In 2010, after a new Phoenix Square opened on the other side of the city centre, the space became the Upper Brown Street Theatre, a music-training and performance venue.

The theatre's roster of directors includes Clive Perry, Michael Bogdanov, Chris Martin, Ian Giles, Sue Pomeroy, Graham Watkins, Paul Wetherby and Adrian Bean, and actors such as Nigel Bennett, Roberta Kerr, Heather Sears, Perry Cree, Anthony Hopkins and Greta Scacci.

It developed new writers, notably Sue Townsend, and premiered many productions that went on to national acclaim, such as The Hobbit and The Secret Diary of Adrian Mole.

It was renamed the Phoenix Arts Centre and functioned alongside the Haymarket until 1987, when financial issues forced the LCC to reconsider its support.

A decision to close the centre was averted in 1988 by support from Leicester Polytechnic (now De Montfort University) and the LCC, and while the Phoenix was no longer a producing theatre, it continued as a venue for contemporary art, film and live performances.

Social enterprise organisation Leicester Stride, a major element in one of the other bids, was invited to play a part in the centre's future.

[1] From the late 1970s, local letterpress printer Toni Savage, of The New Broom Press, took to distributing 8"×5" broadsheets through the theatre, and other channels.