PHOTOS: Plans revealed for new multi-million pound youth centre in Lancaster

Sunday, 26 March 2023 20:41

By Greg Lambert @greglam72

An artist's impression of how the new youth centre in Lancaster could look.

A vision for a new multi-million pound state-of-the-art youth centre in Lancaster has been unveiled.

The Lancaster-based youth charity Escape2Make (E2M) has revealed plans for an exciting new building in the heart of the city's Canal Quarter area.

The designs, produced by young people from our district aged 11-18, show how the Old Brewery in Lancaster could be transformed into a dynamic hub for young people.

Escape2Make is planning a fundraising drive to raise millions of pounds to buy the former Mitchell's brewery and convert it into the new centre.

"There is an opportunity with E2M to transform and help many young people in Lancaster and Morecambe but also play a part in catalysing Lancaster’s regeneration of the Canal Quarter," said an Escape2Make spokesperson.

"Designs are under way driven by many young people's ideas for their kind of place and something that can stand out and of which the whole community can be proud.

"A lot of options have been considered with the preferred being the repurposing and refurbishing of the Brewery building.

"It’s at the heart of the Canal Quarter and a place where E2M can be a real catalyst for regeneration and help in delivering the Canal Quarter masterplan.

"We see E2M making a big and positive difference to many young people, but also being a success story for the region."

E2M want to open their new building within the next five years and are calling for the support of the local community, as well as Lancaster City Council and Lancashire County Council, Lancaster & Morecambe College, Lancaster University, University of Cumbria, CVS, local developers and others.

All the designs have been worked on by young people from E2M's architecture group over the past four years, with help from local architects HPA and more recently Urban Place Network.

The Old Brewery dates back to 1669 and was home to Yates & Jackson and later Thwaites, before Mitchells took it over, brewing beer there until 1999.

There were plans to demolish the old building as part of the originally planned Canal Corridor development in the 2000s, but it was saved after a public campaign and a high court injunction.

The derelict premises on Brewery Lane (pictured below, image by Google Street View) then became a listed building, designating it of special architectural or historic interest.

The site is owned by investment firm Revcap and Riverstone, a development company who worked with Lancaster City Council to develop a masterplan for the Canal Quarter site.

The designs for the planned young people's centre were revealed at the Escape2Make Cabaret night at the Alhambra in Morecambe on Saturday night.

The new premises could include a public cafe, an event space, a training kitchen, an observatory, a greenery, a library, a chill-out area and other spaces for young people to relax, socialise, make and be creative, learn green skills and enterprising skills for future life; all with an ethos of sustainability.

Bill Kistler, chair of E2M and former vice-president of Disney (pictured below), told the audience that the new centre could also be used by other partner organisations.

E2M aims to help all 11-18s in the Lancaster and Morecambe area to escape from boredom, social media, loneliness and any pressure at school or home by providing workshops and short courses hosted by local businesses, national businesses, local artists and university students.

All the workshops and courses are designed to help young people make things, make friends and make a difference in the community.

Here are some more artist's impressions of how the new E2M building could look.