The council's lease on the Community Arts Centre at Roaring Meg ends next summer. Talks are opening to find new venues for the Arts Guild and the groups using it.
The Stevenage Community Arts Centre at the Roaring Meg retail park will lose its home next summer. Stevenage Borough Council, which has leased the site since 2002, says the landlord has told it the lease will end in summer 2027, and talks are now opening to find somewhere else for the groups that use the building.
The centre is run day to day by the Stevenage Arts Guild. The council said on 22 October that it is “fully committed” to working with the Guild and the groups that hire the hall to find alternative locations before the lease runs out.
What the council says
The landlord has offered a contribution to the council towards improving facilities that the groups may use in future, the council said. It has not said how much that contribution is or where the new venues might be.
Discussions will take place between the Guild, the groups that use the building and the council. The council describes the aim as finding venues that support “the excellent contribution culture makes to Stevenage and the value it holds to lives and wellbeing of those who participate in it”.
Cllr Myla Arceno, the council’s Cabinet member for Culture, Leisure and Wellbeing, said:
“Culture forms a key part of what makes Stevenage a positive place to live and thrive. This is why our council is fully committed to working with the Stevenage Arts Guild and all the groups using the Community Arts Centre to source alternative locations which meet the needs of all those who use the current centre before our lease ends.”
“It has been our home”
Hilary Spiers, chair of the Stevenage Arts Guild, said:
“For many years members of the Guild and other local groups have enjoyed using the Community Arts Centre. It has been our home and has been a central hub for us to meet and promote the arts within the community. Stevenage is celebrating its 80th anniversary as a New Town this year and many of our groups were founded in its early years and helped people make new friends when they first arrived. We know the council appreciates our contribution to the life of the town and hope it will help us find new premises so we can continue to enrich the lives of the people of Stevenage.”
What the centre is
According to the Arts Guild’s own page on the centre, the building was completed in August 2002 as a purpose-built place for local amateur groups to rehearse, perform and hold events, replacing the earlier Arts Pavilion on a nearby site. Its hiring page describes a meeting hall for about 80 people, with a stage in kit form, a kitchen and toilets, used by Guild members and also let to dance schools and children’s clubs.
The Guild, founded in the 1950s, counts performing arts groups, choirs and orchestras among its members, along with floral arts, photographic and locomotive societies.
What it means for you
- Nothing changes yet. The centre stays open until the lease ends next summer, and the council says it wants new venues found before then.
- If your group hires the hall, the Guild is the first contact. Bookings go through the chair at artscentre@stevenageartsguild.org.uk, according to the Guild’s hiring page.
- No new venue has been named. We will report where the groups are going once the talks produce an answer.
The council’s press office is on 01438 242 168.
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