The Stage

Exclusive: Shunt seeks to transform former cigar warehouse into new London theatre venue

Published Wednesday 18 February 2009 at 11:50 by Lalayn Baluch

Experimental theatre company Shunt is laying down plans to transform a former cigar warehouse in London into a new performance space.

The company has leased the disused building - which is located close to its base in the vaults of London Bridge station - from owner Sellar Properties and has submitted a planning application to Southwark Council to change the use of the site to a theatre.

Shunt became one of Arts Council England’s regularly funded organisations last February and was awarded a £446,850 grant over three years.

According to its chief executive Philip Lloyd, the building will provide a second space for the company to perform in and will house a new large-scale, site-specific production, which he hopes will run from May this year.

Speaking to The Stage, Lloyd said: “Shunt has run the Shunt Lounge at its London Bridge headquarters for the last two years and hasn’t presented a company show since Amato Saltone 2006, which followed the success and acclaim of Tropicana 2005.

“The acquisition of this second building allows the popular Lounge programme to continue uninterrupted, while presenting a large-scale, site-specific Shunt theatre production just 200 metres away on Bermondsey Street. The show will run from May 2009 to January 2010.”

He explained that the company could extend the lease by a further year and present another show on the Bermondsey Street site from spring 2010.

Lloyd added: “All I can say at the moment regarding the subject and themes of the piece is that it will explore the nature of money.”

The planning application reveals that the company intends to present shows from Tuesday to Saturday through the week, to a maximum 250-strong audience - the building itself holds a total of 300 people. Shunt would employ up to 30 members of staff for each theatre performance.

The Bermondsey Street site was constructed as a cigar warehouse 20 years ago and for the last ten years has been used as a backup facility for the International Petroleum Exchange. Shunt will receive Southwark Council’s final decision on the building’s change of use by mid-March.

Next month, the theatre company will also find out if its bid to be the cultural resident within the proposed One Tower Bridge development has been successful.

Shunt is up against competition from the British Empire and Commonwealth Museum, Sportworld, the British Sport Museum and an anonymous bidder.