ENB’s east London home named Mulryan Centre for Dance

English National Ballet’s new headquarters at London City Island is to be named the Mulryan Centre for Dance, in recognition of the support given to date by the family of Sean Mulryan, Chairman and Group Chief Executive of Ballymore, and his wife Bernardine.

The state-of-the-art building, designed by Glenn Howells Architects, has won numerous awards for its design quality and is a transformational project for the ballet company, providing purpose-designed rehearsal space for its world class performers, as well as housing the English National Ballet School and administrative functions. The building is located in the new London City Island neighbourhood, which is close to Canary Wharf, putting ballet at the heart of the east London community. This connection to community is emphasised in the building’s open design, with its large windows, allowing the public glimpses of dancers at work.

“This building has transformed the way we work, providing us with the scale and versatility to be more creative and ambitious than ever before,” said Tamara Rojo CBE, Artistic Director of English National Ballet. “That has been particularly true this last year when, despite the huge challenges faced, it has allowed our dancers to safely rehearse, given us the space to innovate and create, and enabled us to continue connecting with our audiences and communities, near and far.”

Rojo said, “On behalf of all of us at English National Ballet I want to thank Sean Mulryan for his incredible generosity”.

Ballymore Chairman and Group Chief Executive Sean Mulryan has long fostered culture and the arts as part of neighbourhood regeneration in London. He highlighted the value of English National Ballet and the arts more generally, saying, “The arts, culture and design are essential to our lives and to our wellbeing. We must appreciate the significance of the arts to our quality of life; in particular it is this that gives London its soul. English National Ballet is a treasured national asset, and we should all be grateful for what they and other artistic talents, bring to our society. I have been pleased to support them, and urge others to support the arts, especially at this very difficult time.”