Festival Hall Proposal Letter - Newspaper Cutting, 1975
Title
Festival Hall Proposal Letter - Newspaper Cutting, 1975
Date
3 September 1975
Description
Letter sent to and printed in the Nottingham Evening Post regarding the proposed Festival Hall development by Nottingham City Council.
What's the story?
In the 1970s it was the vision of Nottingham City Council, under the leadership of Councillors Len Maynard and John Carroll, to create innovative and major changes to the Theatre Royal and its surrounding buildings.
With the idea of a Festival Hall complex, which would include a refurbished and modernised Theatre Royal, on the site of the now razed Empire Theatre on South Sherwood Street would stand a new Concert Hall.
In order to enable the Theatre Royal to accommodate new offices, dressing rooms and a large loading bay to enable large-scale work from visiting companies, it was also proposed that the Victorian built County Hotel, immediately adjacent to the Theatre Royal be purchased and demolished.
At a time of austerity in Britain, these proposals were controversial due to the large amounts of money to be spent on the project, as well as the demolition of the County Hotel, a much-loved building in the city.
The arguments for and against these proposals were regularly played out on the letters page of the Nottingham Evening Post, the local daily paper for the city and whose offices at the time were directly opposite the proposed Concert Hall site on Forman Street.
This letter from Mary Johnson in Edwalton offers a balanced view of the argument, seeing the importance to “save our Theatre Royal”, but concerned about the proposed demolition … “Why pull down a good building like the County Hotel? Why cannot part of it be taken over to provide better facilities for the stars who we hope will visit the Theatre Royal in the future and therefore bring life and trade to that part of the city.”
With the idea of a Festival Hall complex, which would include a refurbished and modernised Theatre Royal, on the site of the now razed Empire Theatre on South Sherwood Street would stand a new Concert Hall.
In order to enable the Theatre Royal to accommodate new offices, dressing rooms and a large loading bay to enable large-scale work from visiting companies, it was also proposed that the Victorian built County Hotel, immediately adjacent to the Theatre Royal be purchased and demolished.
At a time of austerity in Britain, these proposals were controversial due to the large amounts of money to be spent on the project, as well as the demolition of the County Hotel, a much-loved building in the city.
The arguments for and against these proposals were regularly played out on the letters page of the Nottingham Evening Post, the local daily paper for the city and whose offices at the time were directly opposite the proposed Concert Hall site on Forman Street.
This letter from Mary Johnson in Edwalton offers a balanced view of the argument, seeing the importance to “save our Theatre Royal”, but concerned about the proposed demolition … “Why pull down a good building like the County Hotel? Why cannot part of it be taken over to provide better facilities for the stars who we hope will visit the Theatre Royal in the future and therefore bring life and trade to that part of the city.”
Type
Newspaper Cutting
Location of item
Theatre Royal & Royal Concert Hall Nottingham
Rights
Theatre Royal & Royal Concert Hall Nottingham
Contributor
Researcher: David Longford
