News / Politics
City Hall to keep name as refurb nears end
By
Martin Booth
Friday May 27, 2016
The name City Hall will remain under new mayor Marvin Rees’ administration, despite his finance boss wanting it to revert back to its former title of the Council House.
“It’s just not our priority to change it now,” Craig Cheney, cabinet member for finance, governance and performance, told Bristol24/7. “As a proud Bristolian I would love for it to go back (to being called the Council House), but you can’t have it all.”
The name change was one of previous mayor George Ferguson’s first jobs in office before staff moved out during a multimillion pound refurbishment of the College Green building.
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Council staff are now slowly returning as the £16.7m project – on time and on budget the council made sure to tell us – comes to an end, with 1,150 people due to be working here by the end of August and a final total capacity of 2,000.
There are splashes of colour everywhere, with different colours on different floors
Corridors have been removed to make more space for work areas. Buzzwords on our tour included “collaborative work places”, “agile working” and “spaces to encourage different behaviours”
Meetings can take place in areas like this – looking like it’s been inspired by the Crofters Rights
The former cash hall. Talking of cash, the move to City Hall from other buildings will save the council £2.7m per year
Council staff not long ago worked in 38 different buildings. That will soon become two: City Hall and 100 Temple Street
The cafe in the former cash hall in a room which used to be known for its windowless meeting rooms
Read more: Marvin Rees introduces his new cabinet
