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When beloved Kilburn theatre and cinema the Tricycle recently launched its new season – the first after a lengthy refurbishment – the last thing most people were expecting was for there to be an attendant name change. But there was: the Tricycle has been renamed Kiln Theatre following the £5.5m revamp.
However, a number of Kilburn residents seem quite irked by this decision. Though artistic director Indhu Rubasingham said it ‘absolutely locates [the theatre] in Kilburn’, a group calling itself It’s Our Tricycle has launched a petition to change the name back. It claims that it can find no evidence of the local community being consulted over the name change, concluding: ‘this is another example of London’s local character being eroded by profiteering and short-term commercial thinking, with the opinion of a marketing agency paid more attention than the wishes of Kilburn’s residents’. It is also trying to determine how much of the theatre’s public funding was spent on the name change, and has further pointed out that there is also a company called Kiln Theatre located in Birmingham.
It should be said that the first Kiln season doesn’t even start until September, so people haven’t really had much of a chance to get used to it, but if It’s Our Tricycle is correct that the community wasn’t consulted – something Kiln Theatre denies – their ire does seem understandable.
To find out more or sign the petition, head to the It’s Our Tricycle website
To see the new Kiln Theatre season, head to its Time Out venue listing