At 6pm on Tuesday 7th November, a fire broke out at one of the most important heritage assets in Hartlepool. The fire was attended to by both police and the Cleveland Fire Brigade, and needed five fire engines and an aerial ladder platform in order to be extinguished. The blaze ended at 3:20am the following morning, when the fire brigade returned to the scene to house the area down for a final time.

The Wesley Chapel was originally built in 1837 and had been derelict for many years following the event of an earlier fire in December 2017, before recently being picked up for renovations. The regeneration scheme working on the chapel began in March of this year and was worth up to £4 million, aiming to convert the grade 2 Methodist chapel into a ‘boutique venue’ as a hotel complete with 36 bedrooms, a bar and restaurant, and several commercial units. Had this scheme progressed uninterrupted and as planned, it was intended to take 18 months, and should have created up to 55 jobs.

The fire has severely stunted the progression of the scheme, meaning lots of the money put into the renovations has gone to waste. Many Hartlepool Residents such as Diana Walker feel disheartened by this; “It really is a big shame to see such a setback. The Chapel has been a part of the town centre for a really long time and it was really lovely to see it being used for something again, it isn’t a building that is meant to be empty. So yeah, the whole thing has just been really disappointing honestly.”

The fire has also had an impact on the surrounding area, with many road closures in the town centre having to be established. Roads like York Road and Victoria Road remained closed over 2 weeks after the event. As well as closing roads, the fire caused considerable amounts of scaffolding to become insecure which posed a risk to the general public and caused limited access to certain areas.

The incident has been named an arson event by police in the last few weeks, and 6 arrests have already been made in relation. On Monday 13th, it was confirmed that 3 boys aged 14 had been arrested in connection to the fire. A further 3 boys, 2 aged 15 and one aged 16) have also been arrested since then. All 6 of these boys have been released on bail, and no further arrests have been made.