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Theatres crumble with age
A REPORT into Theatreland’s crumbling playhouses has revealed a “desperate need” of urgent repair works.
More than £250 million is needed to restore the West End’s 40 venues to their former glory, the report from the London Assembly found.
Report author Bob Blackman criticised a history of under-investment dating from before the Second World War.
Most theatres, he said, have a lack of toilet facilities, bad seating and poor sightlines, as well as structural and aesthetic works.
The Garrick was singled out as particularly in need of repair.
Mr Blackman said: “The issue of securing funding for improvements to West End Theatres has reached an impasse and for most theatre owners the last five years of debate have thrown up no answers.
“There does need to be a willingness among theatre owners to take a more creative approach and look at options – or a combination of options – that they may not previously have considered.”
He warned that the London Olympics would heap more misery on the industry as the Department of Culture, Media and Sport scrambled to foot a growing bill.
The report outlines corporate sponsorship, fundraising campaigns and bond schemes as possible solutions to a crisis that comes as Theatreland recorded record-breaking audience numbers for 2007.
But Mark Field MP, for Cities and Westminster, said: “Despite the boom in ticket sales it is the producers who hire venues, not the theatre-owners themselves, who take box office receipts. The need for a levy on each ticket sold is therefore one idea that is being debated in order for the real estate to live up to the demands of modern theatre-goers.
He added: “I suspect that the next generation of attendees may not be altogether convinced by the charms of crumbling Victorian buildings!” |
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