Visiting the Market Hall
The Market Hall is situated in the heart of Holyhead town centre, off Trearddur Square, with excellent access to public transport links, with the town’s main bus stop adjacent to the main entrance and the railway station within a 5 minute walking distance.
The front piazza area is equipped with racks for the convenient storage of bicycles. The building lies just off the main ‘high street’ with a pedestrian link through to Stanley Street.
The building is also served within a short walking distance by a number of public pay and display car parks; more details of these are available in the travel plan, which is available by emailing markethall@anglesey.gov.wales
Holyhead Market Hall’s decorative front and side view along Summer Hill, with distinctive chimney stacks in bright morning sunshine.
A front view of Holyhead Market Hall after restoration, illustrating key decorative features including the sweeping Dutch gable ends with spiked finials.
A rear view of Holyhead Market Hall along Trearddur Square, showing the undecorated and functional triple gables with high level glazed oriel windows.
A decorative green iron gate at the front of the Market Hall, with overthrow stone arch set with a distinctive key stone.
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Meeting rooms
The Market Hall has two well equipped meeting rooms suitable for a range of business, educational or community purposes available to hire, either by the hour, half day or full day.
Facilities include a mobile 50 inch screen with HDMI connectivity, free public wifi, blackout blinds and mobile whiteboard with flip chart and black out blinds.
The Thomas Room and Edwards Room both retain original features and the rooms can be hired for training, large meetings, exhibitions, interviews and one to one meetings with flexible booking arrangements and times available, including evenings and weekends.
Both rooms are fully accessible. The forum space is also available for exhibitions and a range of community events. Initial enquiries can be made by emailing markethall@anglesey.gov.wales
A group of five university students and two Lecturers sat around a table with a large digital screen in the background in discussion.
A vacant meeting room set up with 3 table groups in a boardroom style, with a large digital screen and whiteboard in the background.
A meeting in progress of a group of 17 adults seated at a large table in a boardroom format.
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Activities
Since it’s reopening the Market Hall has been host to a variety of activities suitable for all of ages of the community. Events have provided tasters of heritage building skills such as stone masonry, slate knapping and traditional skills like basket weaving.
Local choirs have performed for visitors to the Market Hall and historic images and archive documents have been shared during these events. A wide range of activities have been held for children and families including Lego heritage sessions, crafts linked to seasonal celebrations and history linked playtime sessions for parentss and toddlers.
Activities take place throughout the year, check the social media pages for updated events information.
A school pupil wearing a white hard hat holding a hammer, standing by a demonstration stand being instructed by a roofer wearing a hard hat, on how to attach a roofing slate.
A group of children and adults watch a school pupil wearing safety goggles in a hard hat while chiselling a stone, supervised by a stone mason.
Spectators seated in the forum area watching the Holyhead Male Voice Choir perform.
Three tourists read heritage information panels about the Market Hall with the backdrop of the rear view of an external decorative historic gate.
A large display board with information about Royal visits to Holyhead includes a range of text and images. A historic photograph of the interior Market Hall is in the foreground.
View down into the forum space where a group of adults and children are building Lego models around separate tables.
The forum space arranged for a willow weaving workshop including a completed life size willow deer in the background.
The Community Christmas tree at the Market Hall adorned with decorations painted by local businesses and project funder’s logos.
The Isle of Anglesey Choral Society perform Christmas Carols to a group of people in the Market Hall open forum area.
A Lego model of the Market Hall’s front elevation detailing key architectural elements such as sweeping Dutch gables and distinctive arched entrances.
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Project background
For around 15 years the Market Hall in Holyhead town centre had lain empty, neglected and increasingly deteriorating, undermining both local perceptions of the town centre’s viability and other regeneration activities.
The repaired and reused building now makes a positive and significant contribution to the town’s regeneration with the vision that has underpinned its revitalisation to transform a much-loved but abandoned historic building into a hub for community life again.
Opened in 1855 it remained in private hands until 2015, when the council having utilised its statutory powers through an initial urgent works notice followed by a repairs notice took possession through compulsory purchase and subsequently set about implementing a regenerative vision since to create a sustainable future for the building.
Prior to the council taking ownership, a front view of the Market Hall before the renovation in a poor state of repair with no glazing, rusty gates and vegetation growing to the frontage.
Side view of the Market Hall pre renovation, illustrating the truncated chimney stalls and heavy vegetative growth encasing the building.
Vacant interior of the Market Hall pre renovation showing holes in the roof and painted columns in garish green and blue.
Interior of the Market Hall before the renovation focusing on three columns supporting the timber roof structure, with weeds and moss at the base and a rotting timber valley gutter.
From the first floor, looking upwards through the stripped roof to the lime washed roof trusses, during the renovation work, with a blue sky in the background.
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Funding contributors
With grant funding having been made available from the National Lottery Heritage Fund (£2.375m), the Welsh Government’s Viable and Vibrant Places Programme for the early phases (£708,000), ERDF (£818,000), Isle of Anglesey County Council (£200,000) and the Welsh Government’s Museums and Libraries Division (£152,000), has enabled the delivery of a £4.253m vision for the building’s revitalisation into a modern information, business and community hub.
The Grade II listed, Market Hall, is a corporate asset managed by the council’s corporate Property Service, with the principal use bring a public library, after its relocation, which has facilitated the development of services to residents such as IT access for skills and learning development, historic interpretation and information services for both community and tourists.
Accessibility
Inclusive design has been considered as an integral part of the design from the feasibility stage. To assist in ensuring inclusivity is embedded in the design process, access consultants and local access users were involved in providing expertise advising and experiences locally on disability access matters, particularly in relation to the historic environment.
Prior to the project investment, the building suffered from challenges of access, with changes of level on the ground floor and limited stair access to the upper floor; and the project comprehensively addressed these challenges to ensure a fully accessible building. As a public building to be used by all members of the community this is particularly important.
Despite the numerous design challenges of working within a historic building the Market Hall is fully accessible to all areas, through the availability of:
- ramped front and rear access
- an internal ramp between the reception area and main library
- a platform lift between spaces on the first floor
- a lift between the four levels of the building
- a Changing Places accessible toilet
- a hearing loop at reception
- contrasting floor and door materials to assist those with partial sight
- disabled parking to the rear public car park
The sun shining on the front entrance of the Market Hall with ramped access and handrails.
Orange toilet doors showing infographics for unisex, wheelchair users, baby changing room and a changing places facility.
Rear entrance to the Market Hall with ramped access and handrails.
Interior of the Market Hall with timber floored ramped access and handrails attached to the glass balustrade.
Interior of the Market Hall leading to the lift doors and steps leading to the library lending area.
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Environmental sustainability and climate change
The enhanced facility has sought to contribute to tackling climate change, which has been a key influence upon the reuse of the building. The completed building has integrated measures related to reduce energy use through significant levels of insulation to walls, the roof and floor. The use of lime mortar throughout which acts as a net absorber of CO2 will also ensure a drier building, which will allow the insulation to perform better. Photovoltaics added to the south facing roofs supported will ensure the facility creates a sustainable energy generation on site reducing the need for carbon generated energy from the mains supply.
Resilience to the ongoing and known future impacts of climate change have also been addressed in the design of the revamped building. Practical measures such as increasing the overlap of the roof slates will resist wind-lift and water ingress during winter storms, while the width of rainwater goods and downpipes have been increased to better deal with heavier rainfall.
Other measures adopted in the Market Hall works include:
- fabric first approach to thermal enhancements to building envelope
- solar thermal assists underfloor heating
- solar PV generates power
- passive and active ventilation – humidity controlled
- BREEAM informed process and tracking
The project acts as an exemplar of proactive integration of passive systems, important in Wales, which has the highest proportion of pre-1919 buildings in the UK.
The south facing slated roof elevation of the Market Hall with 9 solar panels attached and two brick chimneys adorned with yellow chimney pots in the foreground.
Side view of the Market Hall showing the oversized rainwater goods, with deeper guttering and 3 down pipes to deal with heavier projected future rainfall.
The naturally lit Market Hall interior provided by a full bank of glazed rooflights to the central bay above the forum area and library space on the ground floor.
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