AJ100 Community Impact of the Year 2021 winner revealed

‘It’s a building that matters, and feels embedded in the community,’ said the judges of this standout winner – a vibrant social hub rooted in communal historical identity. ‘The potential of this project to be a pilot for town centre regeneration across the UK is powerful.’

Holyhead Market Hall is a new library, community and learning centre – a project which rescued and transformed a decaying landmark at the heart of the town centre. It’s a retrofit scheme shaped by careful attention to long-term benefits for Holyhead’s community and engagement with it.

This Grade II-listed building was constructed in 1855 and in its time it has been a traditional market hall, a barracks and a courthouse, among other uses. A centre of activity for North Anglesey for almost 150 years, by the 1990s the building was vacant. It was acquired by the Isle of Anglesey County Council in 2015.

The scheme centralises the community’s library, information and support resources, helping people into training and employment. A mezzanine expands user capacity, delivering flexible spaces that support the growth of local businesses, community groups and skills development – and creates crucial revenue streams via private hire.

Of fundamental importance was that it was to be a fully accessible building. Local users, such as an access group and the RNIB, had a real impact on the design, contributing towards elements such as levels of visual contrast. The building integrated one of the first publicly accessible Changing Places facilities in Anglesey.

Environmental sustainability was significant, too, reducing reliance on the energy grid and taking a fabric first approach to thermal enhancements.

The rejuvenated site drives economic stimulus for wider urban regeneration, drawing increased footfall and associated spending from both visitors and residents into the town centre. Holyhead Market Hall was the town’s largest vacant building and tackling it made a major contribution to reducing town centre vacancy from nearly 25 per cent in 2014 to 16 per cent in 2020.

In all, the judges were enthused by the approach (‘impassioned, knowledgeable and connected’) and process (‘projects like these have a real national importance’) of this ambitious scheme. ‘It genuinely has done some good,’ they noted. ‘The project will support other things happening – it will have a multiplier effect on the local economy. This is both a piece of architecture and a spark of things that will continue to happen. And it’s an approach that is replicable.’