Meet the organisation turning vacant high street buildings into thriving communities

In March 2022, CHIp, celebrating its 3rd birthday this month, opened the doors to the CHIp Hub at 47 St Nicholas Street, in The Saints. Housed in an old wonky building in the proximity of Wolsey’s birth place, CHIp is a community living room.

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They facilitate various events, groups, and workshops, covering topics and purposes ranging from writers' groups to art classes, gaming tournaments, a film club, and even a repair cafe. The kettle is always on, and a warm welcome is assured.

The CHIp Hub also provides affordable space for creatives to sell their handmade wares. Rent a shelf, an easel, or a rail. Take your first steps into a creative career or expand your growing offer to a wider public audience.

It is a welcoming hub of creative activity, and an eclectic shop full of high-quality local arts and crafts. Perfect for unique, locally-made, gifts you’ll never find anywhere else.

Expanding to Turret Lane

Just around the corner, they have recently taken over 16 Turret Lane, an old industrial unit transformed into an art studio. Ipswich has sorely lacked affordable art studio space in the town centre, so this is a vital and timely expansion.

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The Turret Lane Studio will support and enable emerging creatives to develop their work at a price that ensures the widest possible access. Its members include filmmakers, musicians, poets, writers, fashion designers, and visual artists.

Origin story

The movement to create CHIp grew from the sudden loss of another beloved community space, La Tour Cycle Cafe, on the waterfront, six years ago. The building was an industrial shell, but the concrete walls and floors were quickly covered with rugs.

Mismatched furniture and artwork were displayed on every surface. People loved this community-driven space's authenticity, inclusion, and collective kindness. When its doors sadly closed for the last time in 2019, its absence was greatly missed.

In true Ipswich spirit, people saw a problem and decided to fix it. They organised. Meetings were held, and people shared their varying needs. Artists, creatives, musicians, poets, traders, makers, and community activists gathered. Volunteers offered their time, and a committee was formed. Several years later, it grew into what we now call Community Hub Ipswich.

Meet the team

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Ed Ngai, a writer and creative producer, is an enduring member of that committee and one of the three directors today.

The second director is local artist Chris Turland, a painter who makes canal art, a form of traditional visual storytelling using household objects as a canvas.

Their newest and youngest Director is Suzanne Chung, a (fan)zine maker and creative writer, whose passion for good admin means she always has a stapler in her pocket.

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Volunteer-led and community driven, CHIp are an organisation that puts people at the heart of its work. As Suzanne told me, they are here to listen to what people want, and support those aims. They offer a broad programme of groups and events, and welcome everyone through their doors.

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On a mission to bring people back to the town centre

CHIp's mission has always been guided by the people who got involved, and it is this people-centred approach that has seen them bring people back to the town centre.

One of the founding drives behind CHIp was to take over empty shops on the high street and breathe new life into long-vacant buildings.

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One visit to either the St Nicholas Hub or the Turret Lane Studio will convince you that they have made incredible progress on their admirable goals.

Another aim has been to create more things that would bring people into the town centre. CHIp has always been a way of thinking a bit more laterally about how to solve that problem. As we all know, people stay in and buy stuff online and don't go out to shop as much anymore.

"CHIp is a place where people can go because they want to, because there's a cool event on, or to meet like-minded people. It's bringing back a sense of community, back into the town centre, which was what originally was meant to be," said Founder Ed Ngai

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Memories from CHIp:

As CHIp celebrates its third birthday this month, one vivid moment that stands out took place at a youth event in the St Nicholas Hub, supported by the Wolsey 550 project. Ed remembers young people and OAPs spontaneously dancing together. They didn’t know each other, it just happened organically. This joyous, intergenerational celebration with a shared sense of belonging.

Future plans

Their popular daytime programme of (mostly) free activities at the St Nicholas Street Hub will be complemented by more evening events at both locations. Again, these events will span a wide range of interests, including local history talks, screen writing, spoken word, and experimental film.

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While currently known for their creative endeavours, CHIp plans to serve other parts of the community. They are exploring a collaboration with a local business to offer cooking classes. Each one will be led by people sharing their favourite family recipes, from authentic Chinese food to traditional Italian meals. The goal is to provide tasty, healthy food on a budget.

More to follow on this soon.

How can you find out more?

All three directors independently told me to pop in for a cuppa and a chat. The St Nicholas Hub is open six days a week, from 10:00 to 16:00, and you can always find one of them on the premises. It also has a vibrant Instagram channel, Facebook, WhatsApp group, and website.

What can you do to support them?

Volunteer, share your skills, or even learn new ones. Sell your art in the Hub. Become a member of the Studio and explore a creative project. Attend events, and bring your friends. Even just the simple act of sharing their social media posts to help them reach more people. It costs nothing, and makes a huge difference.

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Innovation through inclusion

The popularity of CHIp and the sense of community and belonging that it fosters offers a new future for the high street. Taking empty properties and offering them to legal non-profit entities at a peppercorn rent sparks innovation, inclusion, and creative approaches to the regeneration of our town centre.

Let’s follow CHIp’s example and put the heart back into the high street.

Join the party

Want to experience CHIp for yourself? Come to their Potluck and quiz at St Nicholas Street Hub, on Sunday 16th March, 12:00-16:00. It's completely free.