The contractors finally left St Peter’s in mid October 2023 and the community launch event was held on 28 October 2023. That left precious little time for the Bridge Project team to get into the building properly and get everything unpacked, working and people trained up in operating the many new items in the building. 

But the people of Sudbury were determined to see the newly refurbished building and come they did in their thousands.  Inside people could see the new gallery, the new kitchen and the fully operational toilets. The sun shone, the newly painted walls looked bright and inviting and the recently cleaned windows glittered – the building looked wonderful. 

Of course not everything was ready in time but that is the nature of construction projects in very old buildings. There is always more to do and it always takes longer than it should. 

We just need to be patient and understand that in an ideal world the building probably would not have re-opened until early 2024 when everything was bedded down, people recruited, trained up etc etc.