Woolwich Works, Royal Arsenal

Woolwich Works is a £31m landmark project by the Royal Borough of Greenwich to turn 5 Grade II listed buildings on the Royal Arsenal into a new cultural hub for the purposes of advancing art for public benefit and providing facilities to improve the conditions of life of local residents. Established to direct this development is Woolwich Creative District Trust, an independent charity who will run the flexible performance and event spaces, rehearsal studios, rooms for community events and celebrations, bars and café.

Gratte Brothers Foodservice Solutions was appointed on this turnkey project to complete the commercial catering equipment installation within a ground floor kitchen, 2 ground floor bars and a first floor back-up kitchen, including all internal finishes and the extension of the M&E services to the ground floor kitchen.

Facilities installed included a combi oven, an electrical range and grill, dishwasher, ice machine, glass washers and bottle cabinets along with various other appliances.

A site filled with explosive history, 2 of the 5 buildings were used as factories producing ammunition for World War 1, one for fireworks and the other for cartridges. Female workers even earned the nickname ‘Canary Girls’ as the material they handled stained their hair and skin yellow

Gratte Brothers was delighted to be involved in the creation of this new cultural hub, which will undoubtedly provide a creative space for the benefit of the local community, help revive the area as well as save buildings that were once on Historic England’s Heritage at Risk Register.