Cllr Chris Gibson Interview: Theatre Square or Times Square?
Title
Cllr Chris Gibson Interview: Theatre Square or Times Square?
Date
10 April 2018
Description
Oral history interview with Nottingham City Councillor Chris Gibson.
What's the story?
Chris Gibson was first elected as a Labour Party Councillor for Nottingham City Councillor in May 1979. This was the day after Margaret Thatcher entered Downing Street for the first time.
Born and brought up in Nottingham, Councillor Gibson has been on many committees, as well being Lord Mayor of Nottingham in 1990 and Sheriff of Nottingham in 1998.
He represents the people of Clifton South and is currently Chair of the Planning Committee, a role he has held for many years.
In this interview Cllr Gibson talks about the electronic signage that was once above the Theatre Royal portico and how his opposition to it clashed with John Carroll, Leader of the City Council.
I was on the Planning Committee and one of the sub-committees of the Planning Committee was the Conservation Areas Advisory Committee. This sounds a bit boring, but it wasn’t, because one of the side things that John wanted to do, and it was him and his assistant, Len Maynard, and the Chief Engineer (he was called the Director of Technical Services), John Haslam, they wanted to continue to work on the Theatre Royal, and they had a proposal to build a news telescreen, very similar to what you’d find in Times Square, a newscaster, a thin ribbon of electronic newscasting.
But they proposed to put it, having spent all the money on the classical frontage of the Theatre Royal, across the top of the pediment, above the columns and there was a lot of people who were against this. Some people said it was dangerous. If drivers were driving up Market Street or along Parliament Street and they were looking at the news on this, they might crash the car. The Conservation Area’s people, people who believed in conserving old buildings and they were not happy at all. There was no indication I had to vote: it wasn’t a vote anyway, it was an advisory committee, but we all spoke against this and we all said this was a bad idea. That got me into a lot of trouble because that very same afternoon both John Carroll and then John Haslam, who is Chief Engineer on the project, came down, sat in the room, glared at us, shuffled more papers about because they couldn’t speak and then shuffled some more papers and went off and I realised there that I’d probably done the wrong thing and in fact I still don’t think that it was the best idea.
It was actually on the front of the Theatre Royal for about 10 or 15 years. Some people might remember it, and it was removed, I think, in the last 20 years, so we don’t have it now, but that’s the memory that perhaps shouldn’t really be forgotten about, as well.
Born and brought up in Nottingham, Councillor Gibson has been on many committees, as well being Lord Mayor of Nottingham in 1990 and Sheriff of Nottingham in 1998.
He represents the people of Clifton South and is currently Chair of the Planning Committee, a role he has held for many years.
In this interview Cllr Gibson talks about the electronic signage that was once above the Theatre Royal portico and how his opposition to it clashed with John Carroll, Leader of the City Council.
I was on the Planning Committee and one of the sub-committees of the Planning Committee was the Conservation Areas Advisory Committee. This sounds a bit boring, but it wasn’t, because one of the side things that John wanted to do, and it was him and his assistant, Len Maynard, and the Chief Engineer (he was called the Director of Technical Services), John Haslam, they wanted to continue to work on the Theatre Royal, and they had a proposal to build a news telescreen, very similar to what you’d find in Times Square, a newscaster, a thin ribbon of electronic newscasting.
But they proposed to put it, having spent all the money on the classical frontage of the Theatre Royal, across the top of the pediment, above the columns and there was a lot of people who were against this. Some people said it was dangerous. If drivers were driving up Market Street or along Parliament Street and they were looking at the news on this, they might crash the car. The Conservation Area’s people, people who believed in conserving old buildings and they were not happy at all. There was no indication I had to vote: it wasn’t a vote anyway, it was an advisory committee, but we all spoke against this and we all said this was a bad idea. That got me into a lot of trouble because that very same afternoon both John Carroll and then John Haslam, who is Chief Engineer on the project, came down, sat in the room, glared at us, shuffled more papers about because they couldn’t speak and then shuffled some more papers and went off and I realised there that I’d probably done the wrong thing and in fact I still don’t think that it was the best idea.
It was actually on the front of the Theatre Royal for about 10 or 15 years. Some people might remember it, and it was removed, I think, in the last 20 years, so we don’t have it now, but that’s the memory that perhaps shouldn’t really be forgotten about, as well.
Type
Oral interview
Location of item
Theatre Royal & Royal Concert Hall
Rights
Theatre Royal & Royal Concert Hall
Contributor
Interviewers: Julia Holmes & Sue Threakall
Transcriber: David Chilton
Transcriber: David Chilton
