From dream to reality: Tottenham takes on the arts

Seven years after his death, MP Bernie Grant’s vision for the future of the arts in London is emerging among the Polish grocery shops and rickety Somali-run internet cafes of his old constituency of Tottenham. The Bernie Grant Arts Centre will open to the public this summer, and will be primarily focused around black and ethnic minority artists and arts managers. It’s an ambitious project, including a public theatre, rehearsal space, accredited courses in dance and music, training and office facilities for creative businesses, a bookshop and a café – all in the inauspicious surroundings of an area that’s simultaneously (and not entirely coincidentally) one of the most deprived and the most ethnically diverse in the UK.