Friends of Castle Green CIC (FoCG) has today submitted planning permission to transform the historic Pavilion building on Castle Green. Whilst respecting its Georgian heritage, the architect plans submitted aim to create a modern, accessible space and iconic visitor attraction in the heart of Hereford.
The revitalised building will provide cafe facilities and flexible community meeting space, as well as the opportunity to celebrate local arts and heritage and a revived home for the Hereford Youth Canoe Centre (HYCC). The once forgotten Pavilion will become a new and much needed thriving and sustainable community hub, a defining visitor attraction in the city and a source of pride for residents.
The project has been made possible thanks to a successful £22.4million funding bid for the City of Hereford via the Stronger Towns Fund. The Pavilion project is one of fourteen projects elected for funding and FoCG has submitted a planning application for a £1.56 million regeneration of this historic building on the banks of the River Wye.
Local architect, Oliver Steels of Errand Studio, has been working closely with the FoCG Board of Directors to develop drawings of the proposed works to the building, incorporating the desires and ideas of the local community as a result of extensive public consultation by FoCG.
The project is a culmination of over 10 years work by FoCG, a volunteer led Community Interest Company which is committed to enhancing and protecting the Castle Green area of Hereford for future generations. It took over the Pavilion building on a Community Asset Transfer (CAT) from Herefordshire Council on a 25 year lease in 2018 with the aim of restoring the Pavilion to reflect its historic past and re-create it for use as a sustainable community asset.
Paddy Nugent, Chair of FoCG said: “We are incredibly excited to have reached the stage of applying for planning permission to restore and regenerate the Pavilion. As a group, we have worked very hard to reach this stage and it is testament to the trust invested in us by the local community to look after the building that we are now able to achieve what we set out to do more than ten years ago. There is still a long road ahead of us, but this is a massive milestone in the regeneration of the Pavilion as a sustainable community asset. We are grateful to Hereford Towns Fund Board (#StrongerHereford) for their support of our bid to be part of a wider project to make Hereford a greener and fairer city.”
