Ramsgate’s former WH Smith store in the High Street is to become the new home of Sugar Rush coffee shop and community venue and Stage Door Arts Academy.
The performing arts school and community café in the High Street is moving due to its current site being earmarked for demolition and redevelopment.
SDA and Sugar Rush, owned by Ramsgate mum Heidi Moran, initially launched a fundraiser to help with the costs of taking on the former HSBC site in the town but this became unviable after it received a Grade II listing.
Sugar Rush provides performance, rehearsal, meeting space, music and office rooms, hot desks, baby and children classes, community social groups and more.
The business and performance school has now got the green light to move into the former WH Smith’s building which closed last month.
Genevieve Pepper, from Sugar Rush, said: “We are so excited, it’s a great space. We are putting a theatre space in, more studios for classes and spaces for community events and performances.”
An update from Heidi and Genevieve (pictured) says: “We now have the go ahead to take over the former WHSmith building in Ramsgate High Street. This is great news and it will be a full community arts space- performing arts studios, workshop rooms, a community theatre/performance space, a coffee shop with performance space, meeting rooms, workspaces, a speakeasy/bar/ performance space with screening facilities for films and presentations, community room and much more.
“We had great success with all the fundraising up to now and we cannot thank everybody enough. We are now down to the last little bit of fundraising for the initial costs to get in and anything made in addition to this will go towards the refurbishment.
“We will be hosting some fundraising events and also selling off lots of the stock/furniture in the current building.”
WH Smith shut the Ramsgate branch after saying it had been “unable to trade viably” in the town.
Sugar Rush/Stage Door Arts is looking to raise around £1,500 to help with costs and the refurb to get the new premises open to the public.
