Welcome to the Commemoration Hall
Huntingdon Commemoration Hall is a town centre venue available for hire to groups or individuals at affordable rates. A large hall with stage and dressing rooms is complimented by a substantial kitchen, basement & toilets and a small meeting room situated above a beautiful entrance foyer.chlogo
Built in 1840 as the Scientific and Literary Institute and funded by public subscription, the hall was re-named in the early 1950's to commemorate the fallen of World War II, when the stage and auditorium were added. As of 1959, the town's local authority operated & subsidised the Hall, until 2006, when Huntingdon Town Council (now the Custodian Trustee) created a new Board of Management Trustees responsible for the Hall.
The Hall is reliant on subsidy from Huntingdon Town Council and the challenge for Trustees is to reduce this dependency by securing alternative funding and maximising income generated through hire of the hall. Huntingdon Town Council's stated commitment in 2009 was to continue to award a subsidy of circa £37,000 pa, for at least the ensuing five years.
The Commemoration Hall's Trustees are bound to manage the hall according to defined "objects" in the Trust Deeds, which read as follows:
The Property and the trust fund and its income shall be applied for the purposes of a community hall for the use of the inhabitants of the Parish of Huntingdon without distinction of sex, sexual orientation, age, disability, nationality, race or political, religious or other opinions, including use of the Property for meetings, lectures and classes or other forms of recreation and leisure time occupation in the interests of social welfare and with the object of improving the conditions of life for the said inhabitants.
Our five year forecast in 2009 illustrated the financial outcomes resulting from a strategy of gradually increasing bookings & occupancy levels at the hall, particularly those of a commercial nature. Employment of a premises manager to market the hall's availability and facilitate its accessibility to the public during the day and in the evening was a key target to help reduce both costs and the Charity's dependency on services provided by Huntingdon Town Council. A prime objective was to increase average weekly hire by an additional 17 hours by 2014, generating levels of income from lettings that would generate £15,000 profit annually.
Separate to the operational costs of the Hall's provision, a sum of £ 69,820 is required to fund a number of improvements considered crucial to the long term sustainability of the Hall. These are detailed at the end of our plan.
