Our vision
The Rotunda was built as a place for people to gather. For 181 years it housed the Royal Artillery Museum, one of London’s most distinctive public buildings. We want to return it to that role.
Rotunda Trust exists to repair and conserve this building and to ensure it is open, accessible, and in active use. The trust aspires to acquire the building freehold or hold a long-term (50+ years) full repairing lease. A commercial operating company is best placed to manage the venue under a binding lease covenant, paying a fixed percentage of revenue to the trust from day one. That money goes to one place: heritage conservation of the building.
A venue for everyone
The Rotunda is 120 feet across, or about 36 metres, and seats more than 500. It is one of the largest and most atmospheric interior spaces in south-east London. The events programme would balance community access with commercial income, because both are necessary: community use gives the building its purpose, and commercial use pays for its repair.
Community – subsidised or free
Schools and youth groups. Heritage open days. Local charity fundraisers. Remembrance services. Community assemblies and public meetings. Military heritage visits for enthusiasts who have been locked out of this building for 25 years. The people of Woolwich should be able to walk into this building, see the 1814 timber roof above them, and feel that it belongs to them.
Cultural – affordable hire
Theatre, dance, spoken word, art installations, exhibitions. A 120-foot (36-metre) circular space under a conoid timber ceiling is unlike any other performance space in London. Promenade theatre, in-the-round staging, and gallery exhibitions all work naturally with the geometry.
Music, weddings, and private hire – commercial rates
Live bands, weddings, celebrations, private receptions. 500+ seated or 1,000+ standing. The building’s scale and character, brick walls, timber roof, natural light, make it unlike any other venue in south-east London. Commercial hire at market rates generates the income that funds the building’s conservation.
Trust money is for repairing the Rotunda. Not for programming. Not for the operating company. Not for any other purpose. The conservation of this Grade II* structure is the trust’s sole obligation and its reason for being. Commercial income funds conservation.
How it works
Rotunda Trust is a charitable Building Preservation Trust, incorporated in March 2026 as a company limited by guarantee (17115816). Its charitable objects are the conservation of the Woolwich Rotunda and the advancement of heritage education.
The trust would acquire a freehold or long-term (50+ years) full repairing lease. It would set the conservation priorities, governs the building’s future, and ensures that the historic fabric is maintained to the standard its Grade II* listing demands.
A commercial operating company would hold a long lease from the trust and run the venue. The lease would contain a binding covenant requiring the company to pay 10% of revenue or 30% of profit, whichever is greater, to the trust. This would not be a donation. It would be a contractual obligation running with the lease, binding on any future owner of the company.
This structure is the basis for heritage grant funding. The National Lottery Heritage Fund, Historic England, and the Architectural Heritage Fund all require a not-for-profit applicant. Heritage repair grants typically fund 70–90% of eligible conservation costs.
If the company were to fail, the trust would retain its interest in the building. The building would not revert to the Ministry of Defence or to a developer. It would remain in charitable ownership, protected by its governing documents and by charity law.
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Contact
If you would like to know more, or if you can help, please write to hello@rotundatrust.org.uk.