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Dance Floor Intimacy are helping us build the most welcoming space

A key part of shaping Joy has been listening to the community who will use it. Dancefloor Intimacy, an accessibility consultancy specialising in reimagining cultural spaces, together with Open Door have been exploring what makes cultural venues welcoming – and what prevents people from taking part. 

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Through focus groups and community questionnaires, Disabled, Deaf, Neurodivergent, chronically ill, visually impaired, and learning-disabled participants shared their experiences and hopes for a space where everyone can feel safe, comfortable, and included. 

“A venue where nobody has to arrive with an explanation, and where expression, celebration, and belonging are available to all.”

Their insights have been transformed into clear design and operational recommendations – ensuring that accessibility isn’t an add-on, but the foundation of how Joy will look, feel, and function.

What is Joy, where is Joy and when’s it opening?

The findings point toward a powerful opportunity: to build a venue where nobody has to arrive with an explanation, and where expression, celebration, and belonging are available to all.

At a time when loneliness, mental health challenges, and limited cultural choice have shaped everyday life for many across Wirral and beyond, Joy has the potential to shift the landscape – offering connection, identity, opportunity, and pride.

This is just the beginning. Dancefloor Intimacy will present their full report at our event Stories of a Setting Sun on 27th February 2026 – RSVP here. The report shares the community voices, design principles, and recommendations guiding the project, and we can’t wait to see it come to life in Joy.

-RSVP to our special event at Bloom Building here–

An important milestone in our build was reached this month. A bright, welcoming space that will serve as the heart of the Joy building, The Orangery structure is now complete.

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You’ll find the Orangery to front of Joy facing out into our courtyard. The space will serve as a light, comfortable area to meet, wait or relax. We’ll have lots more building updates for you in the coming months – stay tuned!

What is Joy, where is Joy and when’s it opening?

Joy DJs Come Together

Great music is in the DNA of Open Door. When Joy – our new home – opens in Summer 2025 we want to make sure it’s alive with spirit-nourishing sounds. From the playlists in our coffee shop through live bands on our stage to expert jockeys on the decks, Joy will be a bastion of mood-enhancing music.

But we’re not hanging around. In the lead-up to opening Joy DJs will be spinning tunes around the region. We’re excited to bring our concept to gigs, events, partner venues and other spaces that aren’t traditional homes to mental health conversations.

Joy DJs recently played UCL Policy Lab’s Come Together event at the Labour Party conference in September. The event celebrated the This Place Matters project, an initiative that chimes with Joy’s mission of meaningful connection and social cohesion.

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In November we’re taking our tunes to our neighbours Future Yard to warm up for Wirral’s own fantastic Dream Machine at their headline gig. We’re also supporting shows from The Shipbuilders in December as well as The Pill and Youth Sector as part of Independent Venue Week in the new year.

To give you an idea, check out our ‘Formidable Joy’ playlist. A selection of upbeat, stellar songs that we hope give you a lift. However, Joy is all about meaningful connection so we want to hear your odes to joy. Find our Joy DJ posts on social media and comment with your favourite joyful tracks.

Go ahead … who knows, your selection might soundtrack a calming cuppa in our venue cafe next year. We can’t wait to hear your tracks.

What is Joy, where is Joy and when’s it opening?

What gives you joy?

When Joy’s doors open in Summer 2026 the important work of ​​creating meaningful connection and developing better ways of working and living begins. Together. But before then, the Open Door team are setting about laying the foundations for Joy.

In September we were at the British Science Festival in Liverpool. In Liverpool One’s Peter Square we got help building our Joy Machine. Hundreds of people took the time to add their ideas to the machine. The Joy Machine is fuelled by the question ‘What gives you Joy?’

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In the spirit of the festival, there is joyous science behind simply thinking about what makes you happy. When you pause to remember things that bring you joy – for our friends at the British Science Festival it was everything from silence to skydiving, Tranmere Rovers to Chappell Roan, photography to sharing music – you’re actually giving your brain a little workout.

Positive emotions fire up your reward pathways, spark creativity, and even help you bounce back from stress faster (cheers, neuroplasticity!). We broaden our thinking and build resilience over time. Plus, it beats your brain’s bad habit of focusing on the negative.

And now the Joy Machine can help you. From the start of November you’ll see what brings people Joy. The Joy Machine board will be outside our new home the Old Treasury Annexe on Cleveland Street, Hamilton Square, Birkenhead. Take away some ideas, get thinking of what brings you joy, be part of it.

Keep your eye on more updates on the Joy Machine in the future.

What is Joy, where is Joy and when’s it opening?

Across the August bank holiday weekend (24th-25th), Joy featured as a venue showcasing live music as part of the the Future Now festival.

We kicked off the weekend with a Beats In Bliss yoga session from Inner Bliss, and followed it up with a whole host of bands and artists including Str^nge, Spilt Milk Society, the Montagues, Bright Town, and more.

What a weekend – big thanks to everyone that came down!

As of Thursday, 15th August 2024, Joy is under Open Door ownership!

This kicks off a very exciting period of development for Open Door and the space itself, and we can’t wait to take you along for what’s going to be a very special journey.

Watch this space for more…