Wallingford Methodist Church Development Project
Wallingford Methodist Church Development Project
The completion of work to return Wallingford’s old Free Library building to public use is making a major contribution to keeping one end of Wallingford town centre alive.
The building sits next to Wallingford Methodist Church, the two buildings being of similar age, circa 1870, and very much complementing one another. The library had seen a variety of uses over the last few decades, most recently as a warehouse for a local department store but it had gradually deteriorated although remaining structurally sound.
There had been discussion on developing the site for housing but the Methodist Church knew that the best result for the whole community would be to save it for their benefit. With fabulous local support and a number of essential grants including that of £50,000 from WREN, the project became a reality.
Not only has an historic building been saved, it has been very sympathetically connected to the church building with a breathtaking glass-roofed foyer, and a wonderful community hall has been created which is already proving very popular with local groups. In addition the space also contains two further small meeting rooms and modern kitchen and toilet facilities.
The completed development has created a fabulous community amenity and ensured that the people of Wallingford will continue to enjoy the historic building both as a landmark and as a social hub. It is hoped that the new facility will also help keep this end of the town centre alive after the gradual closure of local shops over the last few years.
