'We raised £870k to save crucial city arts hub'

A community has saved a "crucial" arts hub from being sold by raising £870,000 to buy it.

The campaign to save the former Summertown United Reformed Church on Banbury Road began last year after its owner announced plans to sell the building, which is widely used for dance classes, rehearsals and performances.

A group of users came together and formed Summertown Arts Community (SAC) and had just six months from January 2025 to put in a credible offer. Last month the sale was completed and SAC became the owners.

SAC trustee Darshan Sanghrajka, who led the fundraising campaign, said there is a lack of spaces for the arts in Oxford, adding: "This will be a community space forever."

The former church closed for worship in 2022 after 179 years. It was then announced that the building had passed to a new owner, the Wessex Synod Trust of the United Reform Church, which planned to sell it.

Founders of SAC, married couple Susie Crow and Peter Street, began to manage the space under a paid contract from the trust from August that year.

But after years of negotiations, it was announced in 2024 that the church would be put up for sale by the trust.

SAC, which registered as a charity last year, had previously registered the building as an Asset of Community Value, and under these terms the group had just six months from the end of January 2025 to put in an offer.

Sanghrajka, who hosts monthly comedy nights at SAC, said: "We got our bank account in May, and we got our Just Giving page approved at the beginning of June.

"At that point we had two months to raise £850,000 to rescue the space... we got together, we mapped out where, how to get people to believe in this thing because it was a crazy number."

Following 4,000 letters written by Sanghrajka, team fundraising events, community-led campaigning and some generous donations, SAC was able to put in an offer in July.

By December the charity had raised all of the money it needed, and a month later this total reached £870,000.

Philippa O'Connor, who lives in Summertown, said: "It means a lot to the community because look at the response, the fundraising was absolutely phenomenal.

"When Susie and Pete set out this ambition to buy it, I thought, oh my goodness, it's just such a big ask, but people came forward and contributed so it must mean a lot."

O'Connor attends Crow's ballet classes every Saturday.

"It takes me back to when I was 18 when I last did ballet.

"I suddenly feel years younger... it's incredible, it's really accessible on a monetary basis as well."

Helen Eastman is the chief executive and artistic director of Creation Theatre, which has used the space for rehearsals for the last few years.

She said: "There's such a shortage of rehearsal space in Oxford.

"This place has been an absolutely wonderful addition to the cultural map of the city.

"We need these spaces that bring everybody together joyfully to tell stories, to listen to music, whatever that might be.

"It feels incredibly important that we don't let those spaces go and we don't lose these spaces from communities."

Crow said the community response to the fundraiser was "amazing".

"There have been wonderful moments along when you suddenly realise people are getting behind this in a big way."

Street added: "We've lived it for the last four years and it's just fantastic to see that it's got to this stage and the dream is that we sit here comfortably and London actually starts coming to us, which is beginning to happen."

And there are big plans for the future, says Darshan: "We've saved the building, now we're bringing it to life."

SAC is aiming to raise a further £200,000 for refurbishments, with £74,000 raised in the last month.

He added: "It shows again how that community power keeps going."