This page contains the latest news about the major refurbishment of our building, starting in July 2023, and the alternative arrangements which will be in place for our activities during the refurbishment.
Our building will be completely closed from July 2023, for a period of around a year.
On this page:
Where you can find us from July 2023
We’re delighted that our friends at St Peter’s Church, Saltaire, have agreed to put us up, and that’s going to be our main base for the coming year. It’s just ten minutes up the road from our Kirkgate building, buses stop very nearby and there’s a bit of parking (and more on the streets around and behind the shops).
Our phone number and emails will remain the same, and you’ll still be able to pop in and see us (you might just have to ring a doorbell to get in).
St Peter’s Church, Moorhead Lane, Saltaire, BD18 4JH
Birklands Room activities
Everything that currently happens in the Birklands Room will take place at St Peter’s, including Drop in and Draw, Chat and Craft, and a full programme of classes as usual. A small team of staff and volunteers have worked hard to refurbish the room and it has full disabled access and disabled toilets.
The church has a large free car park, accessible from Moorhead Lane. If the car park is full then there is additional free parking on many of the side roads off Moorhead Lane (particularly Fern Hill Road, 150 yards up Moorhead Lane on the left). Please park sensibly and do not obstruct the neighbours.
Once parked, the entrance is at the inner end of the car park up the small flight of steps / ramp: please do not use the church entrance in the base of the tower.
The Birklands Room is straight ahead of you at the other end of the corridor. For the Hive office, turn immediately right and up the flight of stairs. If the main door is closed, then please use the appropriate buzzer (Hive Arts Room or Hive Office).
Please do be aware that St Peter’s Church also have a busy schedule of activities they run for the community, so there will be other people using the building at the same time as you.
Pottery activities
We’re delighted to have secured the use of the pottery studios at Bradford College for the next year. Because it’s a little further to go we’re going to run our pottery courses and activities slightly differently, concentrating things into fewer days, but we’re still planning to run our full range of courses, albeit in a slightly different pattern.
Provisionally, courses will run in eight-week blocks, but you will be able to choose whether to do four alternate week full-days, or eight half-day weekly sessions.
Lister Building, Bradford College, Carlton Street, Bradford, BD7 1AY
Directions to the Ceramics Studio in Bradford College
- From Centenary Square / City Park in the centre of Bradford walk towards the Alhambra with the Impressions Gallery on your right.
- Take the crossing slightly to your right and cross over to the front of the Alhambra.
- Take the road to the right of the Alhambra (Thornton Road). There are currently roadworks on this road so you can only walk on the right side footpath until you pass the Lord Clyde pub.
- Cross the road just after the Lord Clyde pub and go past Culture Fusion (just after the Renault Garage).
- Take the next left after Culture Fusion up Westholme Street, and you will see some steps and a ramp. At the top of these is the Lister Building.
- When you enter the building, tell reception that you are there for a Hive course.
- Go through the textile exhibition area and through the double doors at the end.
- Go through the door to your right and down two flights of stairs.
- Continue through the doors at the end and the Ceramics Studio will be on your left.
Woodwork activities
Our friends at Baildon, Shipley and Saltaire Men’s Shed, at their location on the allotments in Northcliffe Park, are lending us workshop space so that we can run woodwork courses and activities. Space will be more limited than our current workshop, but we’ll make the most we can of it.
Woodwork member drop-ins will be on Wednesdays and Fridays, 1-3pm, starting from Wednesday 27th September 2023. Woodwork Thursdays supported drop-ins will be on Thursdays, 10am-12noon and 1-3pm starting from Thursday 28th September 2023.
Shipley Men’s Shed, c/o NEET, Northcliffe Nurseries, Northcliffe Park Top Allotment Site. Off Cliffewood Avenue, Shipley, Bradford, BD18 3DD
Baildon, Shipley & Saltaire Men’s Shed on Facebook
Timeline
We will keep this timeline as up-to-date as we can – more details will be added as they become available, and dates are subject to change.
2023
Our Kirkgate building is now closed and building work has begun.
September – December: Term 1 courses at St Peter’s Church and Bradford College.
Term 1 courses are now running at St Peter’s Church and Bradford College. Woodwork drop-ins are running at Shipley Men’s Shed (member drop-ins on Wednesday and Friday afternoons, supported drop-ins on Thursday morning and afternoon).
2024
January – March: Term 2 courses at St Peter’s Church and Bradford College.
April – June: Term 3 courses at St Peter’s Church and Bradford College.
July – August: Hive likely closed, possibility of some events running.
September: Kirkgate building reopens (very provisional!)
Want to help?
If you want to help out, there are several ways you can do so.
Our temporary home at St Peter’s Church needed a little work doing so that we could make best use of it. We’ve fitted additional plug sockets and a sink and replaced the floor. If you’d like to help us towards the £5,000 it cost to do this work, you can donate to our room refurb fund here.
We’d also love to hear from any local businesses who would be interested in donating equipment or materials for the project.
If you’d like to help through volunteering, we are looking for volunteers to help with classes. If you’re interested in this please let us know on info@hivebradford.org.uk.
Membership
Hive is a registered charity, and joining us helps us to achieve our charitable objectives. Our members help inform what we do and guide our activities – joining lets you have your say and vote at our AGM.
Membership fees will remain unchanged during the refurbishment – £25 per year. We won’t be able to offer the same range of activities during the refurbishment, but you will still be able to access art and craft drop-ins, and get the usual 15% course discounts.
We’re also working on what else we might be able to offer through the year as a thank you to our loyal members – look out for details.
Ultimately, your membership helps to keep us going, to be able to offer subsidised places on our courses, to run our support drop-ins and other activities, and to continue our mission to make art accessible to anyone and everyone.
About the refurbishment
Hive Bradford and The Kirkgate Centre are delighted to have secured funding from the Government’s Towns Fund to refurbish the building that we share.
We have worked with architects Rance Booth Smith to develop the plans and obtain planning permission, and there have been a number of community consultations.
The refurbishment is an opportunity to bring a number of aspects of our building up to modern standards, to carry out a number of much-needed repairs, to lessen our environmental impact, to improve our facilities and connectivity around the building, and to ensure that our building is fit for the future.
Key aspects of the work which impact Hive will include:
- improvements to the layout of the building to allow better access to rooms and toilets without having to disturb classes and activities
- an internal staircase and lift to connect the floors and allow better connected working between Hive and The Kirkgate Centre
- an additional activity room to allow extra classes and activities to take place simultaneously
- an expanded and more welcoming reception area
- increased storage
- better insulation and weatherproofing
- improved energy efficiency.
If you’d like to see the latest plans then please pop in and we’d be happy to talk you through them.
The refurbishment started in July 2023, and is anticipated to take a year, during which time the building will be closed.