An ambitious £27 million revamp of an iconic Aberystwyth building has been awarded almost £10 million in National Lottery funding.

The £9,732,300 Heritage Lottery cash for the redevelopment of Aberystwyth University’s Old College was announced this morning by Baroness Kay Andrews, UK trustee and chair of the National Lottery Heritage Fund in Wales, along with Lord Elis-Thomas AM, Welsh Government deputy minister for culture, sport and tourism.

It moves the project closer to becoming a reality after the new and ambitious designs were revealed in December 2018.

Those plans were significantly built upon compared to an initial outline scheme to redevelop the building, pushing the redevelopment costs up more than £6m.

The project, which is set to cost around £27m, is also being backed by £6m funding from the Welsh Government and the European Regional Development Fund through the Tourism Attractor Destination programme.

Aberystwyth University will fund the remainder of the project costs, with a fundraising drive also planned.

Under the multi-million-pound plans, the Grade I listed Old College, opened in 1872, will be transformed into a cultural, learning, and enterprise facility, with up to 40 new jobs created, with the hope that the new building will attract more than 200,000 extra visitors a year.

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