A three storey building designed by Robert Gibson of Gibson & Taylor Architects. Built by J. Buckley & Sons between 1958 – 1959 for the Presbyterian Church. The building comprises ground floor retail units with a large double height meeting hall above.

The current building is the second ‘Central Hall’; the first was a two storey building designed by William J. Fennell in 1885. When the building opened in January 1886 it comprised a 350 seat lecture hall, a schoolroom and ground floor shops. The building was destroyed during the 1941 Blitz and the site remained undeveloped until the current building was developed 1958-59.

The Central Hall building was B1 listed in August 2015 (ref: HB26/50/300).

The building is proposed for alteration, extension and refurbishment (LA04/2017/2346/LBC) as part of Phase 1b (LA04/2017/2126/F) of the former Royal Exchange outline masterplan (LA04/2017/2341/O). The proposal involves alterations to the existing ground floor retail units and double-height first floor meeting hall alongside a new 5 storey rear extension and new rooftop extension comprising 6no. apartments.

An indicative phasing strategy for Phase 1b shows the full phase of works commencing during Q1 2018 and completing during Q2 2020.