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Disabled theatre company Graeae has completed the creation of its permanent home in London.  Nuala Calvi speaks to company members about the project and takes a look at the new venue.

As you take a bus along Kingsland Road, towards London's Old Street, just before the Geffrye Museum, your eye is caught by six giant letters sitting in the arches of a beautiful Grade II-listed converted tram shed.  Some are made from pebbles, some from glass, some from scraps of old theatre costumes and flyers.  Together they spell Graeae, the name of the UK's leading disabled theatre company.

Not only does their diverse make-up symbolise that of the organisation they represent, but the bold characters provide an unmissable and unmistakable message that Graeae now has a permanent presence on the London theatre scene.

It has taken the company - founded in the 1980 by Nabil Shaban and Richard Tomlinson, to redress the exclusion of disabled actors from theatre - almost 30 years and numerous aborted building projects to achieve the dream of a permanent home in the capital.

But the conversion of these formerly derelict premises into state of the art, accessible rehearsal and office space this month marks a watershed in terms of recognition for disabled artists, according to Graeae's executive director Judith Kilvington.

"Graeae, I think, has spent the last six years or so establishing itself as a mainstream, small-scale touring theatre company on the same level as the Actors Touring Company or Frantic Assembly," she says.  "We've been working up to that point where you can be judged for the quality of the performance, not have people saying, 'Isn't it wonderful those disabled actors are on stage?'  Now, with the new space, it really feels like we're entering a new phase."

Importantly, Graeae chose not to use its £2 million Arts Council England grant to build a performance space of its own.

"Graeae has spent time building good relationships with the Arcola, Soho, Lyric, Hampstead and other theatres," explains artistic director Jenny Sealy, who recently received an MBE.  "These are the stages we want out disabled actors to grace.  I have always resisted a disabled-only performance space because there is the danger that main stages would cease to book the work and therefore we would become more ghettoised."

Instead, the building incorporates office space for Graeae, along with the additional offices on a mezzanine level and a large rehearsal space, 'creative hub' and meeting room that can be hired out by other companies and practitioners.  Entering the building through the seventh arch in its impressive façade, the automatic doors and buzzers on different levels immediately indicate that accessibility has been at the heard of the design process.

"We worked closely with a disabled focus group," says Nichola Plummer of Artillery architects.  "From the company itself there is Jenny, who is deaf, Alex, the literary manager who is blind, and there were a number of artists who use wheelchairs, people who are blind and people with shorter limbs.  It really forced us to think well beyond what the Disability Discrimination Act required in terms of accessibility."

Inside the building, doors operate on special hinges which make them easy for wheelchair users to push open and are brightly coloured to aid visually impaired people.  To help with way-finding, a three-tone colour scheme indicates which are the office, rehearsal and ancillary areas, emphasised by cylindrical pools of coloured light from the ceiling and different types of tactile flooring.

Visually impaired people know they have arrived at the meeting room, thanks to a row of scented trees, carefully planted in pots that are too high for visiting guide dogs to urinate in.

For hard of hearing users - and for sign language interpreters working in the building - the acoustics have been crucial.  Architects worked with an acoustic designer to ensure that the meeting and rehearsal rooms are almost entirely sound-tight, and there are no noisy air-conditioning systems to contend with - often a problem in rented rehearsal spaces.

Actors with fatigue problems can find head and light levels in rehearsal spaces affect their condition, so one of the most important specifications was an easily adjustable lighting system and under-floor heating that can be set independently in each room.  Similarly, a 'living room' adjacent to Graeae' office space ahs a day bed, for members of staff who need to rest.

But meeting the conflicting needs of people with different impairments has been a challenge.  The focus group "nearly came to blows" over the height of surfaces in the tea room - after four different proposals had been drawn up, they reverted to the original proposal on the grounds that it was better for the majority of people.

"Sometimes it's a matter of compromise," says Plummer.  "For example, we wanted to use glass for the walls of the meeting room.  Glass keeps sightlines clear, which is great for Jenny, but it's a potential visual hazard for someone like Alex when she's orientating around the space.  So, we've introduced a way-finding wall made of wood that clads the glass and acts as a buffer zone.

"When you're inside the meeting room, if someone is lip reading or using a sign language interpreter, it's very hard to do that without contrasting background, so the wall helped with that, too."

In the rehearsal space, more than £90,000 has been spent on kit, including an accessible lighting rig that can be winched down and set at floor level, and stylish, accessible changing rooms, toilets and showers with chrome fittings.

Graeae wanted to get away from the institutionalised, hospitalised feel of buildings traditionally associated with disabled people.  "Access has to be functional, but it does not have to be substandard or ugly or medical," says Sealey.  "An accessible loo can be a nice place to pee."

Indeed, with its industrial aesthetic - walls sanded down to reveal beautiful red London brick - light, airy interior and funky, brightly-coloured furnishings, the whole building is as modern as it could be within the limits of a listed building.  And Graeae hopes artists from all backgrounds, whether disabled or not, will enjoy using it.