Plans to turn listed building connected to former PM into commercial premises

Alec Doyle – Local democracy reporter

A Grade II listed building which houses part of the Gladstone Library’s extensive historic collection of books and texts may soon become a business premises.

Plans have been submitted to turn the Stephen Gladstone Hall – built in 1875 as part of Hawarden Infants School – into an space to be leased out to a commercial business to raise income for Gladstone’s Library.

Named after the Rev Stephen Gladstone – the third child of four-time UK Prime Minister William Ewart Gladstone – after the closure of the infants school in 1975 the building became St Deiniol’s Church Hall and more recently a book repository to store part of the Gladstone Library’s Collection.

‘Rarely used’

“It is proposed to create a workspace for a local company in a rarely used building within the Hawarden village boundary,” according to the planning application submitted by the Rev Dr Andrea Russell on behalf of the trustees of Gladstone’s Library.

“This will generate a much needed income for Gladstone’s Library. It is proposed to attach some modest and sympathetic signage to the building.”

According to the heritage statement prepared by Ainsley Gommon Architects, if approved the leaseholding business would ensure the building was maintained and that all original historic internal and external features would be preserved.

There are no major construction works proposed.

This is not the first time the hall has been subject to plans to turn it into an income-generator for the library.

Storage

In 2019 plans were submitted to turn it into a six-bedroom guesthouse to expand the residential capacity of Gladstone’s Library – which until 2010 was world-famous as St Deiniol’s Library.

Those plans were approved but never completed, with the hall remaining a book storage facility to this day.

Gladstone’s Library is a respected residential research institution. Built in 1895 – 20 years after Stephen Gladstone Hall – it was established by William Ewart Gladstone with the donation of £40,000 and the majority of his personal collection of 32,000 books.

It is a Grade I listed building itself and has 26 rooms for people to stay in while they carry out research for their academic or theological projects.