Revamped students’ union venue opens at Wrexham Glyndŵr University

Wrexham Glyndŵr Students’ Union have undergo a major revamping – unveiling a new name and offering for students and members of the public.

Situated within the Students’ Union building at the Plas Coch campus, ‘The Lazy Lion’ is a student lounge and bar which will also be used to host student functions, as well as being a bookable venue locally in Wrexham.

The new offering launched in time for the arrival of thousands of new students at the university’s Freshers Weeks.

Students’ Union President, Angus Hamill-Stewart said: “By day the venue is designed to be a relaxing space for students to use socially and we’ll be serving snack foods as well as drinks – we’ve had a brand new pizza oven installed and have upgraded the existing bar area.

“For evening and weekend functions we can use the space for up to 200 people; it’s a really versatile space.

“All of the Welcome Week functions for new and returning students are taking place here; we’re really excited to have this new space and will be holding many more events throughout the year.”

Wrexham Glyndŵr University is progressing with its Campus 2025 transformation, which puts students at the centre of the plans.

In June 2018 the institution formally unveiled large scale plans to redevelop its Plas Coch site – with around £60 million of redevelopment set to take place as part of the Campus 2025 vision.

The drastic plans include a new engineering building, extension to the sports hall and high quality student accommodation to attract a greater number of students to live and study in Wrexham. The most striking public change will be the creation of a new ‘Learning Gateway Building’ on the Mold Road entrance, along with new ‘inner gateway’ entrance.

Just down the road at the Regent Street Art College it is proposed that the ‘redundant outbuildings’ at the rear of the site are demolished and not listed, to make way for a 107 bed student accommodation facility.

Planning applications for the redevelopments have been submitted in the past week – along with plans to dispose of a playing field on Holt Road and field on Gatewen Road, which have been described as ‘enabling’ developments to allow the campus developments to take place.

Vice-Chancellor, Professor Maria Hinfelaar said: “This new addition for our students complements the ongoing work as part of Campus 2025 to provide an attractive learning environment with stimulating state-of-the-art facilities and the latest in building designs and technology to provide a sustainable and attractive future-proof campus.

“We are also unveiling a new teaching space this week which incorporates the ‘scale up’ teaching method, encouraging collaborative learning between groups of students as opposed to the traditional classroom teaching method.

“It’s a really exciting time for the university and I’m sure both returning and new students joining us this week will make good use of The Lazy Lion as well as getting involved with all of the exciting activities the Students’ Union has to offer.”