IT is 30 years since Halifax’s Square Chapel was saved from demolition. What it has become - a major arts hub attracting over 100,000 people a year - is down to a group of people who worked tirelessly to keep the historic building open.

Celebrating this, the arts centre’s '30 Stories’ exhibition showcases those who have shaped the venue, now a main player in the region’s cultural scene.

Built in 1772, the red brick Georgian Chapel is one of a handful of square churches ever built. Years of neglect saw the Grade II* listed building fall into disrepair, threatened with demolition until it was bought, in 1988, by six theatre-lovers for £25. It had no windows, half a roof and a wall on the verge of collapse. Their vision was to turn it into a vibrant arts centre.

While work was underway, concerts were staged, with audiences and performers in hard hats and blankets as there were no glass windows or heating. By 1993 there was an office and changing-rooms, but no funds for a bar. Volunteers donated materials, and a bar was made out of old kitchen units.

In 2017, after a £6.6m renovation, Square Chapel (squarechapel.co.uk) re-opened with a main auditorium; a smaller studio/cinema, a café/bar, new toilets and an entrance into the Piece Hall. Patrons include Sally Wainwright, Reece Dinsdale, Penelope Wilton, Carol Ann Duffy, Timothy West and Bradford actress Natalie Gavin.

Running until July 2020, 30 Stories explores the impact Square Chapel has had over the last three decades; reaching people across communities and highlighting diversity. Every year the centre delivers over 300 performances, engaging thousands of people, including schoolchildren and vulnerable and hard to reach adults. Centre director David McQuillan said: “The two most powerful things in the world are people and stories. People are capable of inspiration and kindness, people are charitable and benevolent, they create wonders, care for each other and other species. It is in stories that communities live on. Square Chapel is built from stories. It has been an honour to know these people and hear these stories. There are 30 here, but thousands more. We’ll keep telling them.”

Following the renovation it was decided to celebrate the volunteers, trustees and artists. When Keiron Higgins posted a photo on Instagram of him at Square Chapel in 2008, with a comment about the impact it had on him becoming a performance poet and published writer, the idea for 30 Stories was born. Among those featured are:

* Shantha Rao: “When I first started with Annapurna Dance, I noticed a local arts centre so I met then director Sally Martin. When she said she was from Sri Lanka, I knew she wasn’t a stranger to classical Indian dance. She gave me my first ever booking. Ever since I’ve brought many projects to Square Chapel. It’s a place that supports diversity and other cultural experiences.”

* Eric Hunter: “We moved to Halifax to live in a shop in March, 1953. I used to attend Square Church in the morning, then Sunday school in the afternoon. I was 10. Square Chapel had a dramatics society, I played Buttons in Cinderella. There was a small stage with a sagging curtain surround, I had to trip up as I entered - that’s where I learned it was fun to make people laugh. It was damp and cold so we moved Sunday school into the caretaker’s house, one of many houses butted up alongside Piece Hall. It’s hard to visualise now, but the area was a slum. When the housing was pulled down it impacted on Square Chapel. My first re-connect with Square Chapel was through my dance group, Dance 4 Fun. I feel at home here.”

Keiron Higgins: “I came to Square Chapel in 2008, recommended to a music group, Opportunity Rocks. Being dyspraxic, I had a passion for music but no idea how to share it. The project gave me confidence to perform live when we started a group, The Eccentrics on Holiday. I return to the stage performing spoken word, which led to my poetry book.”

Emma Clayton