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Threat to an icon
It has been described by those in the k now as "the most magnificent palace of amusement in the world."
That's the Winter Gardens, Blackpool, for those in any doubt as to the
national and international significance of an iconic complex now topping the list of Britain's most endangered theatres.
That description is the title of Professor Vanessa Toulmin's Monday keynote speech to up to 200 conference delegates, from coastal resorts around the world, brainstorming at the Winter Gardens.
The complex is in such peril The Theatres Trust, national advisory public body for theatres, this week placed the Opera House at the very top of its 2009 Theatre Buildings At Risk Register of 82 "abandoned" theatres and others "suffering neglect under the hands of their owners."
The trust says that press reports of the threat of demolition and the poor state of repair propelled the Winter Gardens' Opera House to the top of the list.
It is one of 13 new entries, one of four new (and grade two listed) entries to the top 10.
Professor Vanessa has scrapped her prepared speech – on the relative merits of east and west coast resorts – in favour of "The Most Magnificent Palace of Amusement in the World."
She will tell delegates that the building in which they are meeting is "a unique example of the extraordinary entertainment of the 19th century, a national and international development of seaside and urban traditions."
She will hail its white facade, and Alhambra-style brick and glass, as "cosmopolitan, international in scope and ambition, aspirations
continuing to mirror the development in Blackpool as a seaside resort."
There are 2000 more words praising the aspirations and importance of the late Victorian Pavilion Theatre; art deco Opera House; Spanish Hall, Galleon Bar, Baronial, Windsor and Renaissance rooms – designed by eminent British film set designer Andrew Mazzei.
There is no mention of the threat to the complex in Professor
Toulmin's address, but it's there, to be read between the lines, and in the passion of the woman delivering it, who hopes it will be saved for the next generation of bit part players on the seaside scene.
The writing is on the walls of the increasingly dilapidated but far from unloved building, its legacy treated so lightly by custodians, companies such as Leisure Parcs, who call themselves "owners" and yet rack up a 20m projected repair bill for maintenance.
Could they have the clout to change or even end it all for the Winter
Gardens?
Not without a fight by the council, community, MPs calling for English
Heritage action, civic watchdogs and others organising themselves into Friends of ... and other campaign groups.
And now The Theatres Trust has joined the battle.
Leisure Parcs is studying options for the massive entertainment complex.
Some experts consulted reckon it has "little purpose" in the modern world.
The company itself says the "four-and-a-half acre site in a key location in the centre of the town cannot be left as a memorial to the past."
But it has some heavyweight champions – not least those
delegates for a conference which opens with a Blackpool focus
tomorrow.
Organiser, Professor John Walton (above right), of the Centre for Tourism and Culture Change, will leave delegates to the Resorting to the Coast: Tourism, Heritage and Cultures of the Seaside conference in no doubt as to the worth of the Winter Gardens.
He says: "It is is absolutely central to Blackpool's historical identity as the world's first working-class seaside resort.
"No UNESCO World Heritage Site bid would have credibility without it – Blackpool would be an industrial WHS like Saltaire or Ironbridge Gorge or Blaenavon, in what is now a strong tradition of such sites, but it would be the popular entertainment and tourism industry which is just as important as coal and cotton, and still alive in this country.
"The Winter Gardens is a pleasure factory, part of the commercial
production of happiness (flawed, but often real) that produces a cultural landscape and tradition of shared enjoyment and carnival.
"It goes back to posh origins in the mid-1870s, associated with Dr W.H. Cocker who was a key founding father of Blackpool, but it soon opened its doors to the trippers from the cotton towns, as William Holland, imported from the London variety stage, invited punters to come and spit on his hundred-guinea carpet, in the knowledge that that was the last thing they'd do and that they would see the joke.
"It runs through popular memories of Blackpool holidays like the letters in a stick of rock, and this applies especially to dancing in the Empress Ballroom and to spectacular shows in the Opera House.
"It is a huge collection of buildings, architecture and decorative schemes reflecting changing tastes and pleasure preferences throughout Blackpool's history, and a list of its performers is a roll-call of popular British live entertainment. It is a national treasure."
And once it's gone, it's gone. Ask campaigners at Prof Vanessa's home town of Morecambe fighting to revive their Winter Gardens.
Talk to the Friends of the Grand - a theatre which wouldn't be standing today without their help, even if it took bingo to keep the house safe until it could turn to theatre again.
North Pier Theatre is open today- thanks to people power. Campaigns show ultimate "ownership" rests with the people.
Neither Toulmin nor Walton are arty farty academics but have feet planted firmly in the ground. They know their popular culture. Vanessa, now director of the national fairground archive at Sheffield University, and presenter of Blackpool's Showzam and Admission All Classes entertainments extravaganza, is from fairground stock herself, raised in Morecambe, but has fallen under Blackpool's spell.
She's seen what happened to Morecambe, the rise of social deprivation with the fall of the attractions, indeed her own family was directly affected.
For some time she was so alienated she claimed to come from Lancaster.
"What's happening there now has come 20 years too late," she admits, "but it's not too late to save Blackpool. We can still reverse things here."
Come Monday, delegates will return to some of the most stylish
resorts in the world, homes of posh marinas, havens for hedonists,
cultural retreats – from this working class resort, the first of its kind in the world, arguably still the best at what it does ... and they will look to the gilded architecture, walk with the ghosts of Bernhardt and Caruso, and pray the character of this great building can not only be preserved but improved upon.
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Weather for Blackpool
Wednesday 30 May 2012
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