Lancashire Hall

An interesting article about the old Lancashire Hall from an issue of Edgeways:

ONE of Edge Hill’s best-known buildings has been demolished to make way for a multi-million pound new development.

Lancashire Hall, home to thousands of students since it was built in 1962, has been pulled down, to be replaced by an exciting new £4 million teaching and learning centre, part of Edge Hill’s commitment to an investment of a further £12 million over the next three years.

The demolition of Lancashire Hall – thought to be the tallest residential building in West Lancashire – attracted interest from alumni around the world.

One former student asked for a brick from the building, and the alumni office received many letters reminiscing about the good times students had there.

The hall, officially opened by Princess Margaret on May 22, 1963, had room for around 100 students. It has also housed the Student Union and various offices in the past.

But with more students choosing to live at home, the decision was taken to clear the site for a new teaching and learning centre for Sports Science and Health Studies.

Lancashire Hall was “stripped out” before a giant machine was brought in to “bite” pieces from the structure, slowly demolishing it bit by bit.

Work on the new building is expected to start in September, and it is scheduled to be ready for use from September 2001.

The building, on two levels covering nearly 4,000 square metres, will provide a range of state of the art teaching and testing facilities, including laboratories for physiology, psychology and biomechanics.

The building will be close to the Sporting Edge to complement and share the existing facilities, whilst extensive landscaping will be carried out around the new development.

Further news on the progress of the new building will be featured in the next edition of Edgeways.