Hiring a Room at Shildon Railway Institute

We're pleased to confirm that room hire is now available to both members and the wider public. members enjoy a discount on our affordable room hire rates. See the enquiry form at the bottom of this page for more details.

We have three spaces available for hire:

The Main Function Hall

This room (see image below) is one of the jewels in the crown of the Institute. It's spacious, with enough room to seat 180 of your guests (220 with standing room). With its large dance floor and stage area it is a versatile room ideal for gigs or performances; keep fit classes; ceilidhs and dances; lectures, large meetings or conferences. As the windows have been covered over it's also ideal for showing films or projecting at any time of year, day or night and the light show for your disco or gig will look great even on the light summer nights. It's conveniently located on the ground floor making it easy to access and load equipment in to. A bar can be provided if you need this for your event.

The Hackworth Lounge

Is a small comfortable room with seating for 40 that is generally open to the public, but can by arrangement be reserved exclusively for meetings of clubs or groups, or for small parties and family occasions, whenever you want to have a room exclusively to yourselves.

The MacNay Room

Housing our Whitfield Library collection of rail heritage and local history books, the MacNay room is an ideal space for meetings and gatherings of clubs and societies - or even classes and tuition. It's a great quiet space to concentrate and reflect. This room has tables and chairs to comfortably accommodate up to 16 people - but can be reconfigured a little for other purposes. Being on the first floor this room isn't wheelchair accessible - but we're hopeful it will be one day.