Anniversaries of Cultural Quarter business hubs include 20 years of LCB Depot, 15 years of Phoenix Leicester and 10 years of Makers Yard.
Leicester is celebrating some major anniversaries for the city’s cultural venues in 2024. LCB Depot is celebrating 20 years of being Leicester’s creative hub, Makers Yard is 10 years old this year and Phoenix Leicester turns 15. LCB Depot – which is the flagship of the city’s LCB Workspace brand – is 20 years old this year.
LCB Depot is a creative industries business organisation, known nationally as a Creative Hub. Providing workspace in four buildings across three sites in the city’s Cultural Quarter, LCB is home to over 150 businesses, four publicly available meeting rooms, with a busy and vibrant events and exhibitions programme with an audience of over 20,000 per year. LCB Depot is also home to the renowned Last Friday monthly street food and the hugely popular arts evenings. LCB Depot is planning a programme of event for October 2024 when it turns 20. See lcbdepot.co.uk/lcb20 for more details.
Makers Yard is an award-winning, dynamic and inspiring workspace for creative entrepreneur artists, makers and artisans. Located in Leicester’s cultural quarter, this listed building is the oldest surviving hosiery factory in the East Midlands. Lovingly restored, Makers Yard offers both a range of dedicated single let studios and shared space for smaller enterprises.
It has also been 15 years since the workspace above Phoenix – Leicester’s centre for independent cinema, art and digital culture – was established. Now known as Phoenix Workspace, it offers 30 workspace studios across three floors above the Phoenix Cinema. Phoenix has been in its current location since 2009, but its history in Leicester stretches back over 50 years.
A new workspace – Pilot House – is due to open in April 2025 in the city, offering workspaces, BL / Bays, P Box membership and flexible working in the café area.
James Burkmar, Workspace Manager at LCB Depot said: “LCB Depot was ahead of the field nationally as one of two or three creative industries hubs and business centres in the UK. “Now, after 20 years, it’s clear that LCB Depot has become a valued and valuable destination celebrating the creative industries. Whether as one of our 150+ businesses in residence or as someone from the city and beyond attending one of our exhibitions, events or networking, LCB Depot is a true success story whose opinion is sought from across the country by those who wish to learn from our journey.”
Matt Holt, Dir MGL Media & Spoon Jar Films at LCB Depot commented: “I moved into the LCB Depot in 2004, even before the locks had been fitted to our door. The video industry was changing with YouTube, broadband and a move away from tape to digital, and my business idea was taking advantage of that progress. Affordable units for creatives were exactly what the city needed back then, maybe even more so today. Creatives are not primarily business people. They are full of ideas but not necessarily great with paperwork and detail. I remember it being very easy to get in and get going. Having a safe place that brings businesses together has created so many success stories.
“I have gone on to meet and work with many of my heroes of TV and film, all because of the small unit I was able to rent back in 2004. We’ve stayed at LCB for 20 years and we’ve grown with it. We’ve worked with other tenants and neighbours here but also travelled the world with work. We’ve had adventures in filmmaking that I wouldn’t have thought possible from a base in Leicester, certainly when all of my peers were leaving for London, Manchester and Bristol back in the early 2000s.
“I wanted to stay where my friends and family were, a place I could walk to work and not have the stresses and strains of a long commute, but make films as good as the Soho companies. Leicester is now a home of many creative businesses and with the right support and investment, I imagine the next 20 years will make a lot more dreams come true for new creative minds.”
Giulia Mio, Giulia Mio Millinery at Makers Yard, added: “The invaluable benefit of having flexible workspaces at the heart of the Cultural Quarter is undeniable. Leicester Cultural Quarter has been benefiting from our passionate, creative community (LCB Depot, Makers Yard, and Phoenix) through open days, exhibitions, talks, and markets. These events have engaged the public’s curiosity in Leicester’s creative businesses, showcasing the diversity and quality of what we can offer.
“The ideal location, close to the city centre and the train station, has given us a perfect spot both for meeting the locals and people travelling from outside Leicester. Having so much talent, creativity, and innovation concentrated in one single area is the perfect recipe for boosting Leicester’s chances of becoming the cultural hub for the East Midlands and beyond.”
Mike Dalzell, Director of Tourism, Culture and Investment at Leicester City Council explained: “The past 20 years has seen enormous investment by the City Council to create bespoke workspace for creative industries across the Cultural Quarter. That generated momentum across the sector and assisted countless businesses to become established and grow. This is an opportunity to celebrate success and be excited about 2025 when 60,000 sq ft of new space will become available at the Pilot House complex in King Street, further boosting Leicester’s creative design sector.”