Home page
  • Stage
    Stage
    • In Person
    • Archive
    • Tickets and Discounts
    • Gift Vouchers
    • OV Loyalty
  • Discover
    Discover
    • Artist Development
    • Community
    • Early Career
    • The Hub
    • Schools
  • Visit
    Visit
    • Cafe and Bar
    • OV Access
    • When You Visit In Person
  • Stories
    Stories
    • Stage
    • Discover
    • Announcements
  • About
    About
    • Our Mission and Values
    • The Annex
    • More About Us
    • Our Impact
    • Work With Us
  • Support
    Support
    • Donate
    • Membership
    • Corporate Partners
    • Trusts and Foundations
    • Old Vic Campaigns
    • Thanks
Donate Donate
Account
Basket
An artist sketch envisioning one of the indoor spaces of The Annex

The Annex at The Old Vic

Author Elizabeth Charlesworth

Published 23/08/2021

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.

 

 

Our vision

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.

A theatre building is a beacon of enlightenment, engagement, empathy. Every time a theatre closes or operates under par, we lose an opportunity to make the world better
Matthew Warchus, Artistic Director

Become a community steering group member

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.

Download the flyerDownload the flyer

Come and see our plans

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.

Read Next

Being An Old Vic Theatre Maker

As The Old Vic Theatre Makers 2021–22 wrap up their time with us, Agnieszka tells us about her experience of being of being an Old Vic Theatre Maker.  On Sunday 12th December, a group of people filed in to the Rehearsal Room at The Old Vic in London to watch a scratch performance created in the preceding week. It was the last day of the four-month Old Vic Theatre Makers programme and the second day of an intense devising and rehearsing weekend, and the people performing were those theatre makers.

Read now Read now
Previews Partner
Productions Partner
Reopening Partner
The Old Vic gratefully acknowledges support through the Culture Recovery Fund from Arts Council England
Principal Partner

Find us

The Old Vic, The Cut,London SE1 8NB

Contact us

box.office@oldvictheatre.com 0344 871 7628

Terms and conditions Privacy policy Cookies policy

The Old Vic Theatre Trust 2000 is a registered charity no. 1072590. Limited company registration no. 3667822. Registered offices: 103 The Cut, London, SE1 8NB Website by After Digital