An update on EartH’s temporary closure and our new Village Underground Cycle Park
It’s been almost four months since we announced the temporary closure of EartH. Since mid-March our doors have been shut, our programming paused and our Theatre, Hall and Kitchen empty of concerts, comedy, gigs and gatherings for the first time since we launched in 2018.
Venues are not currently permitted to host live performances, including comedy and music, in front of a live audience, in order to stop the spread of COVID-19.
As with many grassroots arts and music centres across the country, we have had to make the tough decision to remain closed while we wait for further guidance from the government on how we can proceed.
Introducing VU Cycle Park
Secure bicycle storage ● Look mum no hands! repairs ● VU Bottle shop ● Speciality coffee
There is something our team have been working on behind the scenes at our venue down the road in Shoreditch: in order to utilise our incredible converted warehouse on the edge of the City, we will be opening the doors to Village Underground (VU) Cycle Park on Monday 20th July.
We’ve diversified into offering secure storage for bicycles six days a week. We can hold over 400 bicycles at any given time, and have also teamed up with Look mum no hands! to provide a bookable bicycle repair service on Tuesdays, as well as weekly bike checks.
– £5 per day, per bike
– Hourly rates also available, see the VU Cycle Park webpage for more pricing details
– Open 6:00-22:00 Monday to Saturday
– Corporate packages available – contact [email protected] to discuss
– Find us at 8 Great Eastern Street, Shoreditch, EC2A 3NT
Our Cycle Park will be accessible via VU’s Great Eastern Street entrance (look out for the ‘Let’s Adore and Endure Each Other’ sign) to enable proper social distancing measures. All staff will be wearing necessary PPE, undertaking regular hand washing and extra sanitation procedures. Simply drop off your bike and pick it up when you’re ready.
We will also be selling a range of IPAs, beers, wines and spirits from the VU Bar to take home with you, as well as speciality coffees available until midday.
Find out more information including pricing, FAQs and the precautions we are taking against coronavirus, on our VU Cycle Park page.
Keep up with the latest news and offers from our Cycle Park by signing up to our mailers.
Follow @vucyclepark on Instagram, Twitter and Facebook
Help save our venue
Our Cycle Park is a temporary measure, and naturally, we can’t wait to welcome you all back into our venue again for unforgettable concerts, life-affirming comedy nights and everything in between. But for now, by supporting our Cycle Park, you will also be supporting the future of EartH and Village Underground.
“With music venues empty of artists and fans and struggling to survive, we wanted to do something positive with the situation. Local streets have been closed to encourage cycling and people are coming back to their work and social spaces, so we decided to put our venue to good use as a socially distant bicycle park, helping people to travel easily and safely until we can welcome audiences back to live music.”
Auro Foxcroft, founder of Village Underground and EartH
All profits from the Cycle Park will go towards helping VU and EartH survive through to when we can open again. Whether you choose to park your bike with us, purchase something from the VU Bottle Shop or just pass on this news to a friend – we need your help to make sure our independent, grassroots venues can operate in the future.
This also means we may alter how our Cycle Park works in the coming weeks, as we trial this new project. We’re aiming to make it as smooth an operation as possible, and we’ll also be improving it as we go, so please be patient with us and our team.
Over the years, our 23 employees and 75+ venue staff and freelancers have worked tirelessly to renovate and transform Village Underground and EartH from abandoned buildings into world class music venues. Both venues are financially self-sufficient. We receive no funding and usually rely on our bars and commercial events, the revenue of which is put back into our artistic programmes.
We hope to emerge stronger when the time is right. In the mean time, please remember to express love to one another, help others in these hard times and keep safe.