Located in the Royal Arsenal riverside, the Woolwich Cultural Quarter is a bold new cultural and heritage area set to launch in 2017 ahead of the arrival of the Elizabeth Line. The development is a joint endeavour between the Royal Borough of Greenwich and Berkeley Homes East Thames, and the ambitious plans see the area becoming an international arts hub.

According to the press release, The Cultural Quarter – on the banks of the River Thames – offers a unique, attractive and ideal setting to establish London’s newest cultural destination. The plans form part of the borough’s wider regeneration, including the transformation of the immediate Royal Arsenal area, which is delivering 4,500 quality new homes and a new Crossrail station, as well as new shops, restaurants and quality public open spaces and community facilities.

In February 2016 it was announced that the multi-award winning Dash Arts performance company will take residency in The Cultural Quarter.

Josephine Burton and Tim Supple of Dash Arts said: “The extraordinary historic buildings within the Royal Arsenal at Woolwich will house a new kind of performing arts theatre in which international theatre, music, dance, art, film and food can be enjoyed in the same programme. After a decade of award-winning and ground breaking production, Dash Arts is thrilled to begin a long and deep relationship with Woolwich offering audiences, participants and artists a unique blend of performance and experience from far and wide. Despite its international vitality, London is short on venues truly open to the world and this fully flexible, multi-purpose performing arts theatre will offer the people of Woolwich, London and the UK an artistic destination with unlimited global horizons.”

The Woolwich Cultural Quarter contributes to the borough’s determination to make Woolwich into a cultural powerhouse. Already two highly regarded cultural organisations have located to Woolwich; the Millennium Performing Arts School and Hangar Arts in Warspite Road. The Royal Borough’s plans also aim to use Woolwich’s military heritage to do for the town what the naval heritage has done to the Greenwich economy.

Further announcements regarding other creatives finding a home in The Woolwich Cultural Quarter are yet to be made, so watch this space…