'I know there is no alternative' - Council's political leaders at odds over future of Shrewsbury's Shirehall
What was once the county's bustling civic centre now stands empty and disused, awaiting its fate.
Shrewsbury's Shirehall, a dominant feature of the Abbey Foregate skyline since it was opened by Queen Elizabeth II in 1967, now stands cavernous, cold, and empty.
The Shropshire Council headquarters was officially closed to the public in February 2025, with staff being relocated - some to home working and some to Guildhall, which is now the authority's official headquarters.
The site is also home to Shrewsbury's former crown court, which closed back in 2019. The facilities were briefly used to host Shropshire's coroners court, but now also sit empty and disused.
Both buildings were bespoke creations, with purpose built fixtures and fittings, the likes of which local authorities are simple unable to countenance in the modern day.
Successive Shropshire Council administrations have wrestled with the fate of Shirehall, although the last serious bid to refurbish the site was abandoned in 2020.
Speaking at the time the-then Conservative council leader Peter Nutting described the building as "a big, ugly lump of concrete", and said it was time to move on.
The problem for the authority is that the process of moving on has been painfully slow - and expensive.
