Dear Supporters,

We know we have been quiet for a while now, but please don’t mistake our silence for a lack of action! We thought we’d take this opportunity to give you a quick update of where everything now stands, but first here’s a speedy overview of how we’ve got to where we are:

In 2017 three theatre professionals got together to raise awareness of, and attempt to revoke Southwark Council’s decision to allow Harkers Studio to be turned into flats. It was a busy year for the campaign: we launched a co-working pilot programme; connected with new communities, from national amenity groups to local societies and arts organisations; ran an Instagram campaign with the support of high-profile individuals such as Dame Judi Dench and Sir Anthony Hopkins; were featured on BBC London news, BBC London radio, in The Stage and The Times; and saw our online petition reach almost 5,000 signatories.

Through all this activity, we were lucky enough to come across many wonderful people that were willing to share their time, advice and expertise. We finished the year with an event in the building to celebrate the site’s work and the generations of people who had passed through its doors. Little did we know that the online petition had not fallen on deaf ears, and that this event was not only a celebration of things past, but the spark of interest needed to ignite the next stage of the journey. The Culture and Creative Industries team at the Greater London Authority (GLA) were in attendance at the event, and since then we have worked closely with them to try and come to some sort of positive solution for the building.

In early 2018 the keys for Harkers Studio were handed back to the building’s owner. We knew that from that point on the road ahead would be harder. However, fuelled by the good will of our supporters and the efforts of the Mayor’s team for Culture and Creative Industries at the GLA, a dialogue began to be nurtured with the owner, and we felt there was a chance through these talks to work towards a positive outcome. These negotiations are still ongoing, and it’s for this reason you haven’t heard from us in a long while.

Two and a half years after we founded the campaign, we have come a long way and learned a lot – we’ve attended meetings, accumulated allies, published articles on scene painting then and now, and worked through a whole range of different business plans for the building. Our principal aim all along has been to retain Harkers Studio as a production site for the theatre and the arts, an ambition we ultimately still maintain. Our secondary aim, however, has been to raise awareness more broadly about the pressures on technical backstage theatre professionals and the marginalisation of arts practitioners across the capital. Thanks to all those that signed our petition, took a #SaveHarkersStudio selfie, read our articles or even simply shared our posts, we can say that we have most definitely achieved that aim, though of course there is always more work to be done…

We are incredibly grateful for all of your support and your enthusiasm for the campaign. How can you continue to help? Please keep talking about Harkers Studio via blogs and other social media outlets. All this helps to keep the pressure on and most importantly raises awareness, making the work that goes on behind the scenes visible!

Please know that we remain as committed as ever in trying to ensure this historic scene painting workshop is still used for its original and vital function, and we will continue to exhaust every possible avenue, keeping you updated on any further developments from here.