“It’s always talked about as the Island and the Space is the cultural Oasis in the middle of the Island.”
How might you describe the Space if asked ‘What does the space building mean to you?’
This was just one description given to Emma Hearn when the Women’s Radio Group travelled the Island to find out the importance of the Space building to the local community.
Here is what residents on the Island had to say about our little Space during a recent July broadcast….
“It’s a grade two listed church and importantly it symbolises history and longevity and the past which Canary Wharf doesn’t have. It’s a nice change from the some what severity of Canary Wharf, so its quite a nice retreat from working and living there.
In the early 1990’s Robert Richardson had seen this building in a poor state of repair, he was the deputy director of Wigmore Hall at that stage and it struck him that there was a serious shortage of suitable venue for arts and other cultural events and here was a building of significant quality in a poor state of repair that was crying out for a new use.
It’s a focus for the community, its got the café/ bar there, so people come and see the events there, or people have parties, wedding parties and birthday parties. So as well as an arts centre it’s a multiple faceted centre for people in that area.
You’re asking quite a lot from audiences to travel to somewhere quite specific to be able to see an event. It’s a modest size with and its capable of all sorts of potential users as a physical structure, its pretty robust when you look inside you can see 3 curved arched roof trusses that span from one wall to the other.
When you go you feel like you’ve found a gem, you feel like you’re a winner because you’ve found something that most people don’t know about.
“Its very much a hidden place which is one of its beauties. When you go you feel like you’ve found a gem.”
What more is there to say other than listen to even more about the space right here