The unfortunate news…
Some of you may have heard that Peterborough City Council has issued an eviction notice to tenants at Chauffeurs Cottage, the main office for Peterborough Presents. Along with Metal Culture and several other creatives and cultural organisations, Peterborough Presents is also affected by the city council’s decision. We have been asked to leave the premises by 1st December 2024.
Peterborough Presents has been based at Chauffeurs Cottage since 2021. It serves as an office base for the team and space for us to bring together the different communities we work with, run workshops and work with artists and volunteers. Whilst Peterborough Presents will continue to deliver, this news will obviously have a significant impact on finances, our capacity to deliver activities and fundraise over the next 3 – 5 months whilst we identify new premises and move.
Peterborough Presents works in different neighbourhoods across the city, working with local residents to co-create festivals, workshops, murals, exhibitions and other creative activities. This includes work in Millfield, Westwood, Eye on events such as Eye Lantern Parade, Westwood youth film programme, Millfield Festival / Makers. In 2023 we also delivered Reasonable Adjustment, a series of accessible workshops and exhibitions for people who identify as Deaf, disabled or neurodivergent. Following calls from residents we have planned to deliver the next stage of this in 2025, marking 30 years of the Disability Discrimination Act. Chauffeurs Cottage offers an important accessible base for this work – a safe space for both the artists and communities to meet and create together.
Being part of a central ‘cultural hub’, where other creative organisations and creatives work, allows us to introduce the communities and artists we work with to other cultural opportunities in the city. It also allows us to continually share our learning about how we co-create with communities.
Use of Chauffeurs Cottage by the city council to Metal (as lead tenant) has been welcomed and previously showed a real commitment from PCC to cultural provision in the city. In return, Peterborough Presents alone has been able to lever in over £800,000 from funders, allowing us to direct this funding into the delivery of creative programmes in Peterborough over the last 3 years. It has meant that we have been able to work with over 7,700 participants, welcome 240,000 people to creative events, support 149 volunteers and employ 244 creatives / artists. We have worked with and supported hundreds of local community groups and organisations.
As you can see, the use of Chauffeurs Cottage unlocks a lot of potential. Losing it as a cultural hub will have a huge impact on everyone concerned.
We are keen to work with the Council to mitigate the impact of this eviction notice, negotiating over the timeline and identifying other suitable venues that allow us to continue this great work in the city. We will do this in collaboration with Metal and the other independent creatives and organisations who similarly contribute so much to the city and are also seriously affected by this move.
