Designed by architect Edmund Aiken and built in the early eighteenth century, The Wellington Rooms, known locally as ‘The Irish Centre’, was originally an assembly rooms for the fashionable high society of Liverpool. Its primary function was to host dance balls and parties. The Neo-Classical building in later years was used as a youth centre and in 1965 became a centre for the Irish community.
Owned by Liverpool City Council, the building has been derelict since 1997 and was placed on the National Heritage at Risk Register in 1999. It was considered to be in a perilous condition due to dry rot, damp and water ingress because of repeated thefts and vandalism. Merseyside Buildings Preservation Trust recognised the problems being faced by The Wellington Rooms and proposed a strategy to save the building and took this to the Landlord – Liverpool City Council.
