Popular Northampton indoor play centre celebrates decade of providing fun for the whole family

A popular Northampton indoor play centre has this week celebrated a decade of providing fun for the whole family.

Riverside Hub, in Carousel Way, first opened its doors to the public on August 21, 2013 and is run by Valentina and Ellis Potter.

Through providing an evolving space for children to play, learn, create and party, the venue has become a firm favourite for families across the town, county and beyond over the past 10 years.

Marking the occasion on social media, a statement from the owners read: “Can you believe it’s been 10 years since we first opened?

“There’s been lots of changes over the years, thousands of birthdays celebrated and countless happy memories made.

“We would like to thank everyone who has helped us over those years to get to where we are now. All our wonderful team and all our lovely customers. Thank you.”

Valentina and Ellis are hands-on owners, getting involved with the families at Riverside Hub whenever they can.

This journey began for them in 2011 when they were expecting their second daughter and bought a house that required a full renovation.

As house renovation was not Valentina’s idea of fun, she set her sights on opening a new indoor play centre.

Ellis was not initially convinced and perceived it as too risky of an idea, until Valentina brought it up again months later when they came to the end of their house renovation – when she was determined to make it a success.

Having spent months visiting existing indoor play centres and making a list of their likes, dislikes and ideas of their own, that was when they secured the massive empty space of a unit in Carousel Way.

The pair remortgaged their home, borrowed money from family members and threw everything they had into reaching the million pounds they needed to make their vision a reality.

“We have always gone with our gut instinct,” said Ellis. “If the Hub had failed then we would have lost everything.

“We knew this, but we also trusted our instincts. We trusted ourselves that we knew parents’ wants and needs – and that there were enough families in the area to make sense of it all.

“It was a gamble for sure, but we felt the dice were slightly loaded in our favour.”

And their success was helped by hiring their manager Lorraine Murphy, who they believed had everything they were lacking.

With a quick turnaround to launch in August 2013 before the end of the summer holidays, the team hoped for a steady launch – but “from day one, the place was rammed” and Ellis describes the first six months as “a blur”.

To stop any competitors from stealing their piece of the pie, they reinvested all profits into more play equipment and spent thousands when they got wind another play centre was opening down the road.

They now employ a small team of tech experts to build all the complex sensory areas, once Valentina has come up with the vision.

Ellis said: “Now we are packed with unique items that are far more interesting and exciting than you can buy.”

The Hub had to close for 10 months on and off throughout the pandemic, described as a “mentally tough time” with thousands of pounds going out each week and next to nothing coming in.

Valentina and Ellis spent their time in lockdown building ‘Hub Towers’, a new two-storey roleplay building with a snazzy interior.

The silver lining of the pandemic was the Hub’s online booking system, which now allows them to track how many people visit the play centre and spread visitors throughout the day.

With very little queuing and the chance to reserve their parking spot, things now run a lot smoother for everyone – including “the small army of 100 people” it takes to run the business.

This year, the owners are spending a seven figure sum on a “huge” new play area that Valentina has been planning for two years. The end result will effectively be a play centre within a play centre.

Having invested millions in making the Hub “a unique place that is hard to pin down”, the team is now proud that the indoor play centre is a “one-off”.

A question that often gets asked of Ellis and Valentina is whether they plan to open other sites in different areas across the country.

“By reinvesting, reinvesting, reinvesting, instead of opening another half a dozen sites, we’ve created something very special and certainly unique,” said Ellis, who is proud of the way they maintain and clean the “ever-changing range” of play equipment.

The aim for Riverside Hub is not just to be an indoor play centre, but somewhere unique and unlike anywhere else.

Ellis said: “Somewhere the whole family can visit and be blown away by the sheer number of exciting things to see and do.”

With the new additions that are currently being built, the team hopes visitors will find they are getting closer to that goal – and the first decade of Riverside Hub was only the beginning.

For more information on Riverside Hub, visit the indoor play centre’s website here.