Our Vision
Chats Palace is a home for radical creativity and collective action. Since 1976, we’ve stood at the heart of our East London community—rooted in working-class culture and driven by the belief that art and education are powerful tools for social change. From our Grade II-listed building, once Homerton Library and gifted to the people by Andrew Carnegie ‘for the betterment of East Londoners,’ we continue a proud legacy of protest, performance, and public dialogue. We champion those who are marginalised, excluded, or silenced—offering a bold, welcoming space where community voices are heard, injustice is challenged, and imagination fuels transformation.
History
Chats Palace was founded in 1976 to provide arts and education opportunities to the local community, when the Homerton Library moved to a new building a few yards down the road. The former library building was appropriated by members of the local community who wanted to ensure that the Grade II listed building, donated to Hackney in 1913 by philanthropist Andrew Carnegie, remained in community hands and ‘For the Betterment of East Londoners’. Following its conversion to an arts centre, Chats Palace has remained an impressive architectural landmark and much loved community asset, now about to celebrate its 50th anniversary.
In the 1970s when many arts centres were being established (including Roundhouse Camden, Warwick Arts Centre and the Barbican Centre), Chats Palace was unusual because it origins were rooted in the demands of a working-class audience. Joan Littlewood’s vision for a People’s Palace played a role in the naming of ‘Chats’, chosen because it resonated with Littlewood’s People’s Palace and as a tribute to the Palace cinema that had existed on Chatsworth Road. The annual Chats Palace Christmas shows were a key expression of these activist roots. Involving large numbers of local residents of all ages as devisors and performers these irreverent and immersive pantomimes were famous for their artistic vibrancy and community participation, drawing in London wide audiences and creating enduring memories.
