The Dentist at 33 Chatsworth Road is a prominent corner property on a historic high street in Hackney. It was purchased in 2011 by the current owner who saw in the building’s aspect and location the potential for an intimate yet outward looking Arts Venue.
Between 2011 and 2018 it operated within the limitations presented by the building’s idiosyncracies to offer a diverse and engaging programme of events hosting exhibitions, sociological research, school groups, concerts, rehearsals and workshops.
In 2020 it’s perhaps most widely remembered as a music venue for it’s outdoor events for the weekly Chatsworth Road Market and, by music lovers across London and beyond, for it’s role in the founding of the Chatsworth Road Festival and the curation and production of the venue’s Dentist Stage at that event.
All of this activity has fed into a vision for the redevelopment of the property into a venue of greatly enhanced capacity and reach, and a sustainable model for trading as such. It’s general mission statement being
“to demystify, render visible and otherwise provide access to a wide range of music making and cultural practice and weave it into the fabric of everyday life…”
In 2020 a limited company Thirty Three and a Third was established to carry out the works and an updated brief was delivered to project architects Citizen’s Design Bureau who have produced costed schemes to meet the current project budget and proposals for more ambitious works that would require further finance.
Thirty Three and a Third Ltd are currently exploring sources of further investment and funding with a view to establishing the final scope of the first phase of works and submitting a scheme to planning by the end of the year.