They are moving into empty shops and supermarkets and vacant offices across the country to breathe life into run down streets and drab developments. And, while artists and designers across the UK are finding new places to work and exhibit, landlords have found a cheap way of keeping their empty properties alive and secure.
MADE. Pop-up crafts shop, Newcastle-under-Lyme
While landlords wait for new commercial tenants or for developments to begin hundreds of artists — both amateur and professional — are taking over their empty buildings.
“It’s gone from being a fringe, slightly edgy activity to something very mainstream,” says the Empty Shops Network co-ordinator, Dan Thompson. “It feels like a golden age for the arts with so much going on.”
The benefits to both sides are obvious. While artists and performers get a chance to showcase their work with no overheads and little or no rent, property owners know their buildings are occupied with security costs cut and reduced dangers of vandalism or damage. It’s also a way to avoid having to pay business rates, utility bills and insurance on empty premises.
The new wave of galleries and exhibits is as diverse as Britain’s property scene, ranging from a police station in Bristol to a car showroom in the shadow of Wembley Stadium. On Teesside a clutch of artists has moved into one of Middlesbrough’s 1960s eyesore office blocks and in Wrexham, North Wales, art students are now showing in a recently-closed JJB Sports shop.
Carleton Furniture was once one of the country’s leading corporate furniture manufacturers until it went into liquidation in 2011. Its warehouse and office complex in Pontefract, West Yorkshire, is now managed by Leeds-based East Street Arts, a charity that pairs artists with empty properties, and has become the base for numerous artists and budding musicians.
“There will always be places standing empty for a while, but in the current economic climate it’s much more accentuated,” explained East Street’s Ken Stratford. “And on the high street, the changing and uncertain nature will always provide potential sites.”
In Manchester an eight-floor office block and former Co-op supermarket has been taken over by the Castlefield Gallery. Each floor of the Federation building is being used by a different arts group, upstairs. Castlefield has negotiated a rent-free, five-year lease which the Co-op can break if they find a new tenant or decide to redevelop.
And in Bristol, what was once the city’s main police and fire station and magistrates’ court is now the Bridewell complex with sound studios in the cells and artists’ workshops in the old confiscated goods lock-up.
The building was originally purchased by property developer Urban Splash but plans to turn it into an hotel and flats were abandoned with the recession. The art collective, Artspace Lifespace, negotiated an initial 12 month lease — and is still there five years later.
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