New creative hub created in former city centre bank

A former bank in Leicester city centre is being transformed into a new creative hub for young people.

Pedestrian, a charity that provides education and training for people up to the age of 25 in challenging circumstances, is behind the project to convert the old Yorkshire Bank in Horsefair Street.

The building will house workshops, recording studios, as well as a community and gallery space, the charity said, with a hoped completion date of the end of March.

Charity CEO Hema Badger-Mistry said: "We want to be here to facilitate and support more emerging talent coming out of the city."

Pedestrian, which originally started in Northampton in 1998 and moved to Leicester in 2000, said it had supported more than 66,700 young people in that time.

Badger-Mistry said: "It's our 28th year and what we wanted was to have a permanent home for young people and create a hub, because it's so needed.

"When we renegotiated our lease, we were looking at properties and we were really lucky to get downstairs.

"We've fundraised all of last year to raise the £170,000 needed to create a welcoming space that is ground floor, it's accessible.

"It will have a community hub, it will have workshop spaces, it will have permanent recording studios, and at the back we will have a pop-up exhibition gallery space that young people can tell us how they want to use it."

The redevelopment was "very much a community project", Badger-Mistry added, with local people, companies and grants all contributing to the fundraising.

She said: "The whole idea is it's a safe space for young people, that they can come, they can take part in a positive activity.

"They can come and be around trusted adults and also develop career pathways, because the creative arts and the creative industries is the fastest growing industry in the whole of the UK."

The former bank vault in the building has been retained as part of the project, and Badger-Mistry said "the safe door is so impressive, so we're going to turn it into a feature".

"We'll have some young people either spray it, create some artwork, so it becomes a feature of the space," she added.

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