Community Arts Venue Reborn

Community Arts Venue. Photo courtesy of LTB Showrooms

By Alison Manning

Coventry City Centre Arts Space, LTB Showrooms, which was forced to close its doors in February following the closure of the Litten Tree pub where it was located in the upstairs rooms, is due to reopen this weekend. The whole building was earmarked for demolition as part of the City Centre South redevelopment programme but, after negotiations with Coventry City Council, a free-use lease has been granted to enable the venue to continue to host exhibitions and music and arts events until the end of November. The additional good news is that the arts space can now expand into the space vacated by the pub and provide disabled access which it was unable to do previously due to the restrictions of the building.

Previously more than 15,000 people have visited LTB, with the work of hundreds or artists, musicians, actors and film makers being on show and promoted through it. It was set up with the aim of inspiring and showcasing local grassroots culture as a not-for-profit community venue, run and funded by local volunteers. The building has had many uses over the years but was originally constructed in 1910 as prestigious Showrooms for Rover Cars - who had their large factory to the rear.

Alan Denyer, who runs LTB said, “This is such great news for the community – the closure of the pub back in February meant the Showrooms had to vacate – but we reached out to the Council about LTB taking over the building, and they’ve been really supportive.

The venue is now open every day noon - 4pm. Photo courtesy of LTB.

“LTB is funded by local volunteers and supports local arts with free exhibition space. Visitors love the ever-changing mix of local arts, music, heritage and culture on show around this interesting old building, so it’s great to be opening again. We’ve also now been able to include the ex-pub ground floor space too, which is really exciting as it gives us some great new exhibition areas, with disabled access.

“The ‘meanwhile-use’ lease gives us time to search for a new home and continue with our daily 12 to 4pm openings to the public. We’ll also be able to add to the exciting programme of culture events that we’ve delivered here since August 2021.”

The community arts space at LTB, on Warwick Row in Coventry City Centre reopened at midday on Saturday 13 May and is now open every day from 12 noon till 4pm, and probably at other times for events, until 30 November 2023.