June 15 2005

The short-list for the latest project in the regeneration scheme for Castleford – a new library and museum - has been announced. Designs by Bauman Lyons Architects, Feilden Clegg Bradley, Niall McLaughlin Architects, OMI Architects, Richard Murphy Architects and Terry Pawson Architects have all been chosen for the scheme to provide 2500 m2 of library and exhibition space. “Castleford is a town with a lot happening already and much more to come. We are looking for an inspirational design for what will be a key building in the town centre,” said Cllr Peter Box, Leader of Wakefield Council.
The competition stipulates that a new library be created and the existing small museum is expanded greatly in order to tell the full story of the towns history. Wakefield Council’s brief also suggests that the existing façade of the library and an adjacent market arcade both stone-dressed be retained although neither are listed. Oddly there was little mention of Channel 4’s role in the filming of the ongoing development of Castleford to be broadcast late next year as “The Castleford Project”.
The Castleford Forum, as the complex is being provisionally called will be part of a £50 million investment by Edinburgh House Estates Limited, owners of Carlton Lanes Shopping Centre, into Castleford town centre. The new library andmuseum and community facility forms part of that development along with a Supermarket, new indoor market hall and additional retail floor space within Carlton Lanes Shopping Centre. The existing library is one of the Carnegie libraries, built in the 1850s immediately following the introduction of the Public Library Act.

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