Loughborough: Work set to start on £2.5m creative arts hub

A team of volunteers working to save about 300 of the hall’s original black and white tiles in January

Work is due to begin on a £2.5m regeneration project which will develop a new creative arts centre.

The Generator Hall, a former industrial building in Packe Street, Loughborough is set to be transformed.

Volunteers behind the project say building work will start this month after a "funding breakthrough" in December.

They want to create a "large-capacity, multi-purpose cultural centre for the town", with aims to open next spring.

The Generator CIC, a community interest company managed by volunteers, says the team has "been working hard for several years" to transform the "sizable" 1930s hall.

With £1.8m previously secured from various channels, £700,000 from the Community Ownership Fund was confirmed on 22 December, allowing contracts to be signed and builders to be arranged.

The project aims to transform Generator Hall into a cultural hub

David Pagett-Wright, chair of the Generator CIC, said: "Alongside this amazing breakthrough, we've been working incredibly hard behind the scenes for reasons we can now reveal.

"When we went to tender in July 2023, we discovered that recent, exceptional inflation in building costs had made our established plans no longer feasible. We hit quite a wall.

"We had to re-work our plans, creating a two-stage approach, and then go back to our main funders to get their agreement. Thankfully, all are on board with this approach.

Generator Hall dates back to the 1930s and was previously owned by Loughborough University

"Their approval, along with the funding that landed just before Christmas and the subsequent signing off of the building contract means that we can now say that we've done it.

"It's full steam ahead for the Generator!"

The project's earliest meetings were in 2014, before the group was formalised in June 2015, when they began to apply for funding.