Nick Giles, who has been director of Shoreditch Town Hall for five and a half years, is leaving this post at the organisation at the end of March though he will remain as an associate director and trustee.
Giles said, “Shoreditch Town Hall is a remarkable building and it has been both thrilling and a huge privilege to have been able to continue its restoration over the past five years as well as lead it into exciting, new territory as a vibrant arts space.
"It’s been especially rewarding to welcome thousands of audiences to the building to experience the artistic and participation programmes we’ve built here since I joined, especially those from our local community who previously had no reason come through our doors. This has always been a very personal project, to realise the building’s full potential—artistic, creative and financial—but as is always the case with challenging projects, it has been a team effort.
"I have been fortunate to be surrounded by a talented, hugely dedicated group of co-workers and collaborators, as well as supporters, artists, clients, stakeholders and our community who have not just enthusiastically embraced the Town Hall during my years here, but have been fundamental to getting us to where we are.
"I know I am leaving the building in safe hands and with people who will continue to keep exploring and striving, as I hope I have done, to find new and exciting ways for the building to come alive. And above all, during its 150th anniversary year, to ensure that it is still here to be enjoyed and reinvented by future generations, as a continuing, vital part of London’s cultural landscape and of Shoreditch and Hackney life.”
Shoreditch Town Hall has a self-funding operation receiving no external revenue support. The flagship live events venue has an 800-capacity Assembly Hall, one of the last large-scale Victorian music hall auditoria remaining in the East End.
The warren of basement spaces are also used for performances and events.
Jamie Lloyd's production of Philip Ridley's Killer is currently running in the basement of Shoreditch Town Hall.