is in desperate need of investment, whilst the town hall building is now pretty much derelict and unused.
Against this backdrop, 2 years ago a group of Glossop residents started talking about what a great place Glossop is, a vibrant, passionate community, located on the edge of the beautify peak district national park, and only 30 minutes from the centre of Manchester, and how under developed it was as a visitor location within that context.
At that point, we decided that we wanted to try to make a difference and to develop a vision for the future of Glossop, and created The Glossopdale Trust.
One of the key strengths of the town that was immediately apparent to everyone, was the strength of the creative community in the town, from art, to music, to writing and storytelling and performance. It seems to be that everyone is a musician, artist or performer of some kind.
The natural conclusion of this thinking was to look to support the Economic development of Glossop through the support of music and the arts within the town.
One issue that came out of this thinking was that if Glossop was looking to attract visitors to the town, it lacked a focus to draw people in, and to encourage them to stay and spend time in the town.
Bringing these threads together, we see a great opportunity to develop the town hall complex into a vibrant complex, focused around music and the arts, used and run by the community, for the community, that would attract people to visit the town and spend time in the town.
Some of the ideas that have emerged to date are set out below, however none of these are set in stone, and we will work with the local community to ensure that the final development delivers greatest possible benefits for Glossop, economically, culturally and socially.
- In partnership with the existing stall holders, to develop and upgrade the market hall, expanding capacity by removing the false ceiling, and creating a mezzanine floor with additional retail space which could accommodate working artists studio/ retail space, operating alongside new and existing market traders.
- To develop the town hall into a multi use performance space that could be used to host everything for rock gigs, to choral and classical concerts, drama and literary performances. A state of the art performance space managed by the community of Glossop.
- A municipal building, housing key local council services alongside, tourist information, community services and groups, and offering space for small business to thrive and grow!
- To integrate the 3 buildings into a single complex reflecting and celebrating the creativity & heritage of Glossopdale, and by installation of a new lift to make the entire complex connected and accessible to all.
In other words to create a complex in the centre of the town that will become the heart of the town, managed and used by the people of Glossop, and an attractive destination for those visiting the area.
ALL OWNED AND MANAGED BY AND FOR THE BENEFIT OF THE COMMUNITY OF GLOSSOPDALE! NOW AND INTO THE FUTURE.
To make this a reality, we are looking to work with the community of Glossop, High Peak Borough Council, and an organization called Locality (www.locality.org.uk) to create a plan for the sustainable use and management of the Town Hall, Market and Municipal buildings in line with the vision outlined above.
The next step in this process is, working closely with locality, to create development plan for the town centre complex and to identify funding opportunities to finance this development.
The Glossopdale Trust is an asset locked company limited by guarantee, that has different levels of membership open to everyone.
Anyone interested in getting involved in the Trust or the project, can get in touch via the “get involved” link on this website.