The Square Chapel Trust (02315198): administration
- Status
- Administration ended
- Administration began
- 2020-03-20
- Administrators
- Patrick Alexander Lannagan, Conrad Alexander Pearson
- Administrators' firm
- Mazars
- Formerly
- The Square Chapel Building Trust
- Incorporated
- 1988-11-09
- Location
- Manchester
- Industry
- 90040 Operation of arts facilities
Why it went into administration
- Cash flow / liquidity pressure
- Property / lease costs
- Sustained trading losses
From the administrators' statement
The Square Chapel Trust (‘the Trust’) was incorporated as The Square Chapel Building Trust on 9 November 1988 and became a registered charity on 13 December 1988. As a charity, its main object was to preserve the Square Chapel building for the benefit of the people of Halifax, West Yorkshire, and the nation at large, and the advancement of education by the promotion and presentation of the performing arts in West Yorkshire and in particular at The Square Chapel, Halifax.
Built in 1772, the Square Chapel is a red brick Georgian chapel which flourished as a church during the late eighteenth and nineteenth centuries when Halifax was expanding with the rate of industrialisation. The last church service held in Square Chapel was on 12 June 1857 (when anew church was built nearby) and the building became a Sunday school with major alterations made to the interior. The fortunes of the Square Chapel saw it used as an assembly hall for local community groups and requisitioned by the British Army during the Second World War before falling into disuse and subject to acts of vandalism and arson. In 1969, the building was acquired by Calderdale Council and permission was sought to demolish it despite its Grade II listed status.
In 1988, The Square Chapel Building Trust acquired the Square Chapel from Calderdale Council and began a process of repair and restoration to bring the building back into community use and restore some of its former grandeur. Funding was raised through a variety of donations, loans from Calderdale Metropolitan Borough Council (‘Calderdale MBC’), Lloyds Bank ple and others, and capital grant applications to complete the first phase of renovation works, making the building safe for use.
Administrators' statement of proposals (2020-05-22) · Companies House register