The Tobacco Factory is the last remaining part of the old W. D. & H. O. Wills tobacco factory site on Raleigh Road,

Southville, Bristol Southville is an inner city ward of Bristol, England, on the south bank of the River Avon northwest of Bedminster. Most of the area's houses were built in the late 19th and early 20th centuries for workers in the Bristol coal mining industry or ...

. It was saved from demolition by the architect and former mayor of the city George Ferguson and through his vision has become a model of

urban regeneration Urban renewal (also called urban regeneration in the United Kingdom and urban redevelopment in the United States) is a program of land redevelopment often used to address urban decay in cities. Urban renewal involves the clearing out of blighte ...

. It is now a multi-use building which houses animation and performing arts school, loft-style apartments, a café bar, offices and a theatre. Inspired by the Manchester Independents campaign, George Ferguson decided to launch a Bristol-based campaign from the Tobacco Factory, the purpose is to encourage the support and patronage of independent outlets and businesses to help redress the balance that has swung strongly in favour of the multiples at the expense of local character and enterprise. Business at the Tobacco Factory epitomises this, with home grown enterprises, such as Fanatic Design, CLIK.

History

The factory was built between 1898 and 1901 as 'Number 3 Factory' for W.D. & H.O. Wills. The building was used to process tobacco until 1985-6 when

Imperial Tobacco Imperial Brands plc (formerly Imperial Tobacco Group plc), is a British multinational tobacco company headquartered in Bristol, England. It is the world's fourth-largest international cigarette company measured by market share after Philip Mor ...

, which W.D & H.O. Wills had latterly been a part of, relocated production. The building fell into disrepair until 10 September 1993, when George Ferguson bought the building with the plan to regenerate it as a creative, mixed-use community building.

Tobacco Factory Theatre

Since the creation of the theatre space on the first floor in 1998, companies including

Show of Strength Theatre Company Show of Strength Theatre Company is a Bristol-based theatre company which has produced new and forgotten works since 1986 in a range of venues in Bristol and the South West. The company is funded by Arts Council England and Bristol City Council b ...

Shakespeare at the Tobacco Factory Shakespeare at the Tobacco Factory is a professional theatre company based at the Tobacco Factory in Bristol, England. It was founded by Andrew Hilton in 1999, with the initial aim of producing two Shakespeare plays between mid February and May ...

, the

Royal National Theatre The Royal National Theatre in London, commonly known as the National Theatre (NT), is one of the United Kingdom's three most prominent publicly funded performing arts venues, alongside the Royal Shakespeare Company and the Royal Opera House. I ...

and The Ministry of Entertainment have performed there as well as regular in house productions. The theatre is now recognised by Bristol City Council as a key arts provider. The theatre gained funding from the

Arts Council of England The arts are a very wide range of human practices of creative expression, storytelling and cultural participation. They encompass multiple diverse and plural modes of thinking, doing and being, in an extremely broad range of media. Both ...

for the first time in 2007. The current Artistic Director is Mike Tweddle, appointed in 2016.

The Café Bar

The Tobacco Factory Café Bar opened in November 2001, serving Mediterranean style food in a post-industrial setting. Regular music nights complement the theatre upstairs.

Sunday market

The Tobacco Factory also has every Sunday a market in their car park where stalls come to set up and sell fresh produce, including fish, fruit and vegetables but also takeaway meals and drinks. However, some stalls also sell practical things like scarfs and homemade soaps. Every week the stalls can change.

References

External links