St Luke's Theatre Has the Potential to be an Exciting Cultural Development for Bedford

Recently I attended Bedford School's event marking the next phase of its exciting project to convert the former St Luke's Church building on St Peter's Street into a brand new theatre for Bedford. The school hosted the awareness-raising event to mark the planning approval received for the project, with the focus now moving on to raising funds for the conversion and development of the theatre.

The project involves the renovation and conversion of the listed chapel into a 300-seat galleried courtyard theatre, and in addition to use for school productions it will be used for hire by local amateur groups, for professional touring productions and for local community groups. The prospect of this inspirational venue opening its doors to all to enjoy the performing arts in this town centre location is a very attractive one indeed for Bedford.

The new theatre will be a major boost for the arts in Bedford, with the amateur and professional theatre and other events enriching the cultural life of Bedford even further and bringing real benefits for the community. There is a lot going on culturally in Bedford at the moment, much of it thanks to volunteer and community groups in addition to the wider range of concerts and comedy shows at the Corn Exchange, for example.

We also have the new cafe/bar 'Number Thirteen' opening at the Corn Exchange, which promises to make an evening out there even more attractive for visitors. The completion of the redevelopment of The Higgins Bedford also draws nearer, and promises to be a major cultural draw for the town centre. I will come back to each of these items here on www.mayordave.org.uk in the near future.

For now, though, I want to wish Bedford School the very best in its efforts to deliver the exciting new St Luke's Theatre. It is a project that deserves to succeed, and has the potential to be an important part of an exciting cultural future for Bedford.