10 MARCH 2025
A further update from Scott Sherrard, Chair of The Maltings (Berwick) Trust
Thank you again for the many supportive comments on our last update. It’s been an exciting few weeks for the team at the Maltings. Our test screenings at the temporary cinema in the Barracks Mob Store drew big audiences and much praise for the 21st century comfort. And over 850 people showed what a community pulling together can produce with Matthew Rosier’s joyous Berwick Parade at Berwick Barracks. More than 2,500 people came to share the experience last weekend.
As promised in my last report, NCC has now submitted the planning application for the new Maltings in Eastern Lane. You’ll find it from the week of 17 March on the NCC website here. Do have a good look when you have the time. It’s a lengthy read because it’s thorough, detailed and reflects many of the helpful comments and suggestions from both rounds of public consultation. It also shows step-by-step how we arrived at our submission over a 3 year period.
This is about added choice. For everyone.
The Maltings has a single agenda: to do great things for Berwick and its community. That’s what we’re here for. And because not everyone’s the same, that means offering variety and choice – to consistently high standards.
Two new cinemas operating daily will be a fantastic addition for the town and guarantees that Berwick sees what the rest of the country sees, and at the same time. If you’ve come to any of our test screenings you’ll have high expectations, and rightly so. What’s more, every part of the new Maltings will be fully accessible – a long-needed change.
What about the visual impact?
We’re excited by the design, not only because of what it will enable us to provide. Great care has been taken with materials and features to ensure that it’s recognised as the confident and dynamic beacon that the town needs, from wherever it’s seen. People are its heart and they’ll see and be seen, front and back, through generous windows.
The new Maltings looks to the future, a proud addition to the skyline – but not at the expense of what is treasured. The profile is carefully broken-up to fit Berwick’s scale: it’s no monolith.
And the environmental impact?
While creating more light-filled usable space, the design will cut carbon emissions by 70%. This will slash our environmental impact and energy costs, which have been crippling in recent years. And we’ll be able to operate the building in sections rather than all or nothing. So it’s also good for business sustainability.
How will it increase community use?
As now, we’ll have studio/rehearsal space available for community use. Additionally, the theatre space and stage will offer many new opportunities, thanks to their flexible design and greater availability. There are additional meeting rooms and considerably improved flexibility in the public spaces throughout.
And as well as the new Maltings, the refurbished Gymnasium Gallery at the Barracks will provide more new community space from 2026.
What’s it costing? And who’s paying?
This thrilling programme for change has three key components – the new Maltings building, the improved Gymnasium Gallery, and the temporary cinema at the Barracks, which will become the new Berwick Archive.
The total budget is £28.34m. This consists of £25.5m from the Borderlands Inclusive Growth Deal and £2.84m from Northumberland County Council. We are enormously grateful to our funders. We’re also acutely aware that this budget is capped. There is no more.
We recognise that these are enormous amounts of money. Quite rightly, the project team has had to produce a detailed Business Case for scrutiny by government and the Borderlands Partnership. That evaluation shows that there will be a commercial return for the town, including job creation. It will also provide an engine for much-needed regeneration.
A charity. A community asset.
The Maltings (Berwick) Trust is a charity. Our principal funders are Arts Council England and Northumberland County Council. Despite their generosity, to deliver all our community outreach activities as well as an outstanding cultural offer to the local population we need to cover around threequarters of our costs from earned income. As venues across the UK will testify, that’s a continuing challenge; but one the Maltings team has met successfully through Covid and beyond.
The building schedule means we must close our usual performance spaces until 2027. We’ll keep the show on the road with films at the Barracks cinema, our Granary Gallery visual arts programme, ad hoc events, youth theatre, and project activity including artist commissions and residencies – of which last week’s Berwick Parade was just the first. We’re looking forward to these new opportunities to get out and among the community. But overall, we’ll inevitably have fewer tickets to sell – so we’ll be looking for your support.
So what happens next?
From the week of 17 March everyone has the chance to read the planning application on the NCC website here.
We hope you’ll like what you find. We do need your support – not least as every further delay costs money. As noted above, the capped budget means rising costs will inevitably result in a scaled-back proposal. We don’t want to compromise the plans.
If you do wish to add your support, we’d be so grateful if you could express it on the planning portal. We want to show our funders in particular how much value the community places on this one-off opportunity for lasting change.
4 MARCH 2025
UPDATE from Northumberland County Council
A new image of the proposed Maltings venue in Berwick has been released – as a formal planning application is submitted.
It follows public consultation events on the planned transformation of the main venue on Eastern Lane earlier this year.
When the planning application goes live on the Council’s planning portal later this month, people will have a further opportunity to study the plans in detail and give their views on the proposals.
A total of 336 people responded to the consultation in January and February, with over two thirds supportive of the proposals.
The £28.3m Maltings project is the latest in a number of major investments in the town over recent years – from a new £23m leisure centre, a £10 million project to create a thriving cultural hub at Berwick Barracks and a new Culture and Creative Zone, further raising Berwick’s profile as a centre for creative activity in the northeast.
Council Leader Glen Sanderson said: “It was very positive to see the high level of support for The Maltings proposals which will transform the cultural offering in the town.
“The new image looks stunning and I would encourage everyone to have a look at the plans when they go onto the County Council’s website in the near future.
“All of the views of the local community will be considered by the planning committee later this summer. I am sure the new venue has the potential to be a fantastic addition to this wonderful town.”
FEBRUARY 2025
UPDATE from our Chair, Scott Sherrard
A beacon for a confident Berwick
Thank you for your continued support – and patience. Finally, the dreams we’ve shared and discussed for years are close to becoming a reality, thanks to concerted efforts by a great many people across the town and beyond.
The formal planning application marks an important step forward this month. We’ll leave the building on May 31 and begin clearing the site. The construction programme begins in the summer and we plan to be back in 2027.
As home to North Northumberland’s largest arts charity, the new venue will let us offer so much more to so many more. It’s a major vote of confidence in Berwick from the Borderlands Partnership, which invests to unlock sustainable and inclusive economic growth across the South of Scotland and North of England. Because we’re working to build not just a venue but the future of an assertive and confident town.
The Maltings means many things to many people. It’s been at the heart of many residents’ stories for 35 years. Inevitably, people have a lot of questions about our future; these are the ones we’ve been hearing most often. Please keep your questions coming, and we’ll add more Q&As over the coming months.
Why change? What’s wrong with the existing building?
It’s in a sorry state. When the owners, Northumberland County Council, commissioned a condition report they found it would need several million pounds worth of repairs. And that was almost 10 years ago, back in 2016.
It’s very energy-inefficient – which means our energy bills have risen by many tens of thousands in recent years. At today’s energy prices, it’s just not viable.
It can’t meet the standard of facilities and comfort that today’s audiences expect, and which Berwick residents and visitors fully deserve. Its disabled access is no longer acceptable, for audiences or performers. And inadequate soundproofing makes it hard to run two events at once, which limits our programming choices. This is one reason why space has always been limited for community groups.
What are the main changes we can look forward to?
We’ll explore some of these in greater detail in future communications, but the biggest differences include:
– A more flexible theatre space, allowing alternative theatrical presentations and community uses – like theatre in the round, or flat-floor music events
– Two full-time cinemas, enabling first-run programming and wider choice
– Studio and rehearsal room for community use
– Bright public spaces, including a viewing terrace over the river
– Expanded café and bar facilities, day and evening, all with great views
– An additional entry from Shoe Lane and Bridge Street.
Why do we say it’s good for Berwick?
Arts and culture have played major roles in the regeneration of many UK coastal towns – think Folkestone and Margate, now both thriving. Or consider the impact of Berwick’s own recent four-month Lowry exhibition. The economic uplift was independently measured at £500,000: that’s half a million spent in Berwick that we otherwise wouldn’t have seen.
The new Maltings venue will strengthen our shops and hospitality businesses and attract new investment to the town. It will create jobs and apprenticeships, both in the building phase and in the future operation of the venue.
It will offer enhanced cinema and theatre programmes to keep residents in the town (no more trekking to Edinburgh to catch brand-new film releases!) and to attract visitors.
It will increase opportunities for community participation, especially among young people.
And its café and river views will make it a destination in its own right.
It will visibly assert the town’s confidence in its future. As a statement of purpose and a beacon of growth, no other project comes close.
Why’s it taken so long?
This is a very large investment of public money. Quite properly, it must be scrutinised diligently at every step. As the Maltings’ landlord, Northumberland County Council (NCC) is driving the project. As well as drumming up large-scale grant funding, NCC has contributed its own support, for which we are very grateful.
There have been challenges, particularly over cost. Very high inflation throughout the development – and the impact of the Ukraine war, especially on steel prices – mean that the original budget goes nowhere near as far as when original plans were laid. Despite NCC’s help in raising additional funds, we’ve had to cut our cloth and make changes. And as we redesign, we have to ensure that all the elements of the Business Case still stand up to Borderlands’ scrutiny. Our Design team have worked hard to maintain momentum, but it all takes time.
The site has added its own challenges. We’ve needed to respect the archaeology found beneath it. And very unusually for a theatre, the building is prominent both front and back. That demands extra care, thought, planning – and expense.
Who’s been involved in shaping the design?
Advance Northumberland is the project manager, with NCC and the Maltings (Berwick) Trust as clients.
Our architects are MICA, an award-winning international architectural design practice; and our project is led by their founding partner. Other notable MICA projects include Dulwich Picture Gallery, the Ashmolean Museum, Hay Castle, the Cheng Yu Tung Building for Jesus College, Oxford, and Fairfield Halls.
Our theatre design team, Charcoalblue, are renowned as the world’s No1 integrated theatre, acoustic and experience experts. Recent notable projects include Liverpool’s Everyman Theatre, Chester’s Storyhouse, and in London the Linbury Theatre for the Royal Opera House, the Kit Kat Club at The Playhouse Theatre, @sohoplace, the Kiln Theatre and the Abba Arena.
The design team has consulted widely throughout, especially with Historic England. In Berwick, we’ve talked with future potential users and community groups and have been grateful for the response and input from two public consultations.
Stand out? Or blend in?
We believe Berwick’s cultural centre should not be afraid to stand out. As a beacon for a confident Berwick, it requires an assertive and confident design – a building whose ambition and welcome are plainly visible, while contributing to and sitting comfortably with the historic heritage that surrounds it.
From both front and back, the view on arrival is energetic and exciting. It promises that things happen here and invites participation. The venue accommodates many new features, so inevitably it’s bigger than the old one. It’s an honest building, not pastiching the past or pretending to be what it isn’t. Theatres and cinemas are box-shaped. That’s their nature, and on our unusual site there’s no hiding it. Instead, the architects have thoughtfully and sensitively shaped a dramatic addition to views that tell Berwick’s continuing story: not just of a rich and eventful past, but of an optimistic and energetic future.
Scott Sherrard – Chair of The Maltings (Berwick) Trust
JUNE 2024 UPDATE
The Board and staff of the Maltings (Berwick) Trust have been working closely with Northumberland County Council and MICA Architects on finalising the design for the transformational multi-million-pound redevelopment of our Eastern Lane venue.
NCC own the venue and are leading the building project, funded by the Borderlands Regional Growth Deal and NCC.
We know how loved our current building is, and how hard our community worked to make it happen in 1990. But we’ve been increasingly aware how much the building lags behind in its facilities, its accessibility and its green credentials. And we want the very best for Berwick – so the rare opportunity to transform our venue in the current climate was too special an opportunity to ignore. We’re absolutely committed to ensuring the project delivers for everyone in Berwick, and the surrounding area – and we look forward to working from a range of temporary homes to maintain a film and live events programme alongside our gallery spaces during the build period.
The design will be mindful of the site’s heritage location and the Berwick skyline, whilst increasing floor area and exploiting the panoramic views across the 17th century old Berwick Bridge and the Tweed Estuary.
The venue will be a flagship cultural centre when we open the doors in 2027, able to provide a full-time year-round cinema programme alongside an expanded range of daytime and evening performances, event broadcasts, community projects, learning activities, workshops, and events for children and young people.
It will house :
- a remodelled theatre with a range of flexible seating configurations and stage sizes
- two dedicated cinema spaces, allowing us to run live events and cinema screenings simultaneously
- a destination restaurant and bar
- a rehearsal studio
- flexible-use meeting, conference, education, event, and screening spaces as well as technical facilities for sound recording, filming and streaming.
All our project partners are committed to ensuring we deliver a major asset for the town centre – attracting residents and visitors of all ages, boosting footfall and spend, and enhancing Berwick’s credentials as a must-visit destination.
During the building programme, we’ll be operating a temporary cinema from the reconfigured Mob Store at Berwick Barracks and programming live events at other venues in Berwick.
June 2024