THERE are no plans to acquire the Gloster Vaults pub to enlarge the Opera House, Economic Development Minister Kirsten Morel has confirmed.
While the minister said that it would ‘make sense’ to acquire the pub – as suggested in a report –which adjoins the Opera House to expand the theatre’s footprint, he said that no approach had been made to the pub’s owners following publication of a government-commissioned report last year which raised the idea.
Speaking after the announcement of the planning application for the £11.5 million refurbishment of the Opera House, Deputy Morel said that although he was ‘open to the idea’ and had spoken to the Opera House’s retiring chairman, Pierre Horsfall, about it, there were currently no plans to try to acquire the property.
‘From the perspective of the Opera House it makes a lot of sense but within the government programme and the competing priorities for government, I don’t know whether that’s something that would be achievable within this government or not. I’ve not discussed it with my political colleagues,’ he said.
On Thursday it was announced that a planning application for the refurbishment of the theatre – which has been closed since the start of the pandemic – has now been submitted. It is expected that it will reopen at the end of next year. The application contains details of the refurbishment of the Grade 2 listed building, which did not reopen after lockdown because of a string of heath and safety issues, including deteriorating precast concrete floors in the structure adjoining the theatre which houses the café and dance studio.
However, the plans do not include provision to expand the footprint of the theatre, which the States bought in 1995 for a refurbishment undertaken by the Jersey Arts Trust with a loan guaranteed by the States.
Last year the government commissioned a £16,000 ‘options appraisal’ for the Opera House, as part of what was described as ‘the performing arts ecosystem of Jersey’ from the Tom Fleming Creative Consultancy, authors of the government’s arts strategy, which was published in 2021.
It contained a series of uncosted proposals about the future relationship between the theatre and the government, and included the suggestion that the Gloster Vaults pub might become part of the theatre complex.
The pub is one of the Liberation Group’s partner pubs run by tenants or lessees as independent businesses.
