The Stage

Scottish Opera buys land next door to expand theatre

Published Tuesday 13 October 2009 at 14:30 by Thom Dibdin

Scottish Opera has completed the purchase of land adjacent to its Glasgow base, the Theatre Royal, which will allow it to expand and upgrade the theatre at a cost of up to £8 million.

The venue’s main auditorium is a Category A listed building but the purchase of 360 square metres of land bordering the rear of the venue, which had previously been earmarked for flats and was being sold at a knock-down price because of the recession, will enable the company to expand and enhance its front of house facilities.

Scottish Opera director Alex Reedijk told The Stage: “It was a recession-led opportunity that coincided with a once in a century opportunity. If anyone had gone ahead and built flats on that bit of land, then it would have been another 100 years before you could unlock all of that.”

He added: “You have to have a theatre that is fit for purpose. While we have lovingly restored the Grade I [known as Category A in Scotland] listed auditorium, the overall audience experience has been slipping a bit. Our tenants [Ambassador Theatre Group, which managed the venue for Scottish Opera] are beginning to think about installing air conditioning into the theatre. In a parallel journey we want to look at the opportunity for foyers, bars, breakout rooms, lifts, toilets - all the things that add value to what the audience can get up to.”

The 1,547-seat, landlocked theatre was most recently rebuilt after fire in 1895. Scottish Television took it over in 1957 and used it for television studios, selling the building to Scottish Opera in 1972. ATG took over its commercial management as Scottish Opera’s tenants in 2005, running the theatre as a receiving house for touring productions.

Scottish Opera is starting the process of finding architects to design a scheme for them. Preliminary feasibility studies suggest a range of options costing anywhere between £4 and £8 million, according to Reedijk.

He said: “We don’t have a cost estimate because we don’t actually have a scheme yet, we are still searching for architects to unlock one. We purchased the land about a month ago but we have been in negotiations for over a year. It cost a very modest amount of money so we have been able to do that out of our capital reserves. I can’t say the number, but it is very much a recession-led opportunity.”

He added that ideally he wants the upgrade to be completed before the Commonwealth Games, which come to Glasgow in 2014.