Hat House Topping Out Ceremony 1 March in the #HatDistrict

Friday 1 March saw the ‘topping out’ of the external works of Hat House in Guildford Street, the first of Luton Culture's Hat District creative cluster of buildings. Madam Mayor of Luton, Cllr Naseem Ayub, assisted by Mark Smalley of Neville Construction lifted a floorboard on the top floor with a golden crowbar to initiate the start of internal works in the building.

In her speech, the Mayor said:

"I would like to thank Luton Culture for buying this run-down building, fundraising for its development, and for having the vision to make this old Hat Factory into a vibrant creative workplace once more.

"My thanks also extends to SEMLEP (South East Midlands Local Enterprise Partnership) who have invested £3.9m of Local Growth Fund into this building, and three others being developed in the vicinity, as part of the Hat District project. We value this investment in our town and into arts and cultural enterprises like this."