The Grand Pavilion Ltd – New Future Announced

More than 50 Matlock Bath residents packed into the Community Room in the Grand Pavilion to launch “The Grand Pavilion Ltd” and its two sub-groups. Over 40 of them then joined “The Friends of The Grand Pavilion”. “The Friends….” group will raise awareness and tap the enormous support that the Grand Pavilion has in the area. It will raise money for the project by subscriptions and some events. Members will be kept informed about progress on the project.

The first event occurred immediately after the meeting when new members could see for themselves how the project would work out including a tour of some parts of the building.

The second group launched on the night, was the group; which will become the motor for getting the grant aid and later the building work done. Nick Whitehead, Dave Mowle, Charles Beresford and I, who have all seen the project through from its inception 14 months ago, joined the committee of the Matlock Bath Pavilion Group. We hope to be joined soon by at least one other member.

This is a real boost for the project. These two groups will change us from being a campaigning group to a Charity ready to take the project on to the next stage. I hope ‘The Friends….’ group will draw in hundreds of supporters and build the support we have into a solid membership; which will be a tremendous asset.

In the meantime, The Matlock Bath Pavilion Group will be the doing an enormous amount of work. It will be responsible for all the Grant applications, required to get the funding of this project off the ground. It will not be so visible but, behind the scenes will be to make this project a reality.

Gregor

Charitable Status!

Today The Grand Pavilion Limited announced that it has been registered as a Charity . This is the second pillar we needed, from which we can build the next stage of our project for the Pavilion. With this news we can now announce new things: Firstly, we will be launching “The Friends of the Grand Pavilion”; which allows us to tap that great pool of support we have in the area – and wider afield – and start the process of raising the large amount of money needed to complete this project. We will have various levels of member, depending on what people want to give. These gifts can be “gift aided” giving us the tax benefits we are now entitled to. “’The Friends…’ group is launched with our first Patron, Simon Groom, who spent much time in The Grand Pavilion as a youth. He may never have become the nationally famous celebrity that Simon now is, had he not had his eyes opened to the world; by the events organised in the Grand Pavilion in the sixties. We hope to be announcing more patrons over the next few weeks and months. To pull all this together we are also launching a new website; http://www.thegrandpavilion.com/ , which will belong to ‘The Friends…’ group. Gregor

AGM Announcement

Our AGM will be on Monday 28th March at 6.30pm In the Community Centre at the back of The Grand Pavilion There will be a short AGM followed by the opportunity for you can see for yourself how our plans may work out. All are welcome. Gregor

A New Dawn for the Grand Pavilion

Press Release from “The Grand Pavilion Ltd”

Today Derbyshire Dales District Council’s Regeneration and Partnership Committee unanimously voted to grant a lease to The Grand Pavilion Ltd. This means that the group can now go ahead to obtain grants necessary for the restoration and refurbishment of the building. A number of councillors, including Lewis Rose and Council Leader Geoff Stevens praised the group for the professionalism of their work. In a short speech prior to the discussion, Pavilion Group leader, Gregor Macgregor said; “ 13½ months ago a group of residents got together to save the Grand Pavilion and had little expectation of success. With the professionalism, help and assistance of the council officers and the support of this committee we are able to reach agreement on a lease. We can now move forward to apply for the funding required for the restoration and refurbishment of the building. I hope that the partnership that we have built up with the District Council will carry on to a successful result. “The road ahead will be a long and difficult one. It will take time to get the necessary funding together. I believe that we will come up with the results in the end. Thereby we will be able to justify the faith that you have put in us.” The Grand Pavilion will provide a photo opportunity outside the Grand Pavilion itself. Please contact Dave Mowle at Treetops, Upperwood. 07976 262624 (or if no reply try Tel. 584387).

Gregor

New Objectives for The Grand Pavilion Ltd

We have just altered the Objectives section of our constitution; so as to meet the requests of the Charities Commission. These will be visible in Companies House soon, but are listed below: 1) To further or benefit the residents of Matlock Bath, Derbyshire and the neighbourhood, without distinction of sex, sexual orientation, race or of political, religious or other opinions by associating together the said residents and the local authorities, voluntary and other organisations in a common effort to advance education and to provide facilities in the interests of social welfare for sport and recreation leisure time occupation with the objective of improving the conditions of life for the residents. In furtherance of these objects but not otherwise, the trustees shall have power: To establish or secure the establishment of a community centre and to maintain or manage or co-operate with any statutory authority in the maintenance and management of such a centre for activities promoted by the charity in furtherance of the above objects. 2) To advance the education of the public in the understanding and appreciation of the arts. 3) Such charitable purposes for the benefit of the public as the trustees shall think fit. With these altered Objectives, we should be able to get Charitable Status very soon. Gregor Macgregor, Chairman

A Lease is Recommended

Derbyshire Dales District Council’s officers published their recommendation that the Matlock Bath Pavilion Group be granted a lease. I welcome this proposal. If agreed by the District Council, the lease would be a 3-year headlease for The Grand Pavilion in Matlock Bath with an option to purchase the building if the Group can raise the money necessary to repair and renovate the building. I want to thank the council’s officers for their professionalism and clear-sightedness. Throughout the process of discussions with them, they have been clear that their proposal must be workable and long-lasting. They have appreciated that whilst this project contains some risk, we may not be able to raise the necessary money for instance, the costs of failure are far greater. I hope that Councillors agree to the officers’ recommendation. This will allow us to start the long process of obtaining the grant funding we need to restore the Grand Pavilion to its former glory. See the council's press release. Gregor, Chairman

Cromford Village Festival day One

Day one is over and a large number of people visited the stall. It is not quite the same as being in the Pavilion Pump Room but very visible, up against the wall of "The Boat Inn". I will do an analysis of the results of the surveys, that visitors completed, when I do the next post. Gregor

Cromford Village Festival

Come and see us in Cromford! We will have our stand at the Cromford Village Festival. It will show the plans and the Blog entries found here, wiich talk about what we hope to do in each section of the building. Gregor

The Second day of the Open Days

Two hectic days and now the Open Days are complete; time for a well earned rest! We have had 276 people through our doors and our plans have received a rapturous reception. Especial thanks must go to Nick Whitehead for organising the whole event; Mark Crowfoot for the fantastic “Artists Impressions”; Mike Askey for the amazing plans; Robert Evans for the sketches; The Mining Museum for the use of the Pump Room; Bob Grayson for organising the bucket collection.That bucket collection raised £295.10, which more than paid our costs, and lots of people helped by holding a bucket.But the biggest thank you must go to all of you who visited the Pump Room and saw the plans; contributed ideas; and gave us some money. These ideas will be collated over the next few days and I will do another post with some of the results. Gregor

The First day of the Open Days

Well the first day is over and I can declare it a good success. There was a good turnout from members of the committee and I believe that every question that was asked got answered. About 140 people have viewed the plans and many of them have completed forms giving their views. Those forms, and the comments on them, will help us to produce better plans. We will take all the comments into account and I feel sure there will be something there that we have missed! The Derby Evening Telegraph arrived and spoke to a number of people, they were impressed with our plans and organisation and I believe we will get a good article on Monday. We had a bucket collection and a number of people took part. Thanks for Bob Grayson for organising it. So far we have raised around £220, so well done everyone who helped. The Mining Museum had their open event, for Matlock Bath Residents, in the evening. The committee were well pleased with the turnout of residents; who enjoyed tea and cake, as well as a free view of the exhibition. Gregor

The Pavilion Plans Part 12 – Loading Area

This is the twelfth and last in my series of articles about our plans for the Pavilion. When I started I never thought I’d get to the end! The loading area is an important part of any multi-use building as it is the place that makes those fast changeovers occur; which in turn make the building work. When we have moved the toilets, post eleven, we will have a space, which is out of the way, where we can park small and medium sized lorries; so that they can be unloaded and reloaded. In the old days much of this equipment seems to have gone in through the front door! There was a hoist at the back of the building to lift equipment through holes in the floor; which would be covered over afterwards. We wanted a better arrangement than this and in any case, that sort of procedure would not meet today’s health and safety requirements. Hence the need for a goods lift, covered in my post ten. This lift will arrive at the ground floor next to a roller-door to allow access. Outside will be the space for vehicles to park for loading. Here is an example of a possible Saturday in the summer: • 8am: Pavilion staff arrive and roll back the movable seating to expose the ballroom floor. They clear the removable seats into the carousels and use the goods lift to move them to the store on the mezzanine floor. • 9am: the roller door is opened and the table top traders use the goods lift to move their items up to the ballroom. Our staff start to move out and lay up the tables. • 9-11am: our staff ensure that traders move their cars once they have unloaded, to create space for other traders to use. • 11am: the table top sale starts, the roller doors are closed and the vans are moved to other parking places. • The downstairs toilet becomes available to the public during the day. • 2pm: the band, which is playing that night, arrives and uses the goods lift to move their gear onto the stage. The stage curtain is closed to reduce the noise. The stage lighting is organised at this time. • 4pm: the table top sale ends and traders start to use the goods lift to move their unsold goods back down to the loading area. • 6pm: the ballroom is free and the band carries out its sound-check and adjusts the lighting in the ballroom. • 7pm; the public toilet is closed to outside users. • 7.30pm: guests for the concert start to arrive and use the bar. • 8pm: the concert starts. • 11pm: the concert ends. • 12 midnight: the band is packed up and out of the building. A busy day, but that will be life in our Pavilion! Gregor

The Pavilion Plans Part 11 – Toilets

This is the eleventh in my series of articles about the plans for the Pavilion. Why would I want to devote a whole post to the subject of toilets!

When we spoke to the District Council they indicated that they were looking to reduce their commitment to providing toilets in almost every large village and town. They asked us if we could include this provision into our plans.

• We had nowhere in the building to store things of any size. • There was a toileting requirement for Theatre, far larger than we could cater for within the building. • We had not got a proper unloading area for equipment; needed for the events that would be put on. • We would probably have to build an extension for the goods lift in any case.

As a result it became clear that to take over the existing toilet block; move it to the side of the building; add a further story to it; and use the remaining space as a loading area would, together, give us the solution that we were looking for.

The whole process rests on our ability to re-build the block on the side of the building and to use the toilets, on some evenings, as part of the capacity of the building.

The existing toilet block is hardly pleasant, over 50% of respondents to our survey said that the toilet facilities “could be much better” and only 18% thought “They are OK”. No-one responded yes to the question “Matlock Bath is over-provided”!

We could provide much better toilets, but only if we can have them locked at night. Much of the damage occurs at night. Apart from Illuminations nights, very few people use the toilets after around 6-7pm. In any case there are other toilets near the War Memorial and we would have the Pavilion toilets open for Illuminations nights.

From this thought process arrived the idea that toilets, with two entrances, would be the best solution. One entrance, open during the day, allows members of the public to use the toilets; but not enter the building. A second entrance connects the toilets to the rest of the Pavilion. This entrance would be open during evenings, when the full capacity is required; see my post four.

The number of spaces in the toilet would be the difference between the requirement for normal use, when people can go at any time, and Theatre use; when use of the toilets is concentrated into a narrow timeframe. So where people are free to move around the building, the downstairs toilets will be closed to the building; and completely closed in the evening. When the seats are out, and for instance there is Theatre or Classical Music in the ballroom, the internal door only would be open.

Within this proposal there may be some conflicts in the use, but good management of the facility should avoid these from causing confusion. Matinee Theatre events would be an example of this and, either we will not be able to do them, or we have to manage the movement of people during the interval.

This is not an idealistic solution to the problem, but it is a cheaper and workable solution.

Gregor

The Pavilion Plans Part 10 – Storage, Stairs and Goods Lift

This is the tenth in my series of articles about the plans for the Pavilion. Storage space maybe the least sexy part of a building, but it is one of those things you can’t afford to get wrong!We have to have a goods lift, even though it is a really expensive item, as we cannot lift all the gear that is required for concerts, theatre, exhibitions or even table-top-sales without this lift. We will also have to move the re-movable chairs talked about in post eight. The lift will have to use the south staircase by the stage as it is the only position in the building that can access all the floors. The Stage and under-stage area are both on different levels to the ballroom. To achieve this it will have to have three doors, one opening at ground level and at storage level facing south. One door will be facing north to give access to the ballroom and the final one accessing the stage and the under-stage area. We will therefore require a new staircase which will go around this lift and connect the stage, under-stage, sun terrace, storage area and the toilets. This will be in a new building beside the stage and under-stage extension to the Pavilion. This staircase extension leads to larger extension on the south side of the Pavilion and beside the Mining Museum; it will run the length of the ballroom and be two stories high. I will talk more tomorrow about the lower floor tomorrow, but the upper floor will be our store and plant room. We need a store for all those seats talked about in part eight, there will be 4 carousels; a number of staging pieces that would be used to extend the stage; portable equipment for the flexible use intended for the building; and finally staging props that are regularly used and better not to store off-site. The philosophy and justification for this extension will be discussed in detail in post eleven. But the upper part of this building will be very useful to us, even if not very sexy! Gregor

The Pavilion Plans Part 9 – The Stage

This is the ninth in my series of articles about the plans for the Pavilion. The stage will not change in principle, but there is a significant amount of work to be done. We are looking to achieve the following objectives: • To keep the Proscenium Arch. • To have the ability to construct Theatre props, whilst the rest of the Pavilion is being used for other things. • To be able to slide in props from the wings. • To be able to drop props from the “Fly Tower”. • To be able to drop backdrops from the “Fly Tower”. • To have a good Dressing Room area for the Theatre. • To be able to have a “Green Room” for musicians. The stage is “raked”, what that means is that it is lower at the front than the back. This allows more people to have a clear view of the back of the stage. We will not change this. The width of the stage is an important question, due to sight-lines and the type of performance that we can put on. However the Proscenium Arch is a tremendous feature in the Pavilion, which should not be lost.The Proscenium Arch is seven meters wide but the stage could be extended to ten by ten meters. The result is that the arch restricts the view of the back of the stage; especially if you are sitting at the front and off to one side.The result is that there will be a limit to the range of productions that we can put on; because we have decided not to tamper with this wonderful feature. The curtain will have to be thick to ensure that we do not have too much noise from the construction of a stage. When other activities and occurring in the Ballroom, we will see stages being created for later Theatre productions. We may need a Safety Curtain and, if we do, this may be heavy enough to block most sounds. There is a lot of old equipment hidden behind the boarding that was erected around the Proscenium Arch, many years ago. This has protected the equipment and it is possible that we can re-use it for curtains, and backdrops to be lowered. We have in any case created a budget to cater for these items in our plans. The “Fly Tower” rises some meters above the stage and, whilst not a perfect shape or height, allows up much more flexibility in the productions that we can put on. Scene changes will be much easier with this arrangement. Currently there are two staircases one on each side of the stage. This allows an actor to leave one side of the stage, but return from the other. We will still have this facility, but one of the staircases will have to go, to give access from the goods lift; to both the stage level and the level below. The under-stage level currently has loos and dressing rooms and a large open space. For the current plans the changes on this level will be limited, even though the plans show a considerable alteration. This may be delayed as it is not essential and we will be limited for money at this time. We should, however, be able to refurbish this area and make it as pleasant as we can, without spending an enormous sum. From this under-stage area there is at least one exit to the stage and we feel sure that another exists. We have not been able to uncover enough of the stage to see where this comes in. Having different accesses to the stage will allow actors to arrive to the stage from numerous different directions. We hope to arrive at a position where we can offer a reasonable stage for; Theatre for Amateur Productions; Theatre for Schools; Small touring shows, with limited requirements; Comedy Nights; One man / woman shows. Gregor

The Pavilion Plans Part 8 – The Space

This is the eighth in my series of articles about the plans for the Pavilion. This part is again about the Ballroom, but it is about the ballroom uncovered, with the seats rolled back and the floor exposed. It is fine having a theatre, but that format limits the use that a space can be put to. So why not have a theatre that can also be used as a concert venue or as a space for exhibitions, table top sales or local sports? In the previous post I talked about the possibility of nine rows moveable seats and the front five-and-a-half rows being completely removable. The nine rows of movable seats would be able to be rolled back like drawers into a wardrobe. Click this link to see how this would work; there is an animation half way down the page. These would roll back to form two stacks at the back of the hall, in front of the balcony. The approximately 110 seats making up the front of the theatre seating would be stacked into carousels and stored in our new storage area. Below is a picture of how these would look when stacked.Clearing a large space in front of the balcony, which could accommodate around 400 people standing, means that we can use most of the ballroom for events other than theatre. The floor will be largely unaffected by the movement of the chairs as the flat chairs have removable rails that they attach to; which themselves can be removed. The moveable chairs have a wheeled arrangement that, at worst, will require a flat metal rail cut into the floor. The stage can therefore be used for a band playing, or extended forward if the band requires more space. These extensions would also require storage when not being used and would reduce the audience capacity.The balcony should not be forgotten. It will still be available when there are concerts, and will have a fire limit of 60. This is slightly lower than the seating capacity, but has more to do with the fire exits and the fact that there will only be one staircase for the first flight of stairs. When we have exhibitions and table top sales, we would use the whole space available including the Foyer, the Refectory and the Grey Room; this would give us a considerable space to erect tables and stalls. For these events, we would open the shutters and the lantern blinds. The whole ballroom will then feel very light – except in winter! Gregor