Information:

44 The High Street,
Gatehouse of Fleet,
Dumfries & Galloway,
Scotland DG7 2HP

P: 01557 814196/175
M: 07801 801204 (John Hudson)
M: 07891 803027 (Chrys Salt)

Email:
Markings
The Bakehouse
Solway Poets

The Bakehouse is a double-fronted Georgian house in Gatehouse of Fleet, a conservation town in the Fleet Valley, south west Scotland. The town did not exist before 1760. The 'gait house' - a roadhouse near the river crossing – was the only building but by 1793 it was a thriving Mill Town with 160 houses and 1150 inhabitants. At this time The Bakehouse was built on the High Street as a bakery, shop and home. About a hundred years later in the 1870s a big bakery and oven was built on the back. The building continued to be used as the town bakery until the 1970s. The oven front, which was installed by James Cruikshank Ltd., oven builders of Edinburgh, is still there as is the original eighteenth century fireplace in the lobby.

Chrys Salt and Richard Macfarlane bought the Bakehouse at 42/44 High Street, Gatehouse of Fleet in 2001 since when they have developed the old shop into a Studio for exhibitions, workshops, poetry readings and book launches. They are in the process of upgrading the nineteenth century Bakehouse itself into performance space for larger events including small scale theatre. The Bakehouse Studio seats 35 and the Bakehouse itself will seat 50.

The Bakehouse has become a thriving resource for the town and its environs tapping into local talent and importing talent from further afield. It offers high quality visual art and entertainment for locals and visitors on a regular basis.