Our story began 30 years ago when a group of visionary artists took over the empty space that used to be the Lord Palmerston Pub, an important site of community organising for decades, and turned it into Camden People’s Theatre.

That means we’ve been here since the release of Oasis’s first album, since Nelson Mandela became president of South Africa, since China first got connected to the internet. We’re as old as Amazon, The Lion King and the smartphone - but we’re not looking back, we’re looking forward, to an incredible year of activity in the space where artistic innovation meets local involvement meets engagement with the ‘now’.

Over the last 30 years, we have supported some of the nation’s most exciting emerging artists, delivered an annual programme of ground-breaking experimental work, and delivered extraordinary community projects made with and by our local residents.

Last year we supported 226 artists / companies to deliver 302 performances, we gave out 1356 hours of in-kind rehearsal space, and 60 of our artists received commissions. 72% of those artists were in the first 4 years of their career, and showed work to over 17,000 audience members. Though we’re one of the smallest theatres, we are one of the biggest emerging artist support hubs in the city.

We’re not just a building, we are a home for all of the artists and community members that engage with us. It's these individuals who make us what we are. We are proud of the way that we work with artists, but we know that its tougher than ever to sustain a career as an artist right now. So we’re determined to step up.

For our 30th birthday we don’t want gifts for ourselves, we want to support the artists and community members that make up the heart of our theatre. We’re aiming to raise £100k to expand and transform our programmes, so we’re ready to continue delivering groundbreaking work for the next 30 years.

We’re excited to announce that we’re already £40k into that target, with generous support from Foyle Foundation who have laid the foundations for our work to continue.

Here we're trying to raise a further £10k with the support of our trustees.