Berwick-upon-Tweed, European Capital of Culture 2020?

Arts Council England recently announced the full extent of the 42% cut in funding the organisation has been left to deal with. Amongst the horrible, and in many cases heartbreaking, news of venues up and down the UK losing some if not all of their funding, a number of stories turned out to be at a happier end of the scale than expected. The story that stood out to me was that of The Maltings in Berwick-upon-Tweed. Not only because it’s my local, but because the venue’s funding has been raised a staggering 316%, from £42,144 for 2011-12, to £175,200 for the year 2012-2013.

This follows more recent good news for the seaside theatre, having just completed their new £93,000 Henry Travers Studio that opened last night, on budget and a day early. I had a peak at it a couple of days ago and the transformation is truly astounding.

It doesn't stop there, Lee Evans, one of the most popular British comedians around, has just announced a show there at the beginning of May. People queued from 5am for tickets, and they sold out in minutes. Rumor has it he even asked to come here. However, a lot more exciting for me (probably others too, the man is a hero of mine), the man behind Trigger Happy TV, World Shut Your Mouth and Dom Joly’s Happy Hour, Dom Joly, has also announced a show in June. That is, if his foot is back together and he manages to pull himself away from his day job sparring with the trolls of twitter (check out @domjoly, his daily battles are hilarious, and @domjolyscat is equally funny).

Even the Daily Star has picked up on the place, giving it column inches last Sunday when they heard about the Lee Evans ticket rush. Perhaps not exactly the paper you’d choose to attract more enthusiastic arts lovers, but all publicity is good publicity, right? Wrong, but that’s another story.

So what the hell is going on in this ridiculous little sleepy town? A couple of years back, Dr. Miles Gregory took the helm at The Maltings, and started bringing about the changes. Some people thought he was merely painting a house that had caught fire a long time ago, but he persevered along with his staff and the changes started to take hold. The whole place was refurbished, gold furnishings were stuck wherever there was space and a chandelier was hung. I trusted him. You know a man means business when he hangs a chandelier.

They set about bringing faces from the TV screen to Berwick. Jason Manford was first to arrive, and he’s been back twice. Did he really like it so much? Or maybe it was the cakes that the Daily Star mentioned? Or perhaps he had made friends with some of Berwick’s fine young ladies on twitter? Something brought him back anyways, and since then John Bishop, Reginald D. Hunter, Russell Kane, Rich Hall and many more behemoths of the comedy circuit have made the long journey up here. Eventually The Maltings and Berwick were getting some attention. Marvellous. Or perhaps not?

It seems some local royalties would like Berwick-upon-Tweed to stand still and become a working, living, breathing time capsule of sorts for the rest of Britain to look upon as some kind of novelty. History is history, we need to look to the future or this place will become a ghost town. These people cry out in outrage the second someone applies for planning permission. Last week, it was the plans for a new child’s play park that got the treatment. Not so long ago it was Asda and Tesco. I’m not the supermarkets’ biggest fan, but we got them and we had our lasagna sandwiches. Perhaps the kids will get a swing and slide they can merrily swing and slide on without having to worry about whether or not their tetanus boosters are up to date.

Look at the closest big cities, Edinburgh and Newcastle. The big players came, and the smaller thrive off the people who now come for miles only to realise the real heart and soul is amongst the original businesses, not the multi national chains.


Its clear to see culture and the arts can generate a healthier economy. Glasgow and Liverpool have strived since being named European Capital Of Culture in 1990 and 2008 respectively. And as far as culture goes, Berwick isn't quite in the league of these two yet, but it does already have a culture unlike any other you’ll find, and its moving forward fast. Just down the road from The Maltings, there’s The Barrels. A small pub under new management, it has a healthy passion for live music, and is bursting at the seems with character. Local bands such as Ditch Your Sidekicks and Espionage of The Loc play regularly, but punters are often treated to acts from afar too. Codeine’s Chris Brokaw and Karate’s Geoff Farina recently played a joint show down in the basement.

The Granary Gallery has just opened too, the first exhibition; a photographic narrative chronicling the transformation of the granary by Mark Irving, is wonderful. Head down and take a look if you can. Art is starting to appear on walls outside of galleries too; with some locals claiming street art giant Banksy paid a visit recently to pay homage to one of his heroes, L.S. Lowry. It was more than likely just a copycat artist, but the rumors won’t do any harm. Other artists are making their mark too with a host of stencil paintings popping up every now and then, adding to the character of the town's architecture. (Does anyone know anything about the stenciled penguins that appeared a while back? I can’t find anything at all on them. And I don't condone all graffiti, stencils more often than not look good, but ridiculously sprawling your name across the side of someone's gable end is not art, you oxygen thieving flesh waste).

With more funding The Maltings will without doubt continue to grow and improve under Dr Gregory, which will in turn attract more quality and more high profile acts. The future could be bright for Berwick, as long as we say yes a lot more. Who knows, it could even become known for the arts and culture it houses and develops, rather than for having the lowest average wage in the UK.