Our Space
PRESENT: The Milk Bar
We are renting 11 St Nicholas Street from Bristol City Council on a short-term basis. We share the building with Simon Games. It’s an old Victorian shop and very tall and thin. The following rooms are spread out over four floors.
Shop Floor Making Space : for making, rehearsing sharing/showing and events. It contains: Walls you can stick things to and a floor you can spill things on as well as a dance floor that can be rolled when needs be. We are hoping to install a shelf for a projector, a blackboard, whiteboard, corkboard wall, a stereo and rigged speakers.
Upstairs Making Space : for Making, Rehearsing, Sharing/Showing. It contains the same things as the shop floor space but the floor is wooden and it’s a cleaner lighter and smaller space.
First Floor Working Room / Office for sharing coffee on the sofa, live art counselling, reading from the library, events and meetings. It’s also for “computer-based” work and other production activities. There is a Sofas, Shared Work Table, Wi-Fi, printer, copier, scanner, the Residence computer, shared stationery, storage (one shelf per company) and the Library.
Kitchen We like to provide food for our events and also need somewhere to prepare lunches and snacks. But the kitchen table is often the site of a solution or idea formation or impromtu advice session. It’s also a place to bump into the Simons from Simon games.
Storage Basement Residence members store their materials for making work. It’s easily accessible so that we can retrieve and return props etc when touring/performing and also so we can get what we need for rehearsals easily. There is a Shared Props, Costume and Equipment section as well as separate shelves to store your own props and materials.
Dry Storage An upstairs space for any archive paperwork and technical/sensitive equipment. It’s drier and also more accessible temporary storage for when we are working in the upstairs studio.
Toilet and Shower We’re glad of the shower – for any guests that might like to sleepover/camp at The Milk Bar for a night or two.
FUTURE: A Pub/Small Hotel/Old Theatre in Central Bristol
We are working towards creating a more sustainable future for Residence as we only have The Milk Bar on a short-term basis. We’re aware that we only operate when we can secure super-cheap rent. Our operation is not currently financially viable if we were not supported by the council or another organisation. We’d also like a more fit for purpose studio space – that is larger and gives us the opportunity to share work with a public audience (not as a venue) but as an open making space.
One idea for the future is to add a residential element to the project allowing artists performing in Bristol to stay at our space. With this in mind we’d want to add the following to our space. Outdoor Space for Events, Performance, Alternative (Summer) meeting and working space. Sleeping Space for Permanent Tenants and Guests. We could have sofa beds and dormitary style rooms so that we can accommodate small-scale theatre companies (who are used to that kind of intimacy!). We could combine our current office and kitchen space to create more opportunities for sharing and exchange. It is also economical in that it reduces the space we need and therefore overall project cost).
