Culture Palace brings together local cultural and creative enterprises in a 300sqm temporary hub, activating space at the heart of Palace Gardens Shopping Centre. For 12 months, this colourful meanwhile destination is home to a performance and exhibition space, museum and bookshop, as well as a café and activity areas. 

Where is the project located?
27/28 Palace Gardens Shopping CentreEnfield

EN2 6SN
 
Who is the developer/client of the project?
Enfield Council

In early 2020, D-P-Q were appointed by Enfield Council to develop a cultural strategy for the borough. This was followed by appointment by DWS to produce a cultural strategy for Palace Gardens and Palace Exchange Shopping Centres – located at the heart of Enfield Town – which were earmarked for high-density mixed-used development. Enfield is a large, diverse borough of stark contrasts – urban and natural environments, wealth and deprivation. With significant, fast-paced regeneration already underway in the area, this strategy aimed to ensure that permanent and temporary cultural activity formed part of these ongoing local changes, to support its many existing communities. 

When the pandemic struck, the development programme was put on hold and D-P-Q’s work was paused. The impact of Covid-19 on bricks-and-mortar retailers was felt throughout London, especially in retail-focused centres like Enfield Palace Gardens.

It was in this context that the idea behind Culture Palace emerged, and D-P-Q proposed a meanwhile activation for the shopping centre.

The project team identified benefits for the local authority - aligning with the Council’s strategic plan to deliver a temporary home for their arts centre and museum, as their main cultural hub, the Dugdale, was requisitioned for Covid-19 vaccinations - and the shopping centre, which was suffering empty units and hesitancy from shoppers to return to the high street.

Now, the transformation of this vacant retail space has resulted in a vibrant creative space that welcomes all the community, and pilots an innovative approach to diversifying away from retail-only offers.
 
Tell us what you did and how the project, event or installation enlivened the place in a creative way?

Culture Palace brings together local cultural and creative enterprises in a 300sqm temporary hub, activating space at the heart of Palace Gardens Shopping Centre. For 12 months from September 2021, this colourful meanwhile destination is home to a performance and exhibition space, museum and bookshop, as well as a café and activity areas. The project is part of D-P-Q’s wider Palace Pop-Ups initiative, which includes Field by Hive – a creative workshop space that sells handmade goods. 

D-P-Q’s role spanned building advocacy and securing permissions with the landlord, identifying tenants and broking leases, as well as project-managing the strip-out and designing the interiors. Alongside Stephen Barrett Studio, D-P-Q created an engaging graphic identity to complement Culture Palace’s design, inspired by Enfield’s heritage of grand houses and gardens.

Given the limited budget and timeframe, the innovation in the fit-out lies in its efficiency and flexibility. D-P-Q minimised modifications to the existing unit and delivered a key retail offer to avoid a change of use application. Focus was instead shifted to improving services and developing well-designed, cost-effective furniture.

While the design supports each enterprise’s requirements, from storage and interactive displays to workshop and screening spaces, this low-tech approach means that tenants can also reconfigure the space themselves. By becoming a catalyst for collaboration, Culture Palace has acted as a valuable testbed for Enfield’s future cultural endeavours.

The project broadens audiences and diversifies the town-centre’s offer with an uplifting venue where the community can unite - demonstrating culture’s role in reinventing the highstreet.

Please share any data or figures that support your entry, for example increased footfall, happiness surveys, event attendance and/or observed changes in behaviour. 

During its first 3 months, 13,000 people visited, ranging from passers-by, café visitors and book shoppers to those seeking arts activities. Over 1800 tickets were booked from film screenings to classes and cabaret, with many local creatives supporting the programme. 

The audience is diverse and ranges across all ages, helping the community to reconnect after months of being unable to. To ensure that Culture Palace is fully accessible, the venue is always open, with no doors or barriers to entry. Physical accessibility from the street is therefore excellent, and feedback from staff highlights how many more people are visiting this venue than its usual permanent home.

The response has been overwhelmingly positive, with local visitors commenting that Culture Palace is a place they “would never imagine we’d have in Enfield” and they “can’t believe we’ve got this on our doorstep”. Both the bookshop and Culture Palace programme have been praised by visitors for their inclusivity and diversity.

The project was shortlisted in the RIBAJ MacEwan Awards, where judges recognised that Culture Palace ‘demonstrates the importance of arts and culture in the recovery of the high street – address[ing] the problematic issue of highstreet shopping malls’ future uses.’

Culture Palace continues to be evaluated against its targets, ensuring that ongoing adjustments reflect visitor feedback. Having generated a significant uplift in footfall, it’s hoped that the project demonstrates the importance of inclusive, meanwhile spaces and raises expectations of what culture in Enfield can achieve, with a view to expanding this in future.
 
Did the project make a positive social and environmental contribution? Please provide any evidence or data to support this. 

Responding to Enfield Council’s focus on how ‘Culture Connects’, the project houses an ambitious number of local creative enterprises – going beyond short-term aspirations to build local capacity, offer talent a platform and give visitors many reasons to use Culture Palace. 

D-P-Q set out a ‘social value agreement’ for tenants which outlined a requirement for providing social benefit in exchange for peppercorn rent. This has guranteed free or low-cost cultural activities for everyone, while also prompting a unique place-based cultural programme within the centre. From its outset, Culture Palace’s welcoming presence has a created a safe, free-to-use space for all community members to spend time in, from hosting mother-and-baby classes and social groups for the elderly, to offering local children a quiet space to do homework.

Culture Palace’s positive social contribution is also highlighted in the Council’s aim to scale-up its offering and identity for their permanent arts centre. From an economic perspective, the project provides employment opportunities and improves footfall, benefiting surrounding businesses.

Culture Palace builds on the idea of finding resourceful ways of repurposing existing buildings - like this open-plan shop unit - to reduce its carbon footprint. With future-proofing in mind, emphasis was placed on designing modular furniture elements that can easily be relocated in future, rather than changing the building’s fabric, much of which was retained and reused. D-P-Q’s furniture is made from CNC-cut timber panels – a lower-carbon alternative to many other materials, that also allows for a reduction in material consumption and waste.
 
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“With Culture Palace we had enormous opportunity but limited resources. With D-P-Q we’ve been able to create an accessible, inviting, joyful space that pulls people in from across the busy shopping centre to discover all sorts of creative opportunity. The design is absolutely key to this, inviting people over the threshold and giving us incredible flexibility to switch between a children’s bookshop by day and cabaret venue by night, with knitting groups, storytime and art workshops in between. Only problem is it’s a meanwhile space – we want it to last forever!” 

Rebekah Polding

Head of Cultural Development, Enfield Council