Feature
The dance company rehearsing in an empty department store
Closed shops are the cheapest large rooms left in most city centres. Performers are moving in, on a lease that ends the day a tenant is found.
Cities & climate reporter
6 min read
Rehearsal on the former menswear floor. The mirrors came with the building.
The escalators have not moved in two years. On the first floor, where the menswear department used to be, eleven dancers are counting to eight.
The company pays less for the whole floor than it did for a studio a quarter of the size.
Meanwhile use
Landlords call it meanwhile use: a short lease at a token rent that keeps the lights on and the insurance valid while the building waits for a buyer. For performers it means space they could never otherwise afford.
We have a sprung floor made of shop fittings and the best changing rooms in the city.
The catch is notice. Most agreements can be ended in thirty days, and two companies we spoke to have moved three times in a year.
From stopgap to policy
Some councils now broker the deals themselves and waive business rates for cultural tenants. It costs little, and an occupied building is less likely to be vandalised than an empty one.
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Priya Raman
Cities & climate reporter
Priya reports on cities, heat and the infrastructure we will need to live with both.
