Metal has received the sad news that Peterborough City Council is terminating our building lease at Chauffeurs Cottage with short notice.
Our building is an important community hub and home to cultural organisations and freelancers running some of our city’s major and most-loved events including Eye Lantern parade, Millfield Festival, community plays River Lane and Dark Earth, and Harvest. Collectively, we’ve brought over £5.6 million into the local economy, worked with nearly 25k young people and communities, and created festivals, events and exhibitions enjoyed by nearly 1.4 million people.
We understand the challenges the council faces and welcome support for children’s services who will be housed in our building. There is room for both thriving children’s services and culture in our city. In the last ten years, Metal and the organisations based in our building have worked with thousands of children and young people and our future programmes involve addressing youth social isolation and supporting some of the city’s most vulnerable young people. Losing Peterborough’s creative hub, with no clear way forward, puts these programmes and the cultural life of our city at risk. We want to collaborate with the council to find a positive solution to secure the arts and culture that make our city a great place to live and to attract economic investment to Peterborough. We must do this together.
