Today we turn 15

Way back in 2010 – when a new coalition government had just been formed, volcanic ash closed airspaces and the first wild Beaver was born in Scotland in 400 years – a small but mighty place on Hoxton Street opened its doors. 

Ministry of Stories was brought to life by Lucy MacNab, Ben Payne, Nick Hornby and an amazing team of volunteers. Together, with a fresh lick of paint and some hard graft, they created a safe place for young people, giving them the space, time and support to write.

Since then, we have grown from offering one weekly Writing Lab to seven weekly Writing Labs, grown an extensive schools programme, launched a trainee Writing Facilitator programme and built our very own lending library.

We’ve built escape rooms, created animations, recorded podcasts, written piles of anthologies, held gallery exhibitions and public installations, led a monster march, updated Dylan Thomas, told jokes on a cinema screen and so much more.

And across all this, we have welcomed an incredible 20,000 young people into our writing centre to discover the power and joy of writing.

We couldn’t have done any of it without your support. So thank you to every single person who has volunteered, donated, championed our work, bought some Thickest Human Snot, read our young writers’ work or told your friends about what’s happening behind our secret door.

You have helped us champion imagination, creativity and young people’s voices over some tough and challenging years.

As we look to the future, we’re excited and ready for our next chapter! With our waiting lists bursting at the seams, the next few years will see us double the number of weekly Community Writing Labs, and take a giant leap forward in our support for East London schools – all with the Ministry glint of mischief at our core.