Crossharbour District Centre holds the potential to act as a cultural and creative heart – as well as a social and economic hub – for the Isle of Dogs. Futurecity’s Cultural Placemaking Strategy for the scheme sets out how it can connect to and draw on the creative energies of the surrounding creative places – both formal and informal – to create partnerships and opportunities, and to strengthen the local ecology. The strategy proposes a determinedly creative and culture-led approach to placemaking that supports and celebrates Isle of Dogs’ rich and varied history and its important community identity. In addition to six placemaking principles, the strategy puts forward a set of cultural project proposals, such as a brand new art space ‘The Exchange’ and a series of public artworks and ‘embedded’ art commissions across the District Centre.
The Exchange is envisioned as a community facing offer for an established east London community in a part of the city with limited cultural infrastructure. It includes a 224-seat theatre as well as restaurant/bar and range of other spaces for performances, exhibitions, rehearsals and community use. Futurecity managed the brokering process that secured a partnership between a theatre operator and Ashbourne Beech who is prepared to meet costs of build and fit out, plus provide £0.5 million a year for the first five years of tenure.
