Anyone who has taken a walk along the canal recently would have seen what tremendous progress Joule’s Brewery have been making. All materials have been meticulously chosen to reflect the heritage of the brand and site from the reclaimed bricks to the cast iron Joule’s cross, seamlessly integrated within the dramatic steelwork. We highly recommend taking a wander and looking at how beautiful these buildings will be. 

From the canalside you can clearly see where the pub ends and the theatre begins as our octagonal auditorium stands proud but naked! Yet to be waterproofed and wind protected, we are currently working alongside our specialist theatre architects to ensure the best possible materials are used for the walls and roof- rain hitting a hot tin roof may work for some shows but not others!

To the left of the auditorium you will see what will be our dressing rooms, production office and workshop snaking round the far corner of the site. Plans are currently being drawn up by a local architect for a small extension at the back of Wharfingers Cottage to maximise the available space and flow of backstage traffic. 

Once the auditorium walls are built and the roof is covered it will 100% be down to the charity to do the rest. If you’ve got the skills, we’ve got the jobs!

Get in touch.

Joule’s Brewery have been making the most of the beautiful summer and have been powering on with the build.

The shell of Wharfingers Cottage is now complete which will be closely followed by the workshop/storage unit which will be made watertight and windproof with a green shutter door, or two, or three.

Wharfingers store, which has been opened out into the auditorium space, is being lovingly restored with the addition of a steel frame to help support the eventual roof and a lighting grid.

And the most dramatic addition to the theatre build so far has been design and construction of the auditorium’s steel frame which has been no mean feat. A challenge to our talented engineers, whose calculations extended to 189 sheets of data- that’s enough to stage a paper aeroplane competition for 17 football teams! (Something we’ve always wondered about).

The framework consists of 67 tonnes of steel which is the equivalent of 17 elephants, or 67,000 penguins, or 5.6 double decker buses (now we know!) And our steel story continues with the design of our balcony level and tech room currently underway which will hopefully be fitted towards the end of Joule’s Brewery’s outer-shell construction period.

In the meantime, the first bricks have been laid…