The Quay Theatre is a Grade II listed building, built as a grain store in 1791. From 1981 it has been operating as an arts venue for the town of Sudbury and its surrounding towns and villages. As well as auditorium performances up to 6 times a week, covering live drama, music, film, live streamings, dance, lectures, children’s shows and comedy, it also supplies space for many organisations to run regular events during the day. It is a 3-storey building and the top floor houses a costume hire department and 3 evenings a week a 5* restaurant.
As we are a registered charity and a business with limited guarantee, they are constantly looking to ways of increasing income, especially as grants from local authorities are decreasing by 10% each year and will eventually stop.
As part of a process to investigate how they could improve income potential around the building, and also offer the professional facilities that our users expect in a successful venue, they  asked for help through Suffolk ProHelp.
Alan Wilkinson of KLH Architects offered his time and expertise over several meetings to offer ideas on the potential of the building and the land it sits on.Looking at various areas inside and outside of the Theatre, Alan came back with detailed drawings of improvements that could be made and additions that could encourage higher footfall and new business opportunities.
Through his ideas Quay Theatre are now looking at new innovative approaches to the possibilities on offer here, and, because his work was so detailed and covered so many aspects of improvements and refurbishments, they can look at applying for grants for work in a coherent manner, targeting specific areas or going for larger works as appropriate.
As part of the process, Alan also secured the free help of Quantity Surveyors, Castons, who gave us a precise and detailed breakdown of potential costs for every part of each job, allowing us to cherry-pick projects to fit around our busy theatre schedule.
Sharon Buckler Theatre Manager said, “The fact that we now have considered and professional plans in place will help us immeasurably with applying for funding for various improvements; something we would have struggled to afford without this fantastic service.  We are therefore indebted to Suffolk ProHelp and the people who offer their skills free of charge and will certainly be advising other organisations to use this portal to the benefit of all.”