Essential roof repairs will help ensure the future of one of Stamford’s most iconic listed buildings for generations to come.
South Kesteven District Council has agreed a £190,000 programme of work at Stamford Arts Centre in St Mary’s Street. The work, which has now started, will include replacement or restoration of the existing Collyweston slate roof, leadwork, along with timber treatment and repairs.
I'm delighted that this important work to the roof at Stamford Arts Centre can begin.
The venue is home to a number of resident artists and many other local cultural organisations and is much-loved by Stamford audiences.
SKDC has been able to make good use of the current reduced arts programme due to the Coronavirus pandemic by making improvements for the long-term benefit of our stakeholders and patrons.
Opened in 1768 as Stamford Assembly Rooms, the building’s façade survives as a rare example of a Georgian playhouse. The theatre closed in 1871 but later that year reopened as the headquarters of Stamford Billiard, News and Chess Club which was how it remained until the second world war.
After the war the buildings were available for casual lettings but fell into disrepair until being transformed and opened as an Arts Centre in 1972.
With extra resources needed, it was taken over by SKDC in 1990 and in 1993 was used as a set for a BBC production of Middlemarch.
