Communities Fund provided £1,090 of match funding
Sideshore Community Hub
Exmouth, United Kingdom
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Aim
Help us build a greener, more resilient Community Hub at Sideshore - a permanent home for community, wellbeing and climate action by the sea
Every coastal town needs a place where the community can gather.
For Exmouth, that place has become the small, imperfectly beautiful hut at Sideshore – our temporary Community Hub.
It was loaned to Sideshore Community for a year (we stretched it to two!) to find out what difference having a physical community space could make.
And it turns out: quite a lot!
People have talked, created, learned, healed, laughed, shared tea, argued kindly, tried new things, met new people and found a quiet sense of belonging in a world that can often feel too fast and too fractured.
In our little hut, we’ve seen thousands of moments that matter.
Children discovering Exmouth’s sea creatures for the first time. Adults learning how to read tides safely. Friends meeting through beach cleans and sea swims. Strangers becoming neighbours. People finding purpose through environmental action. Community groups finding a home. And people who felt alone finding somewhere they felt welcome.
But the temporary Hub was always just that – temporary.
The space now needs to return to retail, allowing more income from Sideshore to go towards paying off the original building loan. Once that loan is repaid, Sideshore will ultimately be handed over to the local authority for the long-term benefit of Exmouth.
So now we need to create a permanent home for the community.
A new Community Hub on the Mallow – the grass area to the west of the main Sideshore building. We already have planning permission.
It will be warm, accessible, energy-efficient and built to be resilient for the future: a year-round community space designed to use less energy and remain comfortable and affordable to run as our climate changes.
A place where wellbeing, creativity, nature connection and environmental education can sit side by side.
A place for schools to learn about the coast.
A place for community groups to meet.
A place for sea swimmers to gather.
A place to create, learn and share.
A place that anchors people to each other and to this stretch of coastline we all love.
But our ambition doesn’t stop at the walls of the Hub.
The Hub is the first step in a bigger vision for this part of Sideshore. While the money raised through this Crowdfunder will specifically support the energy-efficient and climate-resilient elements of the new Hub, our longer-term ambition extends beyond the building itself.
We want to transform the Mallow into a more exciting, welcoming and playful place to spend time - somewhere that invites people to stay, explore, meet each other and connect with nature. A village green by the sea.
Alongside the new Hub, our wider ambition is to create:
- Places to sit, meet and pause – welcoming seating areas for a coffee, a chat, a picnic or simply watching the world go by.
- Opportunities to play and explore – informal and imaginative play that gives children more reasons to climb, discover, create and enjoy being outdoors.
- Art and sculpture – bringing creativity and character to the Mallow, with opportunities to tell stories about Exmouth, our coastline and its wildlife.
- More nature – native and coastal planting to bring colour and life to the space while creating valuable habitat for insects, birds and other wildlife.
- Space for things to happen - outdoor workshops, environmental activities, performances, community events, our outdoor cinema and whatever else the community dreams up.
We don’t want to fill every patch of grass with ‘stuff’. We want to make the Mallow feel more alive - a beautiful, accessible community space with reasons to come, reasons to stay and reasons to come back.
We’ve already proven what’s possible with very little.
In its first year, the Community Hub has welcomed more than 4,700 individual users across 300+ bookings.
Research with the University of Exeter found that:
- 76% of visitors felt more connected to their community
- 72% took more environmental action
- 88% saw an improvement in their mental wellbeing
All that good work, in one small hut.
Imagine what we could do with a permanent home and an outdoor space designed for community, nature, creativity and connection.
This is about more than a building
The £20,000 raised through this Crowdfunder will have a very practical purpose: helping us create an energy-efficient, climate-resilient Community Hub that is comfortable, sustainable and affordable to run for years to come.
But what that investment makes possible is about much more than the building itself.
It’s about belonging.
It’s about creating a place built with love and purpose, where everyone - absolutely everyone - feels welcome.
The temporary Hub has shown us that people are looking for connection, meaning and community. Now we have the opportunity to create a permanent place that offers exactly that, every day, for years to come.
Together, the new Community Hub and the Mallow can become something much bigger than a building: a community space for everyone.
We have the planning permission. We have the experience. We know the community wants it.
What we don’t have is all the money we need to make it happen.
That’s where you come in.
Whether you donate, share the campaign, tell your friends or help us spread the word, you’ll be helping create something Exmouth can be proud of for generations to come.
An energy-efficient Community Hub, built for the future - and the first step towards an even greener, more welcoming and playful Mallow space.
Let’s build it together!
Financial Breakdown
The whole Community Hub project will cost around £150,000. But we're not asking the community to find all of it.
We're working to bring together grants, match funding, partnerships and other funding to make the full vision happen.
Our Crowdfunder target is £20,000 (together, community donations and match funding will make up this £20,000 Crowdfunder target).
Our £150k funding jigsaw
£10,000 – Community Crowdfunder
£10,000 – Match funding
£30,000 – Grant funding (being pursued)
£100,000 – Partners and other funding
What will the £20,000 specifically fund?
The £20,000 raised through this Crowdfunder will specifically fund energy-efficient and climate-resilient elements of the new Community Hub:
- £7,000 – enhanced floor, wall and roof insulation
- £6,000 – high-performance windows and external doors
- £5,000 – energy-efficient heating, hot-water and ventilation
- £2,000 – low-energy lighting, controls and energy monitoring
Total: £20,000
These measures will reduce heat loss and energy use, helping us create a Community Hub that is more energy-efficient, resilient and affordable to run.
As our climate changes, community spaces need to cope better with hotter summers, more extreme weather and changing temperatures, without becoming prohibitively expensive to heat, cool or operate. Better insulation, high-performance windows and doors, efficient heating and ventilation, and smarter energy controls will help keep the Hub comfortable and usable throughout the year while using less energy.
This will give our community a reliable, resilient and affordable year-round space, better equipped for changing conditions now and in the future.
The Hub will also provide a permanent base for environmental education and community climate action, giving local people, schools, groups and organisations a place to come together, learn, share skills and take practical action.
This means the investment won't just make the building itself more sustainable - it will help create a long-term community resource for building local awareness, resilience and action around climate change.
Wider funding will support the remaining build and fit-out of the new Hub.
FAQs
Where will the new Community Hub be?
The new Community Hub will be built on The Mallow, the green space beyond RISE at Sideshore. This means the Hub won’t just be a building - it will connect directly with the outdoor space, opening up more opportunities for community groups, activities, events and environmental projects across the wider Sideshore site.
What happens if you raise more than your £20,000 target?
That would be a brilliant problem to have! Any additional money raised will stay within the Community Hub project and help us deliver and enhance the new space - from the building and fit-out to the facilities, equipment and resources that will help make the Hub as useful, welcoming and sustainable as possible.
When will the new Hub open?
We’re aiming to move the project forward as quickly as we can once the funding is in place. As with any building project, the exact construction timetable will depend on factors including funding, permissions, procurement and the build itself. We hope it will be ready to use by the 2027 summer season.
We’ll keep our supporters updated as the project progresses and share key milestones along the way.
How do the Crowdfunder rewards work?
We’ve created a small number of special rewards as a thank you for supporting the campaign, from being among the first to have a cuppa in the new Hub to joining our Founding 100.
Each reward has a limited number available and rewards are not cumulative - you’ll receive the reward attached to the pledge you choose. Some rewards will take place during 2027 or once the new Hub is ready, so please check the individual reward description for the details and any conditions that apply.
Funding method
Keep what you raise – this project will receive all pledges made by 26th November 2026 at 10:00pm