Describe a building in your town or city that has been given a new use.
A card about a bank that became a café, a mill turned into flats, a station turned into a gallery. It is built on a past-and-present contrast, so the grammar of change — 'used to', 'was converted into', 'has been' — does much of the work.
The task card
Describe a building in your town or city that has been given a new use.
You should say:
- what it was originally built for
- what it is used for now
- what has changed inside and what has stayed the same
and explain what you think of the change.
Now say it yourself
Record your own two minutes on this card and have it transcribed and marked against the Speaking criteria. Practising is free; the band estimate is part of Pro.
Record my answerHow long you have
- 1 minute
Preparation
The examiner hands you the card, paper and a pencil. Make notes — a few words per cue point, never sentences.
- 1–2 minutes
Your long turn
Speak until the examiner stops you at two minutes. Finishing early is the most common self-inflicted problem in Part 2.
- 1–2 questions
Rounding off
The examiner may ask one or two short follow-up questions, then moves straight into the Part 3 discussion on the same theme.
Part 2 takes three to four minutes in total. The whole Speaking test runs 11 to 14 minutes across three parts, and Part 3 that follows lasts four to five minutes.
How to approach this card
Open with both lives of the building in one sentence: 'a textile mill that's now student housing', 'the old post office that became a public library'. The listener has the whole story at once, and you can spend the rest of your time on detail.
For 'what it was originally built for', a sentence or two and a rough date are enough. 'Around the nineteen-twenties, I think' sounds natural; an invented precise year does not. If you know why the original use ended — fewer passengers, a new bypass, online banking — say so, because it explains the conversion.
The third bullet is where your description lives. Walk the listener in from the entrance and pick out what survived — tiled floors, a clock, a staircase, faded lettering — next to what is new. Contrasts such as 'where the counters used to be, there are now…' give you natural comparative structures.
'What you think of the change' asks for a judgement, not just approval. Was anything lost? Who gained? Would knocking it down have been better? One reservation — the prices, the noise, a feature that was removed — makes your verdict sound weighed rather than enthusiastic.
Model answer
Speak your own answer first. Examiners are trained to spot memorised speeches and mark them down — use this to study structure, pacing and naturalness, never to recite.
Show the model answer
The building I'd like to describe is an old cinema on a corner of the main road in my city. It was built, I think, in the nineteen-thirties, and for decades it was where everyone went to see films. When the multiplexes opened in the new malls, it slowly emptied out, and for most of my childhood it was simply shut. About five years ago it reopened as an indoor climbing centre. From the outside it has hardly changed. It's a tall, cream-coloured building with rounded corners, a row of narrow windows near the top, and its old name, the Starlight, still spelled out in metal letters above the entrance. One of them has fallen off, so it actually reads 'STARLI HT', which everyone finds funny. Inside is where it gets strange. They took out all the seats, but the floor still slopes down towards where the screen used to be, and that whole end wall is now covered in climbing holds — bright plastic shapes going up maybe fifteen metres. The clever part is that they kept the original ceiling, which is painted dark blue with little gold stars, so when you're halfway up a wall and look up, you're staring at an old painted night sky. I go about once a week with a friend, mainly to climb badly. On the whole, I think the change was a good one. When the cinema closed, people assumed it would be knocked down for flats, and there was a small campaign to save it. Now it's busy every evening again, just with a different crowd. My one reservation is the price: a climbing session costs far more than a film ticket ever did, so a lot of local teenagers who used to hang around outside never go in.
Why this works: Both lives of the building are set out in the first paragraph, so the rest of the answer is free for detail. The description moves from outside to inside like a walk towards the building, and the missing letter and the painted stars make the place feel real. The verdict is weighed rather than gushing: the speaker welcomes the conversion but names who lost out.
Useful vocabulary for this topic
- it used to be
The key structure for a building that has changed its purpose.
- to be converted into
Passive verb for giving a building a completely new use.
- the original features
Parts kept from when the building was first built, such as windows, tiles or ceilings.
- to be knocked down
Informal but natural for demolishing a building.
- to breathe new life into
To give something old a new energy or purpose; fits a successful conversion.
- a local landmark
A building people use to find their way or give directions; simple and precise.
- to empty out
To lose its visitors or customers gradually.
Part 3 discussion
After your long turn the examiner moves into a four to five minute discussion on the same theme, working from two related discussion topics with about three questions each. The first stays close to your own experience; the second widens out. Answer with reasons and examples, not one-line replies.
- 1Should old buildings be protected, even when the land could be used for housing?
- 2Why are some old buildings converted while others are knocked down?
- 3Who should pay to look after historic buildings?
- 4Does the design of a building affect the people who use it?
- 5Why do new buildings in many cities look so similar?
- 6What kinds of buildings will cities need more of in the future?
More on how this family of cards is discussed: Places. Model answers for Part 3: Part 3 questions and answers.