Redwing

We need to raise funds to revitalise our pop-up arts and community hub and  retain it for community use. 

Over the last 4 1/2 years Redwing, a volunteer-led not-for-profit, has temporarily transformed an old neglected building on the junction of Penzance's historic Bread Street and Wood Street into a vibrant community asset.

In the nineteenth century the building was a granite-walled open coal cellar serving  local businesses, including perhaps the nearby Great Western Railway. The adjoining building was a smoke house, a cottage, then a store and now our Community Printmaking Studio. Part of the site is built of traditional Cob.

In the early twentieth century, the walls of the coal store were built up and a roof added to create shop premises. Up until World War II the building was occupied by  Misses Rawle (Sisters) Sweets and Confectionary and by Opie's Photographic Studio. Later it became Knees department store and more recently it has been used as Bugsey Malone's restaurant and even more recently as a pet shop selling live animals and reptiles to the local community.  

Many people who visit the Redwing project have memories of the building in one of it's previous incarnations.

Sadly, in the last decade the building fell into neglect with damp, rot and worm damage and leaking skylights and lay empty for some time.

The staircase needs replacement.

Improving the attractiveness and productive use of the building would help revitalise and draw people through the area, which is a key objective for regeneration of Penzance town. We hope to secure the future of the building as a community asset.

Redwing's first Crowdfunder raised £20,000 towards our end target of £140,000 receiving support from local people, Arts Council England and the Santander Changemaker Fund.

This second Crowdfunder aims to build on this and establish a long-term base for the project and to care for this much-loved building.

Open evening in the upper gallery, below the timber framed roof.

Acoustic music in the gallery.

A block points to the building's historic use as a smoke house.

A traditional letterpress printing press in use in Redwing'sCommunity Printmaking Studio.

Traditional wood engraving tools in the studio.

This project has been approved for funding through the Heritage + The Crowd match funding. It will receive a top up of 50% towards its fundraising target from Heritage Lottery Fund.