Restoration solutions

Published Monday 4 August 2008 at 12:05

In a letter to The Stage that you printed over 30 years ago, I pointed out that in association with a leading altruistic property developer, we tried to buy the freeholds of several London theatres to - quite frankly - upgrade them. The major problem then was the reluctance of the landlords to sell. We envisaged several ways of restoring them including, selling off the air rights to build office/flats over the roofs and doing a “Lyric Hammersmith” by storing the unique interiors prior to major development. Also as most of the older theatres are second or third rebuilds anyway, just redevelop the sites like the old Stoll and bring them into the modern world.

Amazingly enough, Cameron Mackintosh managed to buy the freeholds of at least five theatres we looked at and has put the Lottery Committees to shame by doing a superb job at half the cost.

Some other theatre proprietors have also performed as much as capital will allow, but we are approaching the time for quite radical solutions. These could include extending ownership of the freeholds to a special West End Preservation Trust that could raise the capital to restore and then lease back theatres to commercial operators.

I therefore wish Nica Burns the best of luck in her endeavours to seek solutions to the restoration of our theatres, the loss of which, I think is fair to say, would damage our tourist industry.

Michael Wheatley-Ward

Vale Square

Ramsgate

Kent