Arts & Culture \ Eastgate Theatre & Arts Centre, Peebles, Borders Region

The Eastgate Centre occupies a former church building constructed in 1871 in the centre of Peebles. The project accommodates an arts centre for the town, made up of a 250 seat auditorium, together with a rehearsal room (doubling as an exhibition space), the necessary ancillary accommodation of green room, changing rooms for artists, a small catering facility and cafe/bar and offices.

The design has been developed on the strong belief that the presence of the theatre should be evident from the exterior rather than simply discovered on the inside of an otherwise unchanged church exterior. The main 'ecclesiastical'; gothic facade remains virtually untouched but rather the side elevation is completely removed and substituted by a completely new entrance elevation displaying the theatre within. In this way the developing history of the building can be understood and both eras of its construction can sit in creative juxtaposition with each other.

Internally the theatre sits at first floor and is broadly proscenium with a degree of flexibility. The route to the theatre is visible through the facade and a fire escape triples as a porter bollard and the support for a new glazed canopy.

The project started on site in September 2002 and was completed in March 2004.