Hamilton Town House, South Lanarkshire
Hamilton Town House is one of two major cultural venues, Rutherglen Town Hall and Hamilton Town House, which are being developed in South Lanarkshire as part of a £20 million commitment to developing resources for the arts.
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They are being developed in recognition of the contribution which arts and culture, and the venues where they are based, can make to community regeneration. These are key components of a network of arts venues in South Lanarkshire which also includes the East Kilbride Arts Centre. |
The new facilities at the Town House will give South Lanarkshire Council the opportunity to deliver better and more consistently qualitative arts and cultural activities and include:
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a state-of-the-art 900 seater auditorium, suitable for opera, dance and concerts
a base for the council’s community learning team and arts development teams
the new town library |
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The Town House received £450,000 of Lottery funding through the Scottish Arts Council as part of a £9.6m refurbishment programme. Her Royal Highness, the Princess Royal, officially re-opened the Hamilton Town House complex on 8 September 2004.
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The opening of the Town House is major step in the development of the arts in South Lanarkshire and represents the culmination of over four years of work in planning, designing and carefully restoring the building. A painstaking and sensitive restoration of a Grade A-listed building has been achieved, blending modern services within areas of great historic character and grandeur. |
The Town House was built in three phases from the turn of the 20th century till the end of the 1920s. Each part has been historically treated as independent of the other. The refurbishment of the building has united into one entity to provide a valuable multi-faceted resource for the town of Hamilton and the communities of South Lanarkshire.
South Lanarkshire Arts Team are now based at the Town House. Lynn McDougall, Manager of the Town House, is now in post and works together with South Lanarkshire’s Audience Development Manager Ian Locke on a programme of events and activities for the first year of operations.
The South Lanarkshire Council have been awarded £700,000 from the Urban Cultural Fund. This will be used to fund 16 arts projects across South Lanarkshire to develop music, drama, and dance across the area as part of their arts development programme. This will be an eighteen-month programme of events which will act as a major boost to the arts in South Lanarkshire and it's key arts venues.
Hamilton Town House and the Rutherglen Town Hall will act as a platform for projects such as:
- Light Up Lanarkshire
- Contemporary Culture Exhibition
- Here’s Tae Us and other festivals.
Special projects will focus on those most at risk of social exclusion – children and young people at risk, individuals with physical disabilities and learning needs. |