Blackpool bids to host Theatre Museum

Published Monday 4 December 2006 at 10:45 by Alistair Smith

Blackpool has launched a surprise bid to become the new home of the Theatre Museum when its Covent Garden base closes in the New Year.

Blackpool Council and the Victoria and Albert Museum have announced that they are working together on a feasibility study for the establishment of a new National Theatre Museum in the seaside town with displays drawn from the V&A’s theatrical collections.

V&A director Mark Jones explained: “The V&A is committed to showing the theatrical collections to as wide an audience as possible. Blackpool has a strong theatrical and entertainment tradition, and the city attracts millions of visitors a year. A new museum in Blackpool could provide a wonderful platform to tell the story of British theatre.”

Several locations are being considered as part of the feasibility study. Blackpool also has a number of collections which could be added to the museum. Theatre archive material from the Pleasure Beach, the Tower Circus and the Grand Theatre would represent local heritage and add to the national collection.

Councillor David Owen, culture and leisure spokesperson for Blackpool Council, said: “Blackpool has a proud entertainment heritage, arguably unparalleled anywhere in the country except London, and the north west is rich in superb theatres including the Exchange in Manchester and the Everyman in Liverpool.

“As home to the National Theatre of Variety, we feel we are ideally placed to host a new National Theatre Museum. The V&A has an extremely important national collection of costumes, props, set designs, programmes and photographs which together represent the history of the great institution of British theatre. “

For more on this story see this week’s print edition of The Stage.