Lyric Hammersmith to open £15million pound teaching centre

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Teaching academy will be created above Mothercare in King Street

The Lyric Hammersmith is planning to build a £15 million education centre, which will be attached to the theatre and offer young people formal qualifications, such as the new Creative and Media Diploma.

The building will include a 60-seat cinema for filmmaking students, four large rehearsal studios including a dance studio with sprung floors, a computer suite, artists' greenroom and several smaller sound-proofed rehearsal and practice rooms.

The centre will be built next to the Lyric over Mothercare in King Street and next to the Ashcroft Estate. The new development will double the space currently occupied by the venue. If plans run to schedule, work on the centre will begin in 2010, with a view to it opening by the end of the following year.

The development has already been awarded £3 million from the Department for Children, Schools and Families. Concept designs and outline plans for the education centre have been created by Rick Mather Architects - the firm responsible for the current £60 million expansion and renovation of Oxford’s Ashmolean Museum.

Lyric Hammersmith executive director Jessica Hepburn told The Stage: “In west London, as well as there being pockets of affluence and privilege, we have got some of the most deprived [areas].

"The Lyric has always been at the forefront of developing work for young people with complex needs, and while we will be openly accessible to all young people, that will remain at the heart of what we do."

The theatre is planning offer qualifications ranging from the new Creative and Media Diplomas for 14 to 19-year-olds to GCSEs, A levels and BTEC national diplomas. These will be taught by professional artists as well as teachersteachers.

The venue will now be approaching Hammersmith and Fulham Council, Arts Council England, the London Development Agency and private donors for funding.

May 21, 2009