Save The Exchange for Stroud!
This is an invitation to invest in community shares to secure the future of The Exchange, – a thriving community hub and workspace in Stroud town centre.
Be part of our community's bid to own The Exchange forever!
The Exchange is a well-loved community hub and shared workspace on Brick Row in the heart of Stroud. Once a Victorian girls’ school,
The Exchange has been an incubator for creativity, a launchpad for innovation and a vibrant site for collaboration and connectivity for almost 20 years.
We need to raise £350,000 to buy this historic building and take The Exchange into community ownership forever.
You can help us by investing in community shares in Stroud Common Wealth Community Benefit Society (SCW), who refurbished and have managed The Exchange since 2007.
Our lease runs out in 2027, and we now have the chance to buy the building from our private landlord at a fair price.
How you can get involved…
Join our mailing list
Donate funds
Spread the word
Why The Exchange Matters…
Affordable, accessible co-working and hot-desking for social enterprises, charities, freelancers and small businesses.
Every step that we make as a community to take control of our assets makes us more secure, protects access to vital services and helps keep our wealth where it matters most – locally.
I am excited about this opportunity to purchase The Exchange for the benefit of us all.
Dr Simon Opher MP
About this share offer
To raise the money to buy The Exchange, we are pursuing several options including loans, grants, donations and a mortgage offer from Charity Bank.
But we hope to raise as much as possible from this share offer.
More shareholders mean more community participation and more money to invest in The Exchange.
Buying shares makes you a member of Stroud Common Wealth, giving you:
A voice and a vote in how SCW and The Exchange are run
Interest payments of up to 3% after the first two years, subject to financial performance
A hand in sustaining a well-loved community hub in the heart of Stroud
This is an investment in the social, cultural and economic wellbeing of Stroud…
• Voting rights: one member, one vote, regardless of how many shares you own
What to do next …
Read our Share Offer Prospectus
Come to our launch party…
…on Saturday 20 June from 11.00am at The Exchange, Brick Row, Stroud GL5 1DF
Fill out the Share Offer application form
You can find this at the back of the prospectus or download a copy below
About Stroud Common Wealth
Since 1999, Stroud Common Wealth (SCW) has been promoting economic, social and cultural development in Stroud and the surrounding area.
In 2025, we became a community benefit society committed to supporting community groups and local enterprises, reinvesting our profits in the community and encouraging democratic participation in local economic life.
SCW is a democratic organisation controlled by its members. We employ only one part-time administrator and our directors are unpaid.
We are a financially solvent community business: we pay our running costs from income, maintain modest reserves and re-invest our profits back into The Exchange or other community projects.
The beginning – Lansdown Hall
SCW was founded in 1999 with the aim of securing Lansdown Hall in Stroud for the community.
The Exchange
The Exchange is a well-loved community hub and shared workspace on Brick Row in the heart of Stroud. Once a Victorian girls’ school, The Exchange has been an incubator for creativity, a launchpad for innovation and a vibrant site for collaboration and connectivity for almost 20 years.
Gloucestershire Land for People
CLTs are now enshrined in law as a legal model, to a large extent due to the efforts of the National CLT Network, which had one of its inaugural meetings at the Exchange in Stroud.
Rodborough Fields
Within a very tight timeframe, Stroud Common Wealth helped a community group to raise funds and publicise their campaign. A successful purchase and transfer to Community ownership was completed in less that a year.
…This unique opportunity to buy The Exchange…
“My aim for ‘The Exchange! – that it continues enabling and supporting essential community projects in the Stroud area”
The home of SCW boasts an enviable track record as an essential community focused agency for change
Over the past years projects kickstarted in this key venue have proved of demonstrable benefit to our community – its too valuable an asset to lose
The Exchange is Stroud at its best: friendly, well-run and community minded. It’s an affordable hub for many local groups and a great resource for local businesses and creative people. As soon as you walk in, you know good things happen here.
My wish! – to continue enabling organisations such as Timebanking’ – matching altruistic volunteer time with the key skills that promote community building
The Exchange is Strouds anchor hub for enabling social businesses, supporting creative and community enterprises, for holding dialogues between civil society, local government and business on burning local questions.
SCW must continue its invaluable contribution as a forum for the grass roots projects that help to counter social isolation and housing deprivation within our 5
valleys
The Exchange offers what it says on the packet! – it’s a catalyst enabling us to explore common ground so ideas may flourish in support of projects of genuine value to our Stroud community
