THE REDEVELOPMENT of Merthyr Tydfil’s Miner’s Hall has been unable to progress because of finances, staff and the lack of contact from the private owner.
A report to the council’s regeneration and public protection committee said that no further progress on the future redevelopment has been made in relation to the Miner’s Hall as no contact has been made with the council from the private owner.
The report also said that the council has been unable to progress this currently due to available resources from both a staff and financial perspective as considerable match funding would be required to redevelop this building.
The Miner’s Hall, a Grade II Listed building, was identified through the development stage of the Welsh Government’s Vibrant and Viable Places Programme (VVP) as a key site for regeneration.
The building was constructed to a design by the great Victorian railway engineer Isambard Kingdom Brunel.
Built in 1855 as Siloh Chapel, it was designed to accommodate the congregation of a non-conformist chapel. In 1921, it became the Miners’ Hall where it hosted events for pit workers and their families, before becoming Charbonniers nightclub in 1987, which later closed.
The historic building was severely damaged when a fire gutted the main hall in 1992, after which the annex was refurbished and reopened as a pub.
Initially it was identified as a real-time enterprise test centre with a range of trading experiences, role-play spaces and other facilities.
This project then evolved into the Central Merthyr Housing Programme as the Miner’s Hall, Miner’s Arms and Kingdom Hall were all identified for housing edevelopment at the start of the programme but eventually the Miner’s Hall was removed from the programme due to timescales.
The intention for the Miner’s Hall was to have a back-to-back agreement with a local registered social landlord to create affordable housing but the project did not progress due to timescales associated with the programme, funding requirements for the redevelopment and ownership as the council have always had difficulty in contacting the owner.
