We at Applecart Arts believe that stories are potent and have the power to challenge, change and strengthen communities.
We work with a wide range of artistic disciplines – creating original music, film, visual art and drama. We combine this with our long-standing commitment to community engagement and a pursuit of artistic excellence.
We aim to reach across cultural divides and tell stories which engage, inspire and entertain our audiences.
In December 2021 Applecart Arts moved to The Passmore Edwards Building in Plashet Grove, East Ham. Read more about our new building here.
The History of Applecart Arts
Launched in 2008, Applecart was founded by Peter Moreton and Phil Summers. The company began by telling stories to a regular monthly audience at the White Hart Pub in Whitechapel, London. The creative duo then toured to various venues, pubs, theatres and universities around the country. Applecart also began to extend its storytelling onto the screen, making numerous short films and documentaries. Some of these can still be found over on our Vimeo.
In 2012 Applecart moved into our first premises, a Victorian Methodist presbytery and school house in Tower Hamlets, where we worked alongside local artists and performers, building up community networks and relationships in the area. Seeing the potential the space had to be a hub for the creative arts, we decided to open as a venue for storytelling. In 2014 Applecart opened The Old School Room, with studio and rehearsal space for artists, theatre practitioners, writers and creatives. In 2016 Applecart closed The Old School Room and moved to bigger premises in Newham.
In January 2017 the organisation took over the Harold Road Community Centre in Upton Park, saving the building from closure and demolition. The very first Applecart Café was opened in early 2017 and we developed and opened The Littlewood Theatre by the Spring, alongside three rehearsal spaces and artist studios and community offices. The Harold Road Centre had become Applecart Arts, a community space to share stories, nurture creative talent, see excellent art and performance that engaged and represented the local community as well the wider creative community. Check out some of our highlights here.
In 2022 we moved to our new premises in Plashet Park and began renovating the old Passmore Edward's Library. We now have a beautiful 50-seat theatre, rehearsal and exhibition spaces, art studios and welcoming community cafe. Applecart's adventure continues in our new home and we're excited to work with emerging artists as the tell stories which celebrate the rich diversity of our thriving community.
Applecart’s early work includes over twenty original storytelling performances utilising drama, music, comedy and film. This work toured venues around the country.
In 2013 we completed a project working in partnership with the East London Community Land Trust and Linden Homes to collect stories from the local community, engaging with schools, local faiths groups and community centres, exploring themes of immigration and diversity. These stories, and the art that resulted from them, culminated in a visual art exhibition and the installation of two public artworks on the sight of the redeveloped St Clement’s Hospital in Bow.
Applecart’s Old School room continued to promote and encourage local musicians, storytellers and artists, promoting open days as a platform for new work. We were pleased to house the East End’s ‘Shuffle Festival’, curated by Danny Boyle, as it took its fledgling steps, and we later performed an original telling of Charles Dicken’s ‘The Chimes’ at their winter event in 2014. A year later we filmed and released six short storytelling films which continue to reach audiences in over 150 countries worldwide.
Our last Old School Room project was a series of four documentaries, presented by a local spoken word artist and highlighting the hurdles faced by people living in poverty in the UK today.
In 2016 Applecart moved to new premises in Newham, in the Harold Road Centre, and opened Applecart Arts in early 2017.
Since then, we've concentrated our efforts on creating platforms and pathways for emerging artists who are exploring themes that directly relate to the concerns of our local community. Recent projects include a schools theatre tour of play examining the aftermath of knife crime (Iz Dis a Dagga, 2019), a touring visual art exhibition called Transitions: Seen Unseen (2019) celebrating migration and movement and a film project with men in a young offenders prison and young people at risk of crime (INSIDE OUT, 2019). We also co-hosted the excellent Voila! Festival in 2017 and 2018, programming and celebrating the best of border-busting European theatre.
In October 2019 we launched ShoutOut Festival showcasing sixteen theatre performances exploring creative responses to hate and violence.
March 2020 saw us shutting our doors due to the COVID-19 pandemic, but that wasn’t going to stop us! We put our history of film making to good use and launched a thriving live streaming programme, starting with The Flying Seagull Spectacular which was watched around the world by over 6000 people.
Throughout 2020 we continued to help performers broadcast their work online, and in the October of that year presented Dazed New World, a festival of live streamed shows that tackled issues including social injustice, environmental concerns and mental health, all looking at positive future narratives post Covid. December 2020 saw us launch our On Demand platform, so our audiences could watch some of our favourite shows whenever they like.
In January 2021 we welcomed four Artists in Residence, each presenting a work-in-progress showing via our online platforms.
September 2021 saw us take over Plashet Park for Art & Soul Fest, a colourful outdoor festival of performance, music, arts & crafts as part of Newham Unlocked. Over the festival period we welcomed over 6000 visitors through the park’s gates, to enjoy the fun and celebrate our local community.
We closed out 2021 with Christmas on Green Street, where local residents could enjoy performances, creative workshops, lights and all manner of festive fun at Queen’s Market.
We’re so excited for the future of Applecart in our new home in Plashet Grove, and can’t wait to see where our work will take us next!
Create with us
Applecart Arts is not just a building with space to hire. We also produce and support the development of new work.
We’re always on the look out for ways in which we can support and encourage actors, directors, writers, visual artists, producers, musicians, spoken word artists and any other creatives to grow and develop.
If you have a project idea that you would like to explore, we'd love to chat! In the first instance, you can submit shows using our Production Proposals Form, and one of the team will be in touch!
Applecart Arts is a non-profit making organisation. All of our income goes back into programming exciting work and encouraging innovative creatives. We need all the help we can get and there are many ways you can support help us continue to be a venue which listens to the community it serves.