The Circle Bacup: A Venue Platform Built for Real Life | Drystone IT

A listed 1877 church turned community hub needed more than a brochure site: a proper events calendar, table bookings, play-area sessions and card payments, all in one place.

The Circle Bacup is a community arts and heritage venue in a listed 1877 former church on Fern Street — brunch, handmade pizzas, live music, venue hire, Beyroot Lebanese evenings, and a children's play area, all under one roof. When they came to us, they didn't just need a website that looked the part. They needed something that could actually run the venue.

Like a lot of cafés and event spaces, much of their programme lived on social media: a post here, a story there, easy to miss if you weren't looking at the right time. We built the site around a proper events calendar, the single place to see what's on, what's bookable, and what's coming up, not buried in a feed that disappears by tomorrow.

That calendar ties into everything else: table bookings for special dinners, play-area sessions parents can book without ringing up, venue hire enquiries, and an admin area staff can use from a phone during a busy service.

The Challenge

Most venue websites stop at a nice homepage and a contact form. The Circle needed the full loop: tell people what's on, let them book and pay, send confirmations, and give staff one place to manage it, without juggling separate tools for tickets, payments and messages.

A clear events calendar the team can update themselves — not relying on social posts alone

Bookings that work differently for a Christmas dinner, a pizza night, or a simple headcount event

Secure card payments on the venue's own website

Children's play-area sessions with their own simple booking flow

What We Built

An events calendar at the centre

The calendar is the heart of the site. Regulars and newcomers alike can see what's on this week, browse upcoming events, and jump straight to a booking page when something needs a deposit or a table. Behind the scenes, the team can add one-off events or recurring series (live music every Friday, a monthly supper club, a special Beyroot evening) and change details without starting from scratch each time.

That solves a real frustration for venues: social media is brilliant for atmosphere, but terrible as a diary. Posts scroll away, algorithms hide things, and you're never quite sure who actually saw the date. The website is the reliable source of truth.

Bookings that fit each occasion

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AI integration — Practical use of LLMs, RAG and agents inside your product or operations. We pick what pays back.
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Maintenance & care — Ongoing development, monitoring and quiet improvement — for the long-term life of your product.

Contact

Phone: 07434 859543. Email: contact@drystoneit.co.uk. Hours: Mon – Sun · 8am – 8pm.

Based in Rossendale, Lancashire. Registered office: Millstone, Tong Lane, Bacup, OL13 9XB.