This page contains the latest news about the major refurbishment of our building and the alternative arrangements which will be in place for our activities during the refurbishment.
For the latest pictures of the refurbishment, check out the Shipley Sustainable Community Hub on Facebook.
We’re currently moving back into our building, with activities resuming in a staged manner through Autumn 2024.
On this page:
- Latest timeline
- Where you can find us from July 2023
- Want to help?
- Membership
- About the refurbishment
Timeline
Hive is currently closed as we prepare to move back into our newly-refurbished building. This means that no courses, drop-ins or events will run in August or September.
We’re currently moving things back into our Kirkgate building whilst the contractors finish their works. We’re anticipating completing the move at the end of September when the keys will be handed over to us. The formal re-opening of the building is on Friday 4th October, with a reopening celebration planned alongside our friends upstairs at Kirkgate Community Centre for Saturday 5th October 2024.
We are then planning a phased start for activities in the Kirkgate building. Activities in the Birklands room (art and craft drop-ins, autumn term courses in stained glass, textiles, art and craft etc.) should resume in early October, followed by Woodwork drop-ins and courses and Pottery drop-ins and courses. Whilst we hope to be able to offer a full term of activities, before Christmas, it might start late or be shorter than usual.
Our temporary offices
During September we’ll be moving between our temporary offices at St Peter’s Church, Saltaire, and our newly-refurbished Kirkgate building. If you need to find us, we suggested getting in touch before visiting to check where we’ll be.
St Peter’s Church, Moorhead Lane, Saltaire, BD18 4JH
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Want to help?
If you want to help out, there are several ways you can do so.
You can still donate towards the costs of our temporary accommodation by donating to our room refurb fund here.
If you’d like to help through volunteering, we need volunteers to help with the move and into the autumn term with classes and drop-ins – get in touch 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.
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.