The Annex at The Old Vic

The Old Vic is renewing plans to redevelop 131 Waterloo Road, currently Hello Darling, into a thriving community-focused social and creative arts hub.

Planning permission and listed building consent were granted in 2015 for the site, and the majority of the scheme remains unchanged. RIBA Stirling Prize-winning architects, Haworth Tompkins, have been appointed to renew the plans and The Old Vic would like to invite you to a public consultation where we will be sharing plans for The Annex, a social and creative arts hub, adjacent to our world-class producing theatre.

The Old Vic Annex is a vibrant social hub which encompasses an empowering centre for inclusive education. This development is a unique opportunity to expand the footprint of The Old Vic and will include; a fun and vibrant café-workspace for people to come together, a learning centre to develop new skills, and a flexible studio space to offer a broader range of work and opportunities for audiences and artists.

It will have a huge impact on The Old Vic’s outreach and engagement work, enabling us to substantially expand our successful education and community programmes and — for the first time in our history — bring these programmes together within the walls of The Old Vic itself. These programmes engage all ages of our local community, improve prospects for all (through running projects that address inequalities and offering opportunities to get involved in creativity and culture), and offer more ways for everyone to have fun and be entertained at The Old Vic.

The Old Vic Annex development will make a strong contribution to the Waterloo and South Bank Public Realm Delivery Plan and helps deliver strategic priorities for our partners Southwark (Fairer Future) and Lambeth (Better, Fairer) Councils. Our goal is to ensure our Grade II* theatre is welcome to everyone, with fewer barriers. Despite all that we currently do, this goal is more difficult to achieve given the physical restraints of the existing building. This £14m project will also significantly upgrade our Back of House areas, improving our Stage Door and dressing rooms, and making the theatre more accessible and inclusive than it has ever been in its 203-year history.

We are also in the process of forming a steering group which will represent all areas of the community to engage with throughout the next two years during the build of The Annex.

If you are interested in being involved in a longer term commitment regarding the development of The Annex, please register your interest by emailing consultation@oldvictheatre.com.

Local residents, businesses, and other interested stakeholders were invited to attend public exhibition sessions on 03 and 11 Sep 2022. If you are interested in finding out more about the plans, please email consultation@oldvictheatre.com

The Annex project is generously supported by the Backstage Trust, Clore Duffield Foundation, the Mayor of London through the Good Growth Fund, and many other individuals, charitable trusts and corporate supporters. The project will be underwritten through an innovative cross-borough partnership between Lambeth and Southwark which will see each borough loan the theatre £3.75m.