no strangers here, just friends who haven't met

The London Borough of Bexley has appointed a new operator for the cinema at the award-winning Sidcup Storyteller, following a market testing and selection process managed by Place Culture. The 2021 DRDH-designed library–cinema–café recently won a 2025 RIBA National Award, putting it in contention for the Stirling Prize. With small cinemas adapting to new markets, the Storyteller shows how integrated cultural venues can embed deeply into their communities.

London’s busiest lending library is moving from the Churchill Building (1977) to the former Topshop on Bromley High Street, part of wider redevelopment with Galliard Group and Trafalgar Theatres. Designed with Ellis Williams Associates and Hannah Wehbeh, the new library blends lively retail-style spaces for families with quieter study zones, plus multi-use event stairs to make every visit an adventure. It’s about reclaiming libraries’ place on the high street and meeting modern expectations.

Social enterprise Lifeafterhummus supports 80 households, redistributes food to 11 hostels and a school, and mobilises 50 volunteers collecting surplus from 45 stores weekly. The initiative aligns with Camden’s Food Mission, bringing affordable, sustainable food directly into the heart of community services.

Place Culture has developed the business case and options for a 60,000 sq. ft. landmark public building on the former Derby Assembly Rooms site (damaged by fire in 2014). Working with Ion Developments, Vinci UK, and Derby City Council, the proposed hub combines a library, workspaces, event and exhibition halls, family facilities, and community spaces—wrapped with retail to support long-term viability. Targeting 750,000 visits annually, it aims to transform Derby’s Market Place and anchor the city’s wider Cultural Heart masterplan.

Wirral Borough Council has appointed DCA Design Consultants to create a strategic, future-proof architectural vision for the Floral Pavilion in New Brighton. The project will follow our plan to turn the venue into a multi-functional theatre, arts, and cultural hub—a dynamic, sustainable, and financially efficient community asset.

At Brabners’ Future of Retail & Placemaking Conference in Manchester, we argued that high streets must rediscover their role as safe, social “third places”—not just sites of commerce. Communities need spaces to connect, especially young people, without the price tag of a £5 coffee. Libraries, cultural venues, and co-created community hubs aren’t luxuries; they’re essential building blocks for thriving high streets and local economies.

Place Culture worked with Wirral Council to reimagine the Floral Pavilion as an integrated arts and community hub. By co-locating a new library, youth services, health, and social care alongside the theatre, the plan safeguards services, lifts footfall by 130,000 visits, and delivers £418k annual savings. Adopted in full by Wirral Council, the project underpins wider regeneration including 250 homes and a 90-bed hotel.

At the House of Lords launch of Baroness Liz Sanderson’s review, libraries were reframed as vital “third places”—not home, not work, but spaces of equality, safety, warmth, and community. The report calls for a national library brand and even a universal library card, making libraries more visible and impactful. Beyond books, libraries deliver jobs, connection, wellbeing, and resilience—pointful outcomes that matter locally as much as nationally.