#6 Deeper Into Outer Space | Wharf Chambers
The Leeds-based community space on surviving Covid and keeping the doors open in the city centre…
From hosting Dirt Dykes, a party for queer people and marginalised genders to Booty Shakin Bestiez, a DJ collective playing trance, hardcore, donk, and gabba, Wharf Chambers in Leeds is a community space beating with an eclectic, colourful heart.
Amid a shiny Northern city, and built around the mantra of ‘Leeds Live it Love it’, the space has been in situ for years and continues to live like an oasis of authenticity and integrity in the centre.
“Despite being right round the corner from the oldest street in Leeds, the area we're in has been pretty neglected,” says Eleanor, Wharf Chambers co-op member.
“The indicators of gentrification are starting to show, but thankfully there's still a distinct lack of polish, something which I hope continues for a long time.”
Introducing Wharf Chambers
So what is Wharf Chambers? And why is it such a special space in Leeds’ creative culture?
The Chambers is a bar and multi-use venue in the centre the city run by a co-op in partnership with a members’ club. Alongside parties from the likes of Love Muscle and Dirt Dykes, a glut of spoken word events, gigs and fundraisers sit in an eclectic programme offering a range of cultural vibes to their audiences.
All activity is governed by a Safer Spaces Agreement, which is “committed to creating an environment in which we prioritise each others’ safety and harmful or marginalising behaviour is not tolerated”. Great effort has been invested into making Wharf Chambers as inclusive as possible with the space born out of the Common Place, a community project organised in the same building.
“We did benefit from some of that continuity of being there, plus goodwill from our landlords,” Eleanor explains. “I was involved right at the end of the Common Place's life and some other founder Wharf people put on events. It could be a great space but suffered from being entirely volunteer-run.”
The Common Place came to an end in 2011 and since discussions were already under way about a new project, Wharf Chambers was brought to life quickly utilising a slightly different model. Eleanor says:
“The idea was to have a small, closed, paid group of people who could make a viable living from the project. They were empowered to make decisions for themselves about how they worked.”
Community Appeal
Much of the outreach work undertaken by Wharf Chambers takes place through its event programming.
Being in the city centre means there are an array of different communities that the collective needs to appeal to rather than just local residents.
“In terms of other communities, we hope that by encouraging particular kinds of events, people who need those events will come,” says Eleanor. “We're particularly keen on supporting events that welcome people who are queer and/ or of colour, and musical experimentality is also a priority too.”
The infrastructure of Wharf Chambers means the space, like other similar entities, relies on its event programming to fund its activities. When Covid-19 arrived, the venue was forced to shut its doors to comply with the restrictions.
“It wasn’t until Covid that we received any grant funding,” reveals Eleanor. “We had run a couple of fundraisers in the early days (once to pay for some better seating!) but otherwise our income has been solely from bar sales, with room hire going towards paying for sound engineer fees.”
Since this period in Wharf Chambers’ lifespan, the venue was able to benefit from Arts Council funding to get through the challenges of the pandemic.
“Rather than use this just for overheads, though, we've prioritised being more proactive about the events we book in,” says Eleanor.
“It’s something our club membership has often requested, so that we can build a greater diversity of performers and audiences.”
Wharf Chambers: Challenges and Future
With Covid’s shadow lingering, there are still myriad challenges for community groups to face. A lack of funding and reliance on the goodwill of members and employees as a resource is one large hurdle Wharf Chambers has to battle.
“There have of course been money concerns over the years, which thankfully we have weathered thus far,” Eleanor says. “Overall though, I would say the biggest ongoing difficulty is staff burnout. Despite our best efforts, the nature of the way we're structured and the ambition of the project involves a lot of responsibility and emotional labour. We're putting a lot of energy into developing better staff support systems which we hope will address this in the medium- to long-term but there's no easy fix.”
Ever since the Chambers’ first licence, which Eleanor deemed as restrictive, the collective has worked to garner support amid the authorities.
“We experienced some bumps in the road reapplying for the licence,” she admits. “However, that meant that we had to have a hearing where council members could hear the letters of support people had written.
“We do now have a licence that is flexible enough for us to work with, including late opening, and we seem to have a good reputation with the council as somewhere where trouble is rare.”
The rest of the year at Wharf Chambers looks suitably exciting. A Pride party is scheduled for August and Gbosa, an anti-colonial music collective, will be landing in September.
“We are looking forward to being able to support new projects with some recent funding received,” says Eleanor. “Although we don't yet know what though!”
Visit wharfchambers.org for more information.