About The Pop Factory
A Landmark with a proud history
The Pop Factory is a landmark building with a proud history of culture and innovation. Originally the home of the Corona Pop brand, it gained national recognition in the year 2000 when it became the iconic home of television shows such as The Guest List, Session Hwyr, and TPF. Hosting performances from the likes of Stereophonics and Tom Jones, The Pop Factory broadcast the Rhondda to screens across Wales and beyond.
Today, the building remains a vibrant and active creative hub, providing space for independent artists, theatre groups, choirs, training organisations, art exhibitions, and a wide range of community events. It is a valued asset not only to the people of Porth, but for the Rhondda community as a whole.
Pop Factory For Sale
We could lose this valued community asset
The current owners have decided to sell the building at a listed sale price of £475,000.
If private buyers purchase it, The Pop Factory as we know it could disappear, and the creative energy that's fizzed inside those walls for decades would be gone for good.
For the people of the Rhondda, The Pop Factory is a part of our story. It's where many would have worked hard to put food on the table, or where we experienced live music for the first time. Where our passion for the arts was ignited. Where creativity found a home.
Now that home is at risk.
Pop Factory Ltd.
Who we are and what we're doing about it
Established to secure its future for the people of Porth and the Rhondda, The Pop Factory Ltd is a group of artists, organisations and local residents united in their goal to bring this building into community ownership. Together they are committed to ensuring the building continues to serve as a centre of creativity and opportunity for generations to come.
Meet the Directors
Stephen Davies
Stephen Davis is a Director of Spectacle Theatre and has been making theatre in Wales for seven decades. He is a committed advocate for keeping The Pop Factory as a community-owned asset, believing strongly that artists need space, and that the Factory provides that space alongside an unmatched support network for artists, communities, and individuals. Two of his plays have been drawn directly from the oral history of the building, and the response from audiences who heard those stories retold has been, in his own words, profoundly moving. His vision for the Factory's future is a collectively led management team, with the community at its heart.
Jennifer Hare
Jennifer Hare is a Director of Manage Money Wales, a social enterprise based at The Pop Factory. The organisation runs The Community Sharing Shop, a free community hub offering a charity shop, food bank, community café, one-to-one money management support, wellbeing services, volunteer opportunities, and training. Its work addresses climate action, poverty reduction, and social inclusion. Having been based at The Pop Factory for nearly ten years, Jennifer regards it as a work home: a vibrant, inclusive, and genuinely diverse community that she considers the beating heart of the Rhondda.
Andy Coleman
Andy Coleman is an experienced musician and businessman, and is Treasurer for TPF Ltd. Music is Andy's passion, performing regularly as The Semantics. As a Porth local, he's keen to keep this beloved building open to the public, especially as a platform for nurturing local talent.
Dawn Hoban
Dawn Hoban is a ceramic artist and Director of Mud Art & Soul, based at The Pop Factory. Her work reflects the industrial heritage and landscape of the South Wales mining communities around her, and she delivers workshops alongside producing her own high-end ceramics. Dawn describes The Pop Factory as having changed her life, providing a safe and supportive environment in which to establish a business she loves. Her first post-studies exhibition, held at the Factory in 2017, drew over ninety visitors, and the community she has built there, including her students, feels, in her words, like a second family.
Our Vision for The Pop Factory
A supportive and sustainable, multi-use space for Porth
By securing this building, we aim to build on its legacy as a cornerstone of Porth's cultural identity and create lasting opportunities for local residents, artists, and businesses.
With your support, we aim to:
Support Local Businesses
We will support local and creative businesses to flourish with affordable workspaces and a supportive environment.
Nurture Local Talent
We will provide a platform for live performances, cultural, and arts activity, continuing the building’s proud tradition as a stage for local talent, whatever your discipline.
Provide Training & Skills
We will provide both formal and informal learning opportunities for all to engage with the arts and develop new skills.
Improve Community Wellbeing
Promote community wellbeing and cohesion, in a welcoming and inclusive space for people of all ages and backgrounds, safely.
Put Porth Town Centre Back on the Map
Increase footfall and economic activity in Porth town centre, contributing to the wider regeneration of the high street and local economy
FAQs
Your frequently asked questions, answered
About the Campaign
Donating to the Campaign
Yes. Our main means of collecting donations is through CrowdFunder.co.uk, one of the UK's most trusted community crowdfunding platforms.
About "Community Ownership"
It means the building is owned and governed by and for the community, rather than a private landlord or developer. Decisions about how it's used, who it serves, and how it grows are made collectively, with the community's interests at the centre.
About the Building
Welsh Hills Works is the building that houses The Pop Factory. It sits at Jenkin Street in Porth, Rhondda Cynon Taf. It has a rich history, from its origins as the home of Thomas and Evans' famous Corona soft drinks, to its life as a music venue and television studio, to its current role as a creative hub for artists and community organisations.
Still need answers?
If you can't find an answer to your question, click the button below to navigate to our contact form.
How you can help Save The Pop Factory.
This campaign runs on people power. Share our content, tell your story, or bring your skills to the table. And if you can donate to our Crowd Funder campaign, every pound takes us closer to bringing this building home.
Help save The Pop Factory when you
Tell Your Pop Factory story
Everyone in the Rhondda has a Pop Factory story. Help us show what this building means to the people it has always served, by sharing yours.
Volunteer Your Time & Skills
Share the TPF Campaign on Socials
Following us and sharing our content on socials will really help to raise the awareness and funds to open the building to the public.
We can’t do this without you.
Donate today to help save The Pop Factory for the community, for now, and for generations to come.