A new Village Hall is being built as part of Circus West, the first phase of the Battersea Power Station development. The intention for the space is to host a mixed programme of events, classes and performances. It will serve as a community and cultural resource for both existing local residents and new residents moving in to the Battersea Power Station development. Over the next year and beyond we will work with Battersea Power Station to support the development of the space and its programme of activities. Battersea Arts Centre’s core purpose is to inspire people to take creative risks to shape the future and we are imagining how a successfully Battersea Village Hall could do that on the Battersea Power Station site.

One of the things that excites us about this partnership is that Battersea Power Station has set up a company to run the site. So rather than Battersea Arts Centre parachuting in and out to run a Village Hall programme for a fixed period, and then leaving, our role will be to support Battersea Power Station to recruit a team and put the systems and structures in place to enable a successful and sustainable Village Hall programme in the future. It will be a close working partnership between a cultural organisation and a major new business in south-west London. We have been impressed with the way that the new company is putting culture, at a human scale, at the heart of its plans for the site. Because the Village Hall is part of the first phase of works at Battersea Power Station we also hope it will have knock-on benefits for future phases of development.

Working with Battersea Power Station, we will invite existing and new residents to come together with community and cultural organisations in Wandsworth to co-develop the space and its programme. Together we aim to create an open invitation for people to enjoy an exciting new cultural space that links to the dynamic cultural life of the borough and London, so more on this soon.