Historic St Helens building for sale in aid of local charity

A leading independent charity that helps local older people is putting their historic St Helens headquarters up for sale in order to provide an even better service for those they support.

Age UK Mid Mersey have reluctantly decided to sell The Mansion House, which sits in the stunning surroundings of Victoria Park in St Helens.  The iconic building has been the Charity’s head office for more than a quarter of a century and has been home to day centre sessions and activity classes as well as the base for befriending and helping hands services. At the same time, until recently, the site has provided much needed funds through its trading activities including the Victoria Bistro, weddings and events and corporate room hire, not to mention the annual Mansion House Beer Festival.

The Charity are keen to stress that this doesn’t mean an end to their much needed and much loved services. Age UK Mid Mersey, which was nominated in 2020 for the Queen’s Award for Voluntary Service, has decided that money used for the upkeep of the imposing building could be better spent on the community’s needs. Acting CEO, Shelley Brown explains:

“After a lot of soul searching over many months our Board of Trustees have taken the difficult decision to sell The Mansion House.

“We’ve been very proud to call it home for the last 25 years and in that time we’ve spent over £1million in maintaining and running the iconic building, with additional support from Heritage Lottery funding, and it has served our fundraising efforts through our trading activities.

“However, costs are increasing every year and we can no longer justify continuing to spend the Charity’s money on the upkeep of this beautiful building when there is so much need within the community”.  Shelley added: “When we leave the Mansion House we will be able to focus all our resources on the Charity’s work and we will invest the proceeds of the sale in services for older people in the community.

“We are grateful for the help and support from St. Helens Borough Council throughout our tenure of the site and hope to work closely with them to maximise the benefits of the sale of the Mansion House for the good of the community.

“I believe the Mansion House will benefit from having new owners who can invest in this great building. At the same time the charity can focus on its core purpose of helping older and vulnerable people.”

For any enquiries regarding the sale of the Mansion House, or to request the marketing pack, please contact Avison Young (Joel Crossfield, Director, Tel: +44(0)161 956 4326, email joel.crossfield@avisonyoung.com).

If you wish to discuss the work of the Charity, please contact Shelley Brown; Acting CEO by emailing: enquiries@aukmm.org.uk