Building’s £1.5m Revamp into Creative Hub on Schedule
Last updated at 08:57, Thursday, 28 July 2011

A PROJECT to transform a 19th century Barrow building into a hub for creative media organisations is nearing completion.

Work started on the 1875-built premises in June last year and is now only weeks away from completion.

Creative Studios Cumbria (Signal Films) is set to move into the building once work is finished.

Val Holden, regeneration officer at the council, is looking forward to seeing the project completed.

She said: “It is nearly there, which is very good news. We may even be finished by next week but we’re not sure of that yet.

“It has been a very big project, which has been done to Natural England standards and they are very pleased with it.

“We are going to be delighted to see people taking up the space in there.

“There’s still some free space in there, but the companies that are going in have some interesting ideas to fill it.

“The town needs it (an arts centre) and I was at a Lakes Alive event last week where people were commenting on how many arts organisations there are in Barrow.”

Kerry Kolbe, a director of Signal Films, says the group is looking forward to making the building its home.

She said: “We are really excited about it.

“This will be the first time we have had our own custom-designed space and it will make a big difference as we will now have a screening area set up all the time.

“There’s going to be an open events base on the ground floor which will seat between 60 to 80 people.

“This will be a place for people from different organisations to come together and will be a creative hub in the town.

“It will be a very vibrant and thriving building that people will be able to come to.”