Boom Studios has expanded into a historic 1800s building on the town’s High Street, a move that matters to building and architecture professionals because it returns a long-vacant town-centre property to use through an operator-led reuse model.

The building is believed to have been largely vacant for almost two decades, and local accounts suggest the Neil family built it as a hotel for missionaries, with later uses including a youth club, a baby clinic and a meeting space.

Boom Studios, a registered charity and social enterprise running artist workspace in Bangor, Co Down, Northern Ireland.

The building is Boom Studios’ fourth building, taking the group to 46 workspaces, with nearly 60 in Bangor in total, according to the report.

Marianne Kennerley, studio director at Boom Studios, said: “We wanted to provide a space that was accessible and affordable and had the least number of barriers in front of people.”

The group also works with Seacourt Print Workshop and the Courthouse so that arts efforts are complementary rather than competitive.

The structural driver is public investment in art-led regeneration around Bangor, with Communities Minister Gordon Lyons, according to Ards and North Down Borough Council, backing three art installations in March 2024 alongside the Queen’s Parade development and the council’s Bangor Waterfront City Deal project.

For the sector, the timing matters because the reuse model is not new in the town, with a directory listing of Boom Studios noting that it took over a vacant town-centre building in December 2014 and describing the benefit to Bangor’s town-centre regeneration.

The broader implication for the sector is that charity-led workspace operators are becoming a recurring tenant type for older high street buildings, giving architects and contractors steady, small-scale conversion work when owners cannot find conventional occupiers.

Source: The Irish News / Ards and North Down Borough Council / Glartent