Behind the scenes at Wellington Orbit as work begins on major renovation

Last month, contractors finally moved into the upper floors of 1 Station Road on Wellington's market square to begin a renovation that has been almost six years in the making.

For the last six years, the ground floor of the former bank building has been home to the much-beloved community cinema and cafe, Wellington Orbit. 

The massive project is set to transform the rest of the former bank building, with the first and second floors becoming a range of flexible spaces for the community to utilise.

The project builds on a decade-long journey for the organisation that began in 2012 with the establishment of the Clifton Community Arts Centre Limited (CCAC).

The group began a lengthy battle to bring a cinema back to Wellington, originally hoping to reopen the former Clifton Cinema on Bridge Street which had closed for good (despite wide opposition) in 1988.

In the years between its closure and the pipe dream of the return of the silver screen, the art deco-style building had been a laser gun entertainment complex and a Dunelm, but was left vacant in 2012 after the retailer moved to the Forge Retail Park. 

Despite attempts to lease the iconic building, the CCAC was never able to get the project over the line. After a developer purchased the Bridge Street building in 2017, some may have considered the dream dead. 

But soon, the sprawling former HSBC bank atop Station Road became available, and the group swooped - signing up for a five year lease. 

In 2019, a 63-seat ground-floor cinema and cafe officially opened it's doors. Five years later, in February 2024, the group secured the full purchase of the property.

For the last five years, the team of passionate volunteers, staff and directors have been dreaming and pouring over plans to refurbish the rest of the building for community use.

In February, the planning application was finally submitted, with the proposals being given the green light at the beginning of April.

Not satisfied with pouring over Telford & Wrekin Council's planning portal at the drawings and keen to have a poke around before the building site because to building site-y, I arranged a tour with manager, Damian Breeze.

No amount of staring at the building from the street, sitting in the cinema or sipping coffee in the cafe, will do any justice to the true size of it. 

I'd read beforehand that the refurbishment would more than double the size of the Orbit's facilities. I'm not sure of the actual square footage, but that description seems laughably insignificant now I have poked around behind the scenes. 

Corridors lead to other corridors that lead to rooms that lead to stairs, and several times I interrupted the tour to ask which road I was looking at or if I'd seen this staircase before.

Of course, once the refurbishment is finished, it won't be such a maze. In fact, that's a large part of the project, making it more accessible - there's a new lift, several staircases are being taken down and moved or replaced and I lost number of the amount of walls Damian told me wouldn't be there in a couple of months. 

When work is completed, the first and second floors will house two purpose-built studio spaces and an array of different sized, flexible rooms for hire.

On the first floor, a multi-use events area with stunning 180-degree views over Wellington will serve as an overflow cafe space when it's not been rented out for community quiz nights, comedy shows, workshops, exhibitions or live music.

"It's here to be whatever the community wants it to be," said Damien, who's been the manager there since it opened in 2019. 

"It's fantastic to finally have the builders in, for five years now we've been saying soon, the refurb will come soon, the upper floors will be done soon - and now, they're actually here. It's brilliant."

Like the reasonably priced cinema tickets on offer, plans are to keep the rent-a-spaces affordable too.

Damien said: "Obviously, we've got to make money, and for the time being any money we make will be put back into the building. One day, when we start to make a profit, the goal is to put that money back into the community."

So far, the redevelopment is primarily being funded through grant funding from the UK Government’s Capital Regeneration Programme, which was also used to purchase the building in 2024. 

It's expected that the project will be complete by March 2026, and the staff envision minimal disruption to the cinema and cafe while work is going on.

Updates on the project can be followed online at: wellingtonorbit.co.uk