The iconic Whiteladies Picture House is under threat as plans have been submitted to Bristol City Council to turn this beautiful building into a set of flats and a gym. But two men and their collective have no intention of letting that happen and they need your help.
It’s been just over 10 years since the Whiteladies Picture House closed its doors and like Sleeping Beauty it’s been waiting for a Prince to come and give it the kiss of life. However, Sleeping Beauty didn’t have a covenant on her that said she couldn’t be used as a cinema or for any other theatrical purpose. Having said that, no-one was determined to convert her into flats with a gym either, but that’s not the point of the analogy here...It turns out, Princes are like buses, and two have come along at once in the form of Alan Mandel Butler and David Fells.
When I turned up at the last
Equity meeting, having not been for ages and having not read the emails the branch had sent out (sorry!), I’ll be brutally honest, I was expecting David and Alan, to be in their late 60s with no plan for the building beyond stopping it being turned into flats. Oh how wrong I was:
My jaw dropped when they started to discuss their grand, yet financially viable, plan*. They intend to turn the Whiteladies Picture House into a community arts centre that consists of a 450 seat proscenium arch theatre, a separate 200 seat cinema/screening room, a large function room, foyer area, private meeting room and film edit suite.
They propose that the screening room/cinema would also be suitable for lectures and stand-up comedy. The function room, which was originally a ballroom (fully sprung), would be suitable for private functions or as a rehearsal space, cabaret comedy venue or as a large meeting room. They are also hoping that it will be put to its original use once again to host ballroom dance classes.
They aim to help local film-makers produce and showcase their work and hope to offer access to and training on film equipment, as well as a stock of owned cameras and access to the film edit suite. Completed films could then be showcased in the balcony cinema before the major features.
What is even more impressive is that they intend to do all of this whilst restoring this Grade II listed building to its former glory. They are both extremely passionate about old cinemas and understand, as well as appreciate, their cultural and historical significance. With this in mind they have been researching the building and sourcing vintage pieces they would love to purchase to restore the building with the love and care it desperately needs.
So what is stopping them from putting all of this into action? Money and Time. Not the covenant, as you might think, but money and the time they need to raise the money. Here’s why: the guys have worked tirelessly and have met with Odeon cinemas who will lift the covenant if The Whiteladies Picture House Ltd (the not-for-profit company they created to oversee the renovation and redevelopment of the Picture House building**) can secure the building. But securing the building is the problem.
The current landlord of the property has expressed no interest in the proposal itself, but would be willing to sell the property to The Whiteladies Picture House Ltd. So Alan, David and the rest of the Whiteladies Picture House Creative Collective (the group of people who have come together because they believe the project is something the city needs) started fundraising, but somewhere in the middle of all this, their hard work reminded other investors that the Picture House was lying unused and suddenly other proposals, old and new, started to creep out of the woodwork.
Worse still, the decision to grant planning permission for the flats and gym is pending and will be decided in a few days time on Wednesday 27th June 2012. This is where they need your help:
If the plans are passed, it’s the end for the Whiteladies Picture House as a community arts centre. So, assuming you cannot furnish them with £1.7million to buy the freehold, you can help them by
signing the petition to support their proposal and/or you can lodge an objection to the flats/gym conversion by
leaving a comment on the planning proposal. The relevant links can also be found below and on their website.
I really hope that David, Alan and The Collective are successful, because they have a fantastic, community-oriented vision for the Picture House; a stunning, culturally significant building which shouldn’t be consigned to history when there’s an opportunity for it to be part of our future.
I have provided a brief overview of the proposal in this post, but there is a lot more to it, so for further information
visit their website.
*They mention the viability on their website, but at the Equity meeting concerns were raised about how they would generate income if they were successful in their plan and make the Picture House financially viable in the current economic climate. The answers they gave demonstrated a clear business plan and quelled the concerns.
** Once restored, this company intends to take on day-to-day operation of the venue.
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