Reece Dinsdale fronts campaign to save Square Chapel

Equity and Save Square Chapel campaigners marched along Halifax’s main streets and through the Piece Hall. They finished with a rally outside the abandoned building. On 28 September 2026, The Stage reported that actor, writer and director Reece Dinsdale was fronting a refreshed campaign. It aims to save Square Chapel, a Halifax venue that once put on comedy and has been closed since February 2025.

Campaigners held a lantern procession through Halifax, ending with a rally in front of the abandoned Square Chapel building. The building is for sale, its cultural use matters to the bodies involved and the amount of public investment awaiting a new operator is unclear. The campaign keeps the venue in the conversation. As of 24 September 2026, Square Chapel remained closed to the public.

What is happening with the Square Chapel sale?

Square Chapel remains closed to the public, and the Receiver appointed by Arts Council England has put the Halifax venue up for sale. Equity says it remains unclear how much public investment a new operator would receive. The potential funders are Arts Council England, Calderdale Council and the West Yorkshire Combined Authority. The amount of support available hasn’t been made clear.

Arts Council England previously said Square Chapel CIC had received an HMRC winding-up order. It had instructed its own Receiver to decide the next steps concerning the Arts Council’s charge on the building. The aim was to return it to community cultural use. Calderdale Council also requires the building to be used for cultural purposes. That requirement keeps the future within a particular lane, although a lane is still some distance from a programme and an unlocked front door.

Watling surveyor Jack Whiting said Arts Council England was interested in working with prospective bidders proposing continued cultural use. Equity separately reported that a number of local arts organisations had expressed interest in running the venue. As of 24 September 2026, Equity reported that a number of local arts organisations had expressed interest in taking over the running of Square Chapel. Eventually, performers will need a named operator prepared to put dates in the diary; “interested parties” are hard to invoice.

A venue doing duty as a green room

Equity says Square Chapel has been closed to the public since February 2025. Yet the building has subsequently served as green rooms for the Piece Hall’s Summer Concert series. There is something bleakly comic about a former public performance venue becoming backstage space for the concerts next door. By 24 September 2026, Square Chapel had served as green rooms for the Piece Hall’s Summer Concert series while remaining closed to the public.

Square Chapel reopened under Wigan-based Arts at the Mill in September 2020, but Square Chapel CIC announced its closure and cancelled all future events in early February 2025. Equity says it reopened under Wigan-based Arts at the Mill in September 2020, after which Square Chapel CIC was established. In early February 2025, that organisation announced the closure and cancelled all future events. For anyone who had dates in a diary, the important words there are “all future events”. They matter more than whatever reassuring phrase might once have appeared above them.

For comics and promoters, the consequence of a shuttered room is tediously concrete. As of 24 September 2026, Square Chapel had been closed to the public since February 2025, although it had subsequently served as green rooms for the Piece Hall’s Summer Concert series. Our reporting on how comedy festivals pay support acts provides wider industry context. As of September 2026, Equity’s campaign focused on Square Chapel’s sale, public investment and local involvement in selecting a new operator. The building exists, comedy was part of its programme and its present public calendar ended with those cancelled events.

Three bodies and an unclear level of public investment

Equity’s warning is sharper than a request to preserve the words “arts centre” on the paperwork. The union says Square Chapel is in danger of failing again without a clear commitment to public investment and wants local involvement in decision-making. That places the argument on the operating side of the door: who chooses the operator, and what money follows them?

Equity official Dominic Bascombe put the funding demand plainly in the union’s update:

Equity official Dominic Bascombe said:

With the sale of Square Chapel moving at speed, it is vital that there is a clear commitment to public investment from the Arts Council, Calderdale Council, and the West Yorkshire Combined Authority.

Equity called for a firm funding commitment and for the local community to be involved in selecting a new operator. The amount of support available remains unclear, which makes this a harder proposition than buying a culturally restricted building and choosing a logo. Our earlier piece on the proposed comedy levy and funding for grassroots venues provides further industry context. A spreadsheet will accept “unclear” in a cell; a performer’s fee and a technician’s call won’t.

Save Square Chapel Campaign member Pete Keal said a future operator should have a robust business plan and would also need adequate public investment for the centre to thrive. That distinction matters after a closure, without turning Square Chapel into a generic insolvency parable. Readers can find another example in our report on Big Difference Company, the charity that organised Leicester Comedy Festival, becoming insolvent and ceasing trading. The job here is to follow this building, this sale and the support attached to it.

Reece Dinsdale fronts a campaign asking who decides

The Stage describes Dinsdale as fronting the refreshed campaign, while Equity’s material supplies the less glamorous machinery underneath it: funding commitments, operator selection and consultation. Keal said Arts Council England’s commitment didn’t guarantee that Square Chapel would reopen as an arts centre and called for people across Halifax and the wider area to be fully consulted over who should run it.

That request has some paper behind it. Equity says a petition carrying over three thousand signatures was delivered to Arts Council England in November, asking it to decide about operation of the venue. Consultation makes a drearier photograph than Dinsdale at the front, honestly, though the operator decision will determine whether local involvement survives beyond the sale particulars.

The Receiver will determine the next steps relating to the Arts Council’s charge, with a view to community cultural use. Equity wants the community involved in choosing an operator and firm commitments from the public bodies it names. For the Halifax venue, those are still separate pieces of work. They involve handling the building, finding someone to run it and establishing the public support they could count on.

Sources

The source documents and reports are The Stage’s campaign report and Equity’s sale and funding update. They also include Equity’s account of the Halifax demonstration and the report carrying Jack Whiting’s comments. Four links are worth the tab clutter when a Receiver, campaigners and three public bodies all have lines in the story.

Equity recorded Square Chapel being used as green rooms for the Piece Hall concerts while it remained closed to the public.