Help Us Fix The Old Courts

The Situation

The Old Courts building requires an urgent repair carrying out to get our music venue and theatre back open for gigs and performances. In 2023 we discovered catastrophic structural damage in our venue which we later found out was caused by construction work (during our most recent refurb to remove a safe) carried out by a third party. Since then our music venue, The Grand Vault and our Theatre have been closed awaiting repair work.

This is just a little insight in to the damage (there's much more and worse).

The Insurance Situation

Despite the fact that we were fully insured, our insurers deemed the damage to be caused by negligent practise on the part of the contractor as opposed to accidental damage. This means that we are having to pursue the construction company in court and have not yet received a single penny towards the repair work. Since the discovery of the damage, we have incurred significant financial losses of earnings. We’ve managed to survive this far but we need to take action now to try and get our venues repaired. Although we’re hopeful that the claim will be successful, it isn’t guaranteed, nor is the length of time it will take.

We Need Help

Aside from the fact that we are being denied the thing we love the most – bringing amazing shows and artists to Wigan and giving a platform to musicians and performers based here, as an organisation without the most significant levels of income we receive from live performances it’s no longer sustainable.

Over the years our venue has served as a hub for creativity, entertainment and community engagement. We need to save and re-instate the venue to once again provide memorable, valuable nights of culture for Wigan and to protect the future of The Old Courts for generations to come.

A Bit About What We Do and What We LOVE...

Since The Old Courts was founded in 2014 as a not for profit organisation (meaning every penny is reinvested into the arts, community and Wigan), we have hosted some incredible artists in The Grand Vault and Theatre. We’ve always done everything we can to help drive the Wigan music and arts scene forward and promote our town as a stop-off for bigger and bigger touring artists.

Who Has Performed at The Old Courts? 

We’ve been blessed to be around at a time when our borough is producing incredible bands who are having national and international success. We’re proud to have hosted The Lathums, Lottery Winners, Stanleys and all their contemporaries who are smashing it of late. In addition we have helped raise the profile in Wigan welcoming The Sugar Hill Gang, Stereo MCs, Red Rum Club, Wheatus, Bill Ryder-Jones, Roachford, Badly Drawn Boy, Dave McCabe, Ian Skelly, Bad Manners, John Power, Space, China Crisis, Republica, Eddi Reader, Peggy Seeger, Hue & Cry, Judge Jules, Graeme Park, Rowetta, Bez, Aziz Ibrahim, Steve Cradock, Wolfgang Flur, Don Letts and so so many more.

In Our Theatre

We have hosted some amazing theatre shows and events including Sir Ian McKellen, John Cooper Clarke, Shaun Ryder, Victoria Melody, Kid Carpet, Bouncers, Ad Infinitum and countless other great artists. We have hosted a successful pantomime, giving away 1000s of tickets each year to families who might not be able to afford to attend otherwise and during covid we toured the panto on the back of a truck around Wigan to reach you in the only way we could when people needed something to lift their spirits. We have placed artists in schools and colleges for free and have hosted many free wrap-around workshops and events for our audiences. We want to get back to doing all of this again. We miss it and we miss you!

Everything we have done over the last ten years has been geared towards promoting culture in Wigan for everyone but now we really need YOUR help.

We're More Than A Bar...

Aside from the amazing talent we have brought to our stages we have been there for our community. We have given away 7800 sessions of free space for community groups to run their groups and workshops as well as many that are heavily discounted. Currently we are home to: Wigan Autistic Theatre Company, Directions for Men, Age UK’s Over 50 Jammers, a Youth Choir and an Abstinence Group. Behind the scenes, we also offer support and advice for people with substance and alcohol problems and have helped many people turn their lives around. We are also still to this day making calls to residents who are isolated and lonely. Our door is always open to our community who walk through our doors.

In the last 10 years :

• 7236 events
• 826,551 audiences and participants
• 43,416 artists paid 
• 5220 days of free space give to artists to rehearse or develop work
• 2543 artists supported with advice or training
• Programmed many events for partners including Wigan Prides and Rotary Club Community Day
• Since Covid we have made thousands of phone calls to isolated residents - this is still continuing to this day
  
  

Now we really need your help! We can’t go on much longer with our main sources of income out of action. We miss performances and we miss our audiences so we are asking the whole of Wigan, and beyond to get behind us. When we started a music venue and arts centre in Wigan people thought we were mad! It certainly has been a massive rollercoaster and whilst it has always been difficult there have been thousands of moments of joy. The past 12 months though have been horrendous but our team has kept going because they all believe in what we are trying to achieve.

The Shortfall...

We were trying to raise £100,000 to contribute towards fixing our venues to get the doors back open again but this was an ambitious target, so we have revised our plan. Having spoken to Crowdfunder, they’ve suggested reducing the target. We had a think about this and consulted with our board and feel the best thing we can do to get back up and running is of course to continue to pursue the construction company’s insurance. 

The insurance company and their legal team have started to use some standard delay tactics which is a huge drain on our resources but we’re fighting on. If we can get to the new target of £10,000 this will massively support us in covering legal fees and extra resource needed to pursue the claim. We want nothing more than to reopen our doors to you all as soon as possible and this is the best option we have right now. We won’t give up and are confident that the construction company’s insurance will pay out, but we need your help to get there.

As we don’t have a timeframe for when we will reopen, we are still aiming for Autumn. We have decided the most sensible thing to do is to cancel and refund the October events as we don’t want to mess ticket holders around or the musicians who’ve kindly offered their time for free. These rewards will be refunded but if you you’d still like to help in another way, we have other rewards available. 

Whilst the raised funds are still going to be used to get us one step closer to fixing our venues we do understand if anyone would like a refund, please contact us. 

We are so much more than a venue to people; we are for the people. A hub of creativity and community spirit.  

For those who are unaware, the damage is limited to the Grand Vault and Theatre venues and our Court Room has remained unaffected and has continued to deliver commercial bookings such as parties and conferences. If you can’t donate, please consider booking our Court Room for your next event as the income will massively help us whilst we navigate this difficult period. 

THANK YOU.

Team OC x

FAQ's 

Is my wedding/party affected by this? 

No, we have reached out to all our venue hirers already. These take place in our Victorian Courtroom which is unaffected by the damage to the Theatre and Grand Vault. We are committed to ensuring all bookings will proceed as they have done since the damage was discovered.  

When will the Grand Vault and Theatre reopen? 

We're not sure at the moment as we need to raise funds for the repair and push the insurance claim through but we're hoping to reopen for autumn.