The John Peel Centre is a vibrant grass roots music venue and community-centric arts centre located in the restored Corn Hall in Stowmarket. The arts centre is inspired by and a tribute to the legendary broadcaster John Peel. Through a committed team of staff, volunteers and patron Shelia Ravenscroft the centre produces a breath of diverse and high quality artistic initiatives.
Mid Suffolk District Council recently acquired 11 Market Place (the adjacent building that was originally connected to the Corn Hall) and commissioned a consortium consisting of EDRM, Culture Shift and The Garage, to prepare a vision, feasibility and business case for the future of number 11.
The current JPC venue is accessed via a small set of doors off a back street. The new building at number 11 would present the opportunity for the JPC to be public facing and to open up their activities onto Stowmarket's Market Place. In the context of our current climate of struggling high streets, this is a fantastic opportunity both for the JPC and Stowmarket to place this cultural and community asset in the heart of the town centre.
EDRM worked closely with the JPC team and focused on the potential spatial possibilities to test various ideas within the context of the new building. We ran workshops, consultation sessions, prepared layout options, detailed design options for a meanwhile occupation, visuals, costings, comparators and visual references. This information is compiled as a toolkit to inform the organisations decision making moving forwards as well as being the basis of the development of the detailed brief.
