Red Tower York – York Community Hub

Our Vision

Our vision for the Red Tower is to bring this historic building to life by offering an inclusive, welcoming space for creative, learning and social activities, run by local people, encouraging local and wider community participation. We will achieve this by creating and curating an ancient magical space that offers a unique oasis in our busy city.

“I love this example of a multi-faceted, community-based heritage voluntary sector organisation. Talk about surviving and thriving!”

Jane Hustwit – Chair – York CVS

Health and Wellbeing

The Red Tower team are committed to helping promote the health and wellbeing of the local community by directing those who seek information and guidance to organisations which can offer the support needed.

Links to the organisations displayed below can be found here.

Design Awards Winners

A Scheduled Ancient Monument and a Grade I listed building with parts dating back to c.1490, the Red Tower was part of the City of York’s wall defences. Until recently used as an occasional store by the city council, the building has been refurbished and fitted out by a community group to include a low-key refreshment facility on the ground floor and a flexible function room on the first floor. The design had to cope with the likelihood of regular flooding and uses robust materials and elements which can be wheeled out in the event of a flood.

Blogs

You may have noticed when visiting this homepage that the message relating the passing away of Director Simon Perry is no longer present. His memory lives on in the form of a blog on our Blogs page

Several other Blogs have been added with contain updates of the Red Tower activities post Covid and future plans which include a new draught free and better insulated roof and our food distribution, and our involvement in health and wellbeing initiatives.

All our blogs can been viewed here http://redtoweryork.org.uk/blog/

In the Beginning

In January 2015 the first seeds of the Red Tower Project were sown. After recovery from the Boxing Day 2015 floods, the Project gathered pace. Feasibility studies were carried out and the concept of becoming a Community Interest Company was established, leading to us obtaining a 30-year lease from the City of York Council and employing heritage architect Holland Brown who steered us through the planning process.

The short video below gives the viewer something of the flavour of how we started and our vision for the Future.

Imelda Havers – Red Tower founder and guiding light featured in the video above presents her thoughts and memories of the journey converting the rundown part of the the Bar Walls to become a valuable local community resource and how this pathway can be applied to York Central.

You can find her blog here THE POWER OF FOOD – Red Tower York