Alnwick Youth Hostel to get much-needed £243,000 restoration work after project approved

Restoration works at Alnwick Youth Hostel have been approved by Northumberland County Council.
Alnwick Youth Hostel on Green Batt.Alnwick Youth Hostel on Green Batt.
Alnwick Youth Hostel on Green Batt.

One of the buildings on the Green Batt site urgently requires a new roof and like for like slate is proposed, together with a different internal wooden supporting frame to improve headroom. The two storeys will be retained, and the ground floor will be stone.

The upper storey will have a wooden floor. The slated roof will include conservation roof lights to replace the original broken glass skylights.

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Chairman Bill Grisdale, in an application for Listed Building Consent, wrote: ‘Slates on the roof of the outer stone building became loose and a safety hazard and had to be removed.

‘Now that this essential work is complete we wish to proceed urgently with restoring and preserving the stone building for use as storage for bicycles and an area for bicycle maintenance.’

The Alnwick Youth Hostel building requires £243,000-worth of work, but a £100,000 loan from Northumberland County Council will cover the most pressing repairs. This will see the social enterprise (AYH) pay back the money over 15 years at 3.2 per cent interest. The remainder of the non-urgent works will be funded by AYH.

The property formerly belonged to the county council before the now defunct Alnwick Community Development Trust purchased it and turned it into a youth hostel.

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Arch (now Advance Northumberland) bought the building and leased it back to AYH. Advance agreed to transfer ownership to the county council.

The youth hostel, once the town's courthouse and police station, now features 57 beds across 15 en-suite rooms.