The Old Bakery Newhaven CIC

Aim

Help us bring in critical funds to open a beautiful, inclusive space in Newhaven to support wellbeing, creativity and community connection.

About me 

I'm Rori, the founder of The Old Bakery. I'm a yoga teacher and yoga therapist, and I've been teaching across the South East of England and Australia for over a decade.

I'm from the South Coast and moved to Newhaven when I returned to the UK during COVID after a long stint in Australia. I love Newhaven for its creative, grounded, and open-armed community spirit. However, there aren't many beautiful community spaces for us to gather, move, work, create and connect. 

Since moving here I've run a small community yoga group, and it has become something of a weekend staple. Many great friendships have been formed through it, and what I love is that people of all ages, abilities and backgrounds feel welcome to show up, get involved and stick on for coffee and chats afterwards. Class regular Celia Strainge  says it’s “genuinely supportive community where everyone is welcome and supported, whether it's your first class or 1000th.” 

How The Old Bakery got started

A couple of years ago, I went to a town planning workshop and built a model of my vision for the space at the time. Shortly afterwards, a friend introduced me to another new friend of hers who had found this beautiful space. Fast forward 18 months, after lots of research, chats, vision boards and grant applications, we're finally ready to raise funds and open it. We're lucky to have a very supportive landlord who is renovating the building, believes in the vision, shares our values and is ‘partner by intention’ in this.

What The Old Bakery is becoming

The Old Bakery will be a movement, wellbeing and creative community space across two floors on Butchers Lane. We're lucky to have this amazing space to work with...

Upstairs will be a yoga and therapeutic movement studio, with yoga, Pilates, dance, Tai Chi, Qi Gong and other movement practices. 

Downstairs will have a café, co-working space, bookable treatment and meeting rooms and a community event space where we'll hold a range of workshops, seminars, training, markets and more. Here's our vision...

From this blank canvas

Beyond offerings that help people connect and feel well, there will be targeted therapeutic offerings to support a range of health and well-being issues including nervous system, mental health, neurodiversity, isolation, ageing and physical and mental recovery from injury and illness. There will also be targeted offerings for children and teens.

Positive impact for people and planet

Our ambition is to be positive for both people and planet so the renovation is being done thoughtfully and sustainably, and our aim is to make the space carbon neutral. We've already committed to installing heat pumps, and solar panels will follow.

Although the vision started with me, it's been crafted with the input of the community at large (get involved by adding your ideas here). The idea being that this is a space for the community, by the community, with something here for everyone.

We're aiming to open the upstairs studio in late 2026, with a soft launch in November or December and full swing from January. Downstairs follows in Spring 2027, hopefully sooner if fundraising goes well. 

What this funding goes towards

This campaign is to get as much of the building setup as possible (equipment, sound, furnishing etc), with the priority being to open upstairs first. Your pledges matter for the whole building, because each part feeds the other: upstairs brings in the people and income that help downstairs come together. So every pledge helps the whole mission. It also helps with the funding behind it, because some of the grants we're applying for are matched against what the community raises.

Our plans are a starting point. We're running a community outreach campaign to find out what residents, practitioners and businesses want and need, and we'll use it to shape the future of The Old Bakery. Have your say. 

How access to the space will work

When we open, we'll have a range of memberships and passes, including:

• All-inclusive, unlimited access to the space - with free access to all spaces inc. movement, coworking and community space 
• Preferential rates on booking the treatment and meeting rooms for all members 
• Event passes for including workshops and seminars
• Low/no-income community access all inclusive pass
• Day access & drop in passes to particular classes, spaces, or events for visitors

Fair access for all

A core part of the mission is to make premium well-being, creativity, and community space available to everyone who wants and needs it, not just those who can afford it. Therefore, there will be a low/no-income access route provided, supported by grant funding and profits once we start generating them. 

Standard pricing is still being worked out, but as a nonprofit business, we're committing to delivering all of this for the lowest cost possible. In the meantime, there are some options below to bag yourself a bargain now. 

What we're offering in return for your pledges

Founding supporter status

Your pledges will help us get the space set up. In return, alongside a top-class space and a vision delivered, we'll record every donor as a founding supporter, listed on our website and in the space itself, a permanent record of the people who supported the birth of The Old Bakery. 

£50 at £50

If you pledge £50 or more, you can take an all access membership (inc. all classes, co-working and discounted space hire) for just £50 per month (at least 50% off standard rate). An absolute bargain! 

For businesses: boost your social impact and support your team

If you're a business looking to support us, please get in touch directly at [email protected]. The Old Bakery is a community interest company, and we're working to reduce our environmental impact. By supporting us, you're investing in your local community. We have sponsorship packages available, including:

• Pledge £500 and become a Founding Sponsor, included in promotional material and listed on our website.
• Pledge £1,000 and receive a custom Founding Partner package offering wellbeing services for your team, access to the space, and a lead sponsor listing in all our material.

We greatly appreciate donations, big and small. If you've got an idea about a different form of value exchange, please get in touch.

More about the therapeutic ambitions behind The Old Bakery

If you've made it this far, thank you for reading. One last thing I wanted to share was a bit about my backstory and how this has contributed to the mission for The Old Bakery.

Having first come to yoga as a teen, it’s given me so much through the years and it helped me get through some really difficult times. I have always dreamed of creating a space so I could share with others all the things that helped me so much. You can read more about my personal story here. 

Soon after becoming a teacher, I realised I was interested in the therapeutic application of yoga: how it can be used to treat and manage health issues, as well as being a way to stay fit and well. After extensive training and many years working one-to-one with clients, this is a key part of what I'm hoping to bring to life through The Old Bakery. We will offer targeted practices to support a range of health and mental health issues including nervous system dysregulation, depression and anxiety, recovering from trauma, addiction, living with neurodiversity, women’s health, perimenopause and menopause and a whole host of other things. You can read more about this on my personal yoga therapy website.

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Thanks for reading and for your pledges. We are beyond grateful and we can't wait to see you in the space 🙏

Funding method

Keep what you raise – this project will receive all pledges made by 15th November 2026 at 3:37pm