Manchester's Hope Mill Theatre has announced plans to expand into other parts of the 200-year-old former mill building in Ancoats and restore its community hub, which was forced to close in 2024 due to the cost of keeping it running.
The theatre currently occupies the rear of the ground floor of the building on Pollard Street but will also take over the front part of the same floor, doubling its square-footage, in order to house the community hub, which in its past incarnation included a theatre school, community choir and orchestra and play reading club. The space had been used by local charity and community groups and for rehearsals by theatre groups.
The new space, which will be shared with AWOL studios, will include an accessible dressing room and an extra accessible backstage toilet facility, a large community room and dance studio, individual singing rooms, a rehearsal studio and office space. A fundraising campaign has been launched to help fund the venture.
William Whelton CEO and co-founder of Hope Mill Theatre, said, “it was a really difficult decision to make back in 2024 to close the community hub, but at the time a necessary one. Despite the closure of the hub, our outreach work—including our theatre school, orchestra and choir—has continued in other spaces across the local area and we are so grateful for their support. However it is really important for us to bring together all of our wonderful community programmes under one roof so when the rest of the ground floor of Hope Mill became available, we knew the time is right to expand.
“The new community space will be connected directly through our current bar area and will also allow us to expand with more office space, dressing rooms and a much-needed dance and rehearsal studio.
“Hope Mill Theatre celebrates its 10th anniversary this year, and myself and Joe could never have imagined the growth and impact the organisation would have made over the period and there are lots of exciting plans ahead. But we desperately need to expand and need more space, so to have the opportunity to grow within the current building feels right.”