Village Underground gets £1.9m cash boost for Hackney Arts Centre project

Easy as ABC: the venue as it looked in 1963 (left) and how it looks now (right).

A project to turn Dalston’s old Savoy cinema into an arts venue has received a £1.9 million shot in the arm from investors.

Village Underground (VU), the team behind the project, recently won the council’s approval to create the 2,500-plus capacity Hackney Arts Centre (HAC), which is set to cost around £3 million.

Now Big Issue Invest, The Arts Impact Fund and Triodos Bank have backed the plans with a combined cash injection of almost £2 million.

VU already runs a popular venue in Shoreditch but wants to build a second outpost in the heart of Hackney by restoring the derelict Savoy to its former art deco glory.

The “multi-arts” centre is expected to feature music, theatre and dance, as well as lectures, comedy and poetry.

Auro Foxcroft, VU’s founder, envisions it as a “Roundhouse for East London” – referring to the popular 1,700-seater venue in Camden.

He welcomed the new investment, saying: “All three investors are passionate about the social impact of the Hackney Arts Centre and have been creative and bold in getting us this far.

“As a social enterprise, it’s essential for us to have financial backing that understands our goals, and in this way these organisations have set us free to usher something into the world that would have otherwise not have been possible.”

Good training: Village Underground’s first base in Shoreditch uses abandoned tube carriages

Foxcroft has previously said that HAC will run a “strong education programme”, and a new partnership with charity Community Music will see it host courses for under-privileged children in the borough.

Big Issue Invest director James Salmon said: “We are so pleased to support Village Underground in bringing to life the vision of the Hackney Arts Centre.

“We are confident Auro and his team will deliver an equally impressive venue in the heart of Dalston.

“We are particularly excited to see the development of the partnership with Community Music, a model we expect will set a fine example of how the music and arts sector can deliver social impact.”

The art deco main theatre space of the former cinema. Photograph: Hackney Arts Centre

The Savoy opened in 1936 and later became the ABC cinema, as illustrated by our October 2016 feature on Hackney’s lost cinemas. Following that, it transformed into both the Konak Cinema and the Ace Cinema before closing entirely in 1984.

Foxcroft told the Citizen last year about the moment he set foot in the place, saying: “Through the darkness, the clutter, the holes in the ceiling and the rat and pigeon poo, we could see beautiful original features that were crying out to be restored and have life breathed back into them.”

The site is currently home to Efes Snooker Club and events space Epic, which will both shut up shop to make way for the arts centre.