By Jonathan Leask, Local democracy reporter
Ashburton's Balmoral Hall is now empty, crumbling, and awaiting confirmation of its demolition.
Ashburton District Council decided in the long-term plan “to retain the hall for two years or until it becomes unusable”.
It’s now been deemed unusable.
Council business support group manager Helen Barnes said the hall users advised they were moving out at the end of December.
“No further bookings were accepted as ongoing leaks in the roof meant it has deteriorated significantly and was no longer suitable for community use.
“We also know that the building has widespread asbestos and the timber has decayed, which would make it impractical to relocate.”
A budget of $458,063 to demolish has been included as operating expenditure in the draft 2026-27 Annual Plan, Barnes said.
All the user groups had found alternative locations, she said.
Dance teacher Charmaine Quaid had run her dance studio at the hall for 55 years.
Now Danceworx is splitting in two, with Quaid heading to the Hakatere Presbyterian Parish and Jazz teacher Jessie Thompson moving to EA Networks Centre’s new multipurpose studio space.
The council had a $325,000 internal reconfiguration last year of Eat Networks Centre, which included the creation of the 100 square metre studio space.
People and facilities general manager Sarah Mosley said it opened in February 2025.
“Dance is the first long-term booking, until now, it has been used for ad-hoc bookings across the corporate or sporting spaces, as well as internal uses such as holiday programmes, group fitness classes, and larger team trainings.”
Next to the soon-to-be-demolished Balmoral Hall, the council is completing the demolition of the former Polytech buildings to make way for a gravel car park.
The budget for the demolition and gravel car park extension was $1.56m, although a recent update on the project suggested it would more likely come in at $850,000, due to the original budget being for a sealed car park.
The demolition has been delayed by the discovery of asbestos pipework below ground and is now scheduled to be completed by April.
When it opens, it will carry a $3 all day parking charge during business hours.
Balmoral Hall is now empty. Photo: Supplied via LDR
Background of Balmoral
The Hall was originally built in 1936 as the Assembly Hall for Ashburton Technical School on Cameron Street, which later merged in 1965 to form Ashburton College across town at Walnut Avenue.
The Ashburton Borough Council had a small farm on Walnut Avenue and completed a land swap with the Government for the former Technical School sites.
No longer needed by the new college, in the early 1970s the building is understood to have been renamed the Balmoral Hall by the Scottish Society when it moved from the Radiant Hall (demolished in 1996).
At the same stage, dance teacher Charmaine Quaid began to run her dance studio at the hall – and continued to do so until last year.
Over the years it has been the venue for various community groups, private celebrations and public exhibitions.
In 2022, the council allocated around $480,000 for necessary basic upgrades to bring the ageing building up to code, but the work was deferred a year until new estimate in 2023 put the costs at around $1.3m for significant repairs.
The council decided in 2024 in its long-term plan to retain the hall “for two more years, or until the hall becomes unusable, whereby the hall is sold or demolished”.
