Beer money

From our base on Newcastle's Quayside, Live Theatre creates and performs new plays, finds and develops creative talent and unlocks the potential of young people. In 2013 we celebrate 40 years of creating plays. We are always seeking innovative ways to generate income and one of our ‘social enterprises’ is the Broad Chare pub which opened in May 2011.

While it has been a significant investment for us in the region of £400,000, we are now seeing returns of £80,000 to £100,000 each year

Located next door at 25b Broad Chare, just off Newcastle’s bustling Quayside, the pub is housed over two floors. It has an intimate feel incorporating dark colours, subdued lighting and cosy corners. A traditional-style bar downstairs serves ales and craft beers, including its own beer called Writer’s Block, and bar snacks. Upstairs the dining room seats up to 50 diners. The food is sourced as regionally as possible, and everything from pork pies to steak and kidney pudding is produced in-house from local ingredients.

We promote the pub in our printed and online marketing, encouraging audiences and visiting companies to visit. Likewise, the Broad Chare promotes our events with posters and beer mats and joint cross-promotions about pre- and post-theatre meals and drinks, ensuring a flow of customers between the two venues and awareness of the relationship.

The Broad Chare redevelopment was supported by a proportion (28%) of an Arts Council England (ACE) Sustain Fund award of £923,000 that we received in 2009, the majority of which was to deal with the issues related to the recession such as falls in earned income and fundraising over that period. (The Sustain Fund was ACE’s response to the impact of the recession on arts organisations. Open between 2009 and 2010 its aim was to help arts organisations maintain artistic excellence and to continue to work confidently through the economic downturn.) The Sustain Fund grant for the Broad Chare was matched by loans from the Esmée Fairbairn Foundation and Venturesome (both innovative investors in social enterprises).

The Broad Chare is our third project with Terry Laybourne and his 21 Hospitality Group. We have enjoyed a long and fruitful relationship with him, and his modern Italian restaurant Caffé Vivo already occupies another ground floor building within our complex. While the asset belongs to Live Theatre, the management is completely run by Terry Laybourne, with the theatre receiving a significant percentage of the pub’s turnover. While it has been a significant investment for us in the region of £400,000, we are now seeing returns of £80,000 to £100,000 each year, which we use to develop new plays and support creative talent and young people.

Other social enterprises
‘Introduction to Playwrighting’, our second social enterprise, is an online version of a course developed at the same time as the Broad Chare, using £100,000 of the same ACE Sustain funding. The website offers a straightforward step-by-step guide to the craft of playwriting drawing on our experience of supporting writers and producing new plays. It has just passed its second birthday and has attracted aspiring playwrights from across the world including China, Canada and Denmark.

The third social enterprise, The Schoolhouse, has just been completed and is a new creative and digital hub for small and medium-sized businesses. In Trinity Court, it is part of our complex of listed buildings. It will provide high-quality office space for creative and digital businesses to rent on flexible terms. Its redevelopment has been supported through the European Regional Development Fund (ERDF) 2007−13 and ACE.

LiveWorks is at the design and fundraising stage and will eventually create a long-term endowment and asset for the charity. It combines existing buildings and a new build, a quayside park, and a writer‘s centre for young people. It is currently part way through the process of an ERDF application.

Jim Beirne is Chief Executive of Live Theatre.
www.live.org.uk
www.thebroadchare.co.uk