Wellington Orbit Show Us Their Huge Renovation Plans
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00:00Hello there, welcome to the Wellington Orbit. We're here just on the main street at the
00:04moment and we've invited a couple of people from the Shropshire Star to come and have
00:08a look at our phase two project and a tour of the old part of the building upstairs.
00:12So, hard hats on I'm afraid, so follow me and we'll go on our tour.
00:19So as we start the tour here, as you look down these wonderful stairs, this is the
00:24original staircase that came into the building to dedicate the upper two floors. There was no
00:31actual internal staircase to get up to the second and third floor. So what they had to do when it
00:36was a bank and obviously beforehand it could, it was, it's been a lot in history, it's been a bank,
00:41it's been a hotel, it's been all sorts and obviously it dates back to the early 18th century.
00:46So the idea was they could come in through the red doors which was the bank as we know it and
00:51obviously next door where our cafe is, it used to be a shop and to get them upstairs they had to go
00:56out the building, come through that door and come up here. Yes, very strange, I don't understand that
01:01myself to be honest. This is going to be our new staircase coming up to the second floor. So as
01:07at the bottom of the stairs at the moment you can just see where that cupboard is, there's going to
01:10be a hole knocked through there and you'll be able to enter through the cafe and come up the stairs
01:15to the second and third floor. So this is our main entrance coming in.
01:18We'll just take you through to here.
01:26So as we come into one of our rooms that are here, this will be turned into a meeting room,
01:32so it'll be roughly this size, meeting room, board room, you name it. If someone wants to hire a room,
01:37they can hire it. We'll be able to do anything from board room style to if a choir wants to use it,
01:44they can come and sing in it. You name it, it's multifunctional. Every room in the building is
01:48going to become multifunctional. So whatever we want to use it for or whatever someone wants to book,
01:54we'll supply it for them. But this is going to be a nice little room, hopefully beautifully done out
01:59as we're working with the group and I think it'll be a fantastic space.
02:04What you see at the moment is obviously it's going to change because where the door is at the moment I
02:08believe the door's moving slightly over there so there'll be a lot of change. We've done a photo
02:14archive of this building as it is. We've also done some videos as well so we can then look back in the
02:20future for what it used to look like. So we have archived all the oldness of the building.
02:27So as we come through this way, this is a bit that's quite amusing. So where we're stood at the
02:33moment now, this is going to be the new toilet block. So this is where our new toilets are going
02:38to be and through there, which it was a wall a few days ago, they've opened it up for us to
02:45to use and investigate. So obviously they are investigating the building at the moment.
02:49Where that stairwell is at the moment and we're going to go through that way,
02:52because of camp, is our new stairwell and lift mechanism. So the lift will go from ground floor
02:59right up to the second floor and there'll be a new staircase going in here. So when you come
03:03up the stairs from the ground floor, you'll come through a corridor that will take you into the
03:07new lobby area and then you'll be able to get to anywhere in the building. So this again was the
03:13original part and as you can see, a lot of signage on the walls now. All this is going to be removed
03:18and this will become our new complex where there'll be a nice staircase going in and roughly where I'm
03:24standing at the moment will be the new lift. And the lift will go, like I said before, go from the
03:28ground all the way up to the second floor. So you're walking up these stairs at the moment. It'll probably be the
03:33first and last time you ever walk up them because obviously they're going. This will all be
03:37demolished and the new staircase will be going in. This will then, like I say, becomes the second floor
03:44foyer area, foyer or foyer, however people want to pronounce it. So this will be your staircase
03:49roughly in this area, your lift in this area and then it is being built. We are having an extension
03:56built out into the courtyard which will then create this whole area.
04:04So as we come through here, the doorway you've just walked through won't be there now,
04:08as this area where we're standing will become the new toilet block. So the idea is on the building,
04:13the toilet blocks on the first floor and the second floor are ritually in line with each other.
04:18And we'll have multifunctional toilets, so they'll be, I think they're sort of, how can I put it,
04:26multi-use toilets, so very similar to a disabled toilet. It's three or four toilets in blocks that
04:32anybody can use. As you can see, we're now on the second floor and this is one of the smaller rooms
04:37that we've got on the whole plan. But again, multifunctional, the idea is if someone wants to
04:43come and do a one-to-one meeting, they can come and use it. If it's a room that's free and we've
04:48got a choir that want to use it, I will squeeze them in. So basically any room, what everybody wants
04:54to use, that's what we'll be here for. We'll hire it out to them, they can use it. So, but again,
05:00you're in a lovely little room. How much light's in here already? Sunshine, sunny day and look at it.
05:06Are you going to be free? No, obviously not. We still need to make money. We still need to put money
05:10back into it and say, we're not a, as we've always said, we're not a for-profit organisation.
05:15Whatever money goes into this, goes into the building. Once we start saving money, the idea
05:20is then we can give money away. That's the overall thing of what we want to be. Any money we make into
05:26this will be put into the building. Once we start making more funds, if someone comes up and says,
05:33oh, I want a grant for a thousand pounds to do this project, we're hoping we can do that. So that's
05:37where we're going and that's where we're aiming to be in so many years' time. Obviously we need
05:41a building to make money, as always. So yeah, all the rooms we're looking at, we're in this next 12
05:46months, well actually no, it's not 12 months now, six months probably, we're going to now start looking
05:52at pricing schedules and stuff like that. We've gone to other venues around the local area in Shropshire.
05:56We've done some nice visits to other venues and stuff like that and said, what's your prices? What do you
06:02charge? So we're going to come back and have a think of that. But yes, we are, we're not going to be
06:06charging through the roof. We want to help the community and like I say, there's, there's different
06:10routes that you can go down, the charity routes, the company and all this lot. So we are looking
06:15at that, but again, we want to be affordable for everybody. So we're now on the second floor,
06:18absolutely fantastic. So we've come from, we've, we've been walking across the second floor. This is
06:23the second section of the second floor. This space is going to be used for once again, another small
06:29room, which is just here, which we'll go into in a minute. And then from where I'm standing here,
06:33straight through to there is going to be our second studio space. So another big space for the
06:38hires again of different things. And again, the studio spaces we're looking at, we've got two of
06:42them, one bigger than the other one. So it's for dance classes, it's for yoga classes, karate,
06:48conferencing. We're even looking at doing parties. So it could be anything from weddings, bar mitzvahs,
06:53birthday parties, God forbid wakes. I'll sort of say we're next door to a church, but we can do it.
06:58We're hoping that we can do it and we'll be fully catered. We can cater for everybody,
07:02but it means people can hire the space. So you can have a big space or a small space.
07:06So the idea is we have a smaller room there and then this space here, all this will get knocked
07:10down, including this area behind me. And this will become one big space.
07:15We've got fireplaces in here. So if you ever look at the outside of the building,
07:21there's lots of chimney stacks in this building and they go through the whole building. So as you can
07:25see, this is one of the fantastic rooms you can imagine. Great light, beautiful room, and this will be our
07:31second studio space. It hasn't been used for 30 to 40 years, they recommend. There was the OS mapping
07:38services used to be used up here. That was the last recorded place that we use. But we, again,
07:43there's lots of history on the site. I don't know the full history myself personally, but we know it
07:48was a hotel at one point. So these could have been rooms. We also think during the olden days of the
07:52banks, the actual bank managers may have lived up here and stuff like that. Like I say, there was original
07:58fireplaces. There's been heaters put in at a later date and obviously there is obviously electricity
08:03up here. But yeah, they reckon it hasn't been used for over 30 years. So we're just, we're on the
08:08second floor at the moment. We're now going to go back down to the first floor before we move over
08:11to the other side of the building. And once again, this will go into our lovely exhibition space. And
08:17the stairs here will be the first and last time you walk these again, because these will be demolished
08:21and they won't exist. So as you can imagine, this floor here where we're on at the moment,
08:26where we've just been, will come out right up to this wall. So this will be still this floor as well.
08:32So you can imagine that room we've just been in with a big bay window, it will be a lot bigger.
08:36So as we come into this part of the building, this will become our new Overspill Cafe exhibition space.
08:44So once again, it'll go all the way back to that wall. It'll also go to the room we were in before,
08:49which was the site office at the moment, right back to that wall. So this will become one big
08:54open space. The idea is then we'll have a survey bar up here, because people come up here and have
09:00their food during the day. We'll have lovely seating. Again, beautiful massive windows. You can see the
09:06light, you can see the Wellington. They'll come up here and have their food in the day. It'll be great.
09:12Every evening we'll be able to hire out once again. So we're looking at doing things like
09:16entertainments and stuff like that. So we can do quizzes up here. We can do small cabaret style
09:20events. So we'll have the tables and chairs. We might be able to do a comedy act, music act, you
09:24name it. If someone wants to book it out for the conference, we'll use it as a conference that
09:28evening. If someone wants to book it out for a meeting or a local group, they can come and use it.
09:32So again, every space we've got here will be hireable.
09:36So here we go on to the second floor once again, where we stood at the moment, we're on the first floor.
09:40This is now a second part of the building, but it will be opened up to the rest of the building.
09:45So we will be able to gain access from all the other levels to this access. But at the moment,
09:50it's all blocked off as a separate piece. So as you come up the stairs, I won't take you down the
09:55stairs, but down the stairs there, there's a small room that used to be a toilet. That's now going to be
10:01raised up and turned into like a servery space. It's a small room that we'll be able to use as a second
10:06servery for up here. So then we can do sandwiches, cakes, coffees and teas for all the rooms. So like
10:12our catering section. And also it goes down to a fire exit at the bottom. So if you make your way
10:17gently up the stairs, once again, these are quite steep ones, so just be aware.
10:26We come up to the second floor once again, and we've got three beautiful spaces up here. So another
10:32three rooms for hiring. And the idea is, if you just look towards the end there, where that set
10:37of shelves are, that'll be a new hole or a doorway that will go on to the, where we were before,
10:42where the bay window is and all that area there. But once again, we've got three hireable spaces here.
10:48The end one here was hoping to be my office or the staff's office just here. So we're going to be out
10:53the way. But you've got three beautiful rooms up here for hiring as well. Two there, an office space there.
10:58Fantastic. Well, thank you very much. It's been brilliant. And I hope, hope you've enjoyed it
11:04all. And it's been fantastic. We can take our hard hats off now, because I say we're out of the
11:08building site now. But if you want to know anything more about this, keep an eye on our website.
11:12We've got lots of information coming and we'll keep you informed of what's happening with the phase two
11:16project. But thank you very much for coming to see us.