Raise the Roof for Mr Shaw's House

Aim

In short.... We are raising money to fund the recent renovation of Mr Shaw’s House – our new creative business home with a difference.

In short

We are raising money to fund the recent renovation of our Mr Shaw’s House – our new creative business home with a difference.

Based on Sadler Gate, Mr Shaw’s House will be the go-to venue for our clothing range, DJ nights as well as events space and a location to showcase the talents of local creatives.

We’re a family business with a love for our city, with a vision to bring the high street back and make Sadler Gate the heart of Derby once again.

We believe in our vision.

We want to combine the best of retail by day – a unique experience of fashion retail, excellent coffee, quality snacks and drinks (yes, craft beers!) – and the coolest of bars by night… live music, good vibes, and more craft beers (there is a theme here!)

With three floors available, we can also offer pop-up shop space for local creative and craft businesses – something we would have jumped at during our early days – and regular office/studio hire.

We have put everything financially, physically and emotionally on the line for Mr Shaw’s House. We believe in it, and even though we explored every grant available we have been constantly told no:

“Too small”

“Too retail”

“Not innovative”

“Not creative”

But that’s not stopping us – with your help, we can fund the final stages of Mr Shaw’s House and get Sadler Gate buzzing once more

Our target is what we need to pay outstanding bills and help convert the upper floors.

We really do need your help. Running a small business is terrifying and lonely – but it can also be wonderful and inspiring. But it takes a village and we need your help to get us over the finish line.

Yes we have opened, starting 27th May, but bills are outstanding and this is why we need you.

And just so you know – in case you don’t – this is a family business. We are Karl, Emma, and our daughter Molly!  We really are putting our all into this – can you help us and be part of our future?

Our Story

We are the Shaw family – Karl, Emma, Molly and our Staffie, Doris.

For 15 years I (Karl) have been a graphic designer, running Silver Birch Creative in Derby. In 2016 I also created the Mr Shaw clothing brand, alongside hosting our ever-increasingly successful Reminisce House Music Nights, held at various independent venues across the city.

For years, my dream was to bring all this creativity together, and the dream started to become a reality when finally secured a pop-up shop in Sadler Gate in 2021.

Despite all the advice to the contrary that the high street is dead, we (Karl and Emma) staffed the popup shop, and realised that this was EXACTLY what we wanted to do.

So in 2022 we found the perfect shop… but it needed a lot of work

We have worked so hard since January 2023 to strip everything out and rebuild it into Mr Shaw’s House

We have :
Stripped plaster off the walls for damp proofing and re-plastered
Taken ceilings down and walls
Re-enforced the beams in the cellar
Replaced a small apex roof
Installed toilets
Decorated throughout
Installed new electrics and lighting
New plumping
Built and installed a bar area
Created a kitchen

During this time, our mortgage offer fell through, our valuation was no longer current, and we submitted two proposals for grant funding which were unsuccessful.

Time and time again our hopes were raised and dashed when we were told we didn’t meet the criteria.

How can an ambitious determined family, committed to creating change for a city and a high street, not be suitable for support?

We have seen other successful crowdfunders, and finally, with a little cajoling, we are asking you - our community - for your help.  

Our Idea

We need to raise £37,000 to cover all the costs incurred in completing Mr Shaw’s House, offering day retail, pop-up space, accessibility (disabled toilet), studio hire and a new evening offer to stimulate growth and encourage people to return to Sadler Gate.

Why we need you

Let’s be totally honest with you… we need your help because we haven’t enough money to cover all the costs involved in the renovation and to pay for everything we need to offer the pop-up space as well as the retail shop and night time space. 

We have tried time and time again to come up with ideas for things that we could do but sadly none of them have come to fruition. In truth, we are struggling. We have no idea what the future looks like but we are just trying to take things one day at a time and hold on for as long as we can.

Instead of giving up and going under, we thought we would try one last time and reach out to our community to ask for help.

How you can help

DONATE: Of course, you can help us by donating! We will be so grateful for every donation, however big or small, so if you can, please do. Even if it’s just the price of a cup of coffee, we would be so grateful – every action is so appreciated.

If you have donated, you can get a link to Mr Shaw’s House. Make sure that you opt in to get updates from us or share your info with us and we will be sure to send you the link.

REWARDS: If you would like more for your money then please check out our rewards down the side of this page. We are so grateful to the people who have donated a reward and we’re thrilled to be able to share these rewards with you!

SHARE: The more people who know what we’re doing, the better. We want to show everyone that we’re here, we’re still trying and we need your help. If you can share our campaign in any way then we will be forever grateful. Whether that’s online, on social media or just chatting to people about what we’re doing; it all makes such a huge difference to us.

ENGAGE: We’re on Twitter, Facebook, Instagram, we have our own website and you’ll find Karl on LinkedIn.

There are so many places you can see us talking about Mr Shaw’s House, various posts and pictures, sharing posts, watching videos, and making positive comments, will all help!

In the main, we spend most of our time online on Instagram but you’ll be able to spot us everywhere (for which we are sorry but not sorry – this really is the last chance for us, so we are going to be talking about this A LOT).

SEND POSITIVE VIBES: If you can’t do any of the above then please simply send us some good luck and share our story. We believe positivity is key and we’ve done our best to stay positive throughout this time, so good vibes are always welcome!

Mr Shaw’s House

If we hit our target and we are successful in raising £37k, we will be able to pay the remainder of the monies owed to trades, install our new disabled toilet (Planning permission dependant), finish the kitchen and hopefully afford to install our emergency exit staircase allowing us to then renovate and lease the third floor.

When you donate, be sure to opt-in to get updates from us and we’ll send you the latest information about Mr Shaw’s House, future gigs and offers.

In conclusion

We are so very, very mindful that times are tough, and we did start this journey with our eyes open.  We truly believed we would receive financial support from other spruces but to no avail. We have grafted, we’ve demolished, rebuilt, painted, filled 4 skips and every hour we have available has been spent in the shop.

We are so grateful for your help and feel very overwhelmed at the love and support we have received to date. We truly believe one final push and we will make it and we are determined to make you (and our city) proud, and be a brand to shout about from the rooftops.

If you have any questions or queries at all then please feel free to contact us through any of our social media pages or by emailing: [email protected]

Thank you so much for reading through this page and for supporting us. We can’t tell you how grateful we are! Please stick around and follow our journey and keep your fingers crossed that by the end of June we will have raised £37k and shortly after you will see Mr Shaw’s House offering regular gigs, pop-up opportunities and studio hire with a beautiful new accessible toilet to boot!

Thank you!

We are so proud to be part of the business and creative community in Derby, with so many wonderful people and we are so grateful for all the support.

Big love and thank you all

Karl, Emma, Molly & Doris

This project successfully funded on 30th June 2023