The Mace Foundation, the charitable arm of the international consultancy and construction company, Mace has delivered a £20,000 makeover to the London historic youth hostel, YHA London St Paul’s. The youth hostel is 200 years old and is owned and run by YHA, which is a leading youth charity in England and Wales. The makeover was carried out at this site by volunteers from Mace as a part of a week-long corporate volunteering event.

The team of 70 volunteers from the construction company managed to redecorate six of the youth hotel bedrooms as well as a reception and the main staircase in the building. The site of YHS St Paul’s is a Grade 2 listed building was once the home of St Paul’s Choir School. Now the building has 213 bedrooms which are offered as accommodation for young people and their families who are visiting the capital. YHA London St Paul’s is well-known for being one of YHA’s most popular Youth Hostels and experiences nearly 100% occupancy every night. It is thought that there are around 150 suitcases dragged through the halls of the youth hostel each day and up the spiral staircase. The carpet on these stairs were in desperate need of replacement and now, thanks to the selfless actions of the Mace volunteers and the Mace Foundation.

As well as donating more than 500 hours of manpower to carry out the work, Mace also supplied all of the equipment and materials such as paints and carpets. These materials were donated through Mace’s supply chain partners Lucas Group and Rees Flooring. Mace has a commitment through the Mace Foundation to support local people and to deliver a real and sustainable difference when doing so. Each Year the construction company gives 1% of their pre-tax profits to communities and employees for the company are encourages constantly to take a volunteer day each year.