Brickwork: A Biography of The Arches[9] was published by Salamander Street in November 2021 containing accounts from directors, DJs, performers, clubbers, artists, bar tenders, actors, audiences and staff.

[12][13] He was also inspired by the size and atmospherics of the space to put on unusual productions such as Arthur Miller's The Crucible in the building's damp, dark basement with the audience seated on church pews, Metropolis – The Theatre Cut, a promenade version of Fritz Lang's film featuring a cast of 100,[11] and a staging of Seamus Heaney's translation of the epic poem Beowulf.

[14] For the building's fifteenth anniversary in 2006, Arnold conceived and directed the critically acclaimed production Spend A Penny, a series of one-on-one monologues staged in the venue's toilet cubicles, featuring work by playwrights including Liz Lochhead.

[16]Between 2008 and 2015, The Arches developed a whole new generation of playwright-performers, including Rob Drummond, Kieran Hurley, Gary McNair and Julia Taudevin, and performance artists like Nic Green, Robert Softley Gale and Adrian Howells.

[17] Wylie commissioned and developed international touring multi-award-winning productions including Nic Green's Trilogy,[18][19] Rob Drummond's Bullet Catch and Kieran Hurley's Beats.

Pressure saw some of the largest names in dance music play The Arches, including Jeff Mills, Carl Craig, Derrick Carter, Richie Hawtin, Laurent Garnier, Felix da Housecat, Ricardo Villalobos, Boys Noize, Vitalic, and Erol Alkan.

Many celebrities were linked to this attraction, when staged in London, including: Sigourney Weaver, who participated; Sylvester Stallone, whose restaurant was next door, and declined to take part; and, Michael Jackson,[32] whose bodyguards visited but apparently didn't finish the tour.

The 2008 storyline is centred on an alien vessel being discovered in the basement by workmen, guarded by the military for the last couple of years, and to which visitors are escorted by "space marines".