The Black-E (formerly The Blackie) combines a contemporary arts centre with a community centre.
Founded in 1967 by a team of artists, the centre is housed in the former Great George Street Congregational Chapel and originally derived its familiar name the Blackie (now the Black-E) as a shortened version of ‘The Black Church’ – a description of the Chapel in the 1960s when it was covered with over a hundred years of inner-city smoke and grime.
Although the stone was cleaned in the 1980s, the building still retains its name.