EXCLUSIVE: Our unfurloughed arts correspondent, BELLA BARTOCK, on dark times for Croydon’s major arts venue
The Fairfield’s seating, some of it originally installed in 1962, won’t be put to use any time soon
Fairfield Halls’ casual staff, who have been furloughed since the arts venue closed its doors for the coronavirus lockdown in March, have been told that the scheme will be stopped with effect from the end of this month, after which they will no longer be paid.
The Fairfield Halls, according to venue managers BHLive, are “entering a period of hibernation”. Consultations over redundancies are being held with contracted staff.
Emails were sent on Monday to around 80 part-time workers, most of whom could, when the venue was open, be seen at the Halls in green T-shirts, acting as front door greeters, ushers within the theatre and concert halls, staffing the cloakroom, servery, café and all of the bars.
The council-owned Fairfield Halls only reopened last September, after closure for more than three years during a refurbishment which cost at least £43million.
At the start of the month, Inside Croydon reported how the Halls had terminated a five-year hire agreement for the venues pianos because of the covid-19 enforced closure.
Because the affected staff were only part-time, BHLive had not been required to furlough them at all, under the government-funded scheme which guaranteed 80 per cent of their income up to a limit of £2,500 per month. But with the government now shifting the terms of furlough, and with no prospect of reopening the Halls in sight, BHLive notified the workers that they will no longer be kept on after June 30.
Bournemouth-based BHLive have been criticised by some of the affected staff for the manner in which they handled the announcement. The first email sent on Monday suggested that the casuals would be kept on furlough until the end of July. That was quickly corrected in a second email.
Part of the error-ridden email from BHLive sent to Fairfield Halls staff on Monday
“BHLive are portrayed as a ‘Social Enterprise’ and yet have handled this very badly,” one insider said. “The staff defended them to the hilt when the venue reopened, yet now they cannot even have the grace to give us as much as a ‘Thank you’ for all our hard work under very difficult circumstances.
“Everyone knows zero hours comes with disadvantages, but decency costs nothing.”
The venue is known to have been struggling to re-establish itself with the Croydon public before lockdown, with disappointing tickets sales for what some have described as a lacklustre programme in the first six months after the re-opening, which even staff have described as”shambolic”. The Fairfield’s artistic director, Neil Chandler, quit in February, and has not been replaced.
There were also widespread criticisms of the quality and standard of the refurbishment, which had still not be completed when the Fairfield reopened in September – 15 months late.
The BHLive email said, “Regretfully as we enter into a period of hibernation we are unlikely to be able to offer you any casual periods of work for some time and as such will be removing you from both the casual list and the furlough scheme.”
Ominously, for those with contracts to work at the venue, the email added, “We are entering into a period of consultation for contracted colleagues to discuss the impact the period of hibernation has on contracted roles.
“I am sorry not to be able to provide a more positive message at this stage, as you will appreciate the response to covid-19 is regularly changing.”
Theatres, cinemas and concert venues may emerge as being the worst-hit by coronavirus of all sectors of the economy, as under social distancing rules it is impossible for them to re-open their auditoriums to large numbers of paying customers. Some West End theatres have already scrapped all of their programmes for 2020, with others even abandoning any hope of hosting performances before 2022.
This week, announcing their own response to the Chancellor’s changes to the furlough scheme, one venue, the Birmingham Hippodrome, announced that it was entering redundancy consultations with its staff. The Hippodrome is of a similar scale to the Fairfield Halls, their predicaments liable to be very much alike.
“The impact of the crisis has been devastating,” the Hippodrome announced, “and it has become a reality that Birmingham Hippodrome will be unable to reopen until social distancing measures are relaxed. Almost all our income is received from ticket sales, and without that revenue stream, the future of the theatre is in jeopardy.
“We have had to accept that our immediate future has changed, and our financial situation will be in jeopardy for some time to come. When it comes time to reopen Birmingham Hippodrome, it will need to be a different organisation than when we closed. This has led to the very difficult and heart-breaking conclusion that we need to scale back areas of the business and significantly reduce our team size.”
Ex-councillor Timothy Godfrey fears for the future of the arts
Timothy Godfrey, the former Croydon councillor and cabinet member for the arts, responded to that news from Birmingham by tweeting, “And so it begins… every civic and commercial venue and theatre company and leisure provider will have to decide at what point to basically close up shop. Mothball. That’s a huge blow to the artistic, cultural and sporting heritage of our nation.”
For “mothball”, read “hibernate” at the Fairfield Halls, starting with the casual staff being laid off.
“No one could foresee a pandemic, and so the laying off of staff again comes as no surprise, but the way it has been done is unacceptable,” said the source.
“It seems to further prove how doomed this project has been from start to finish. With so much having been spent on this project, what now?
“I sincerely hope the Fairfield can recover from this. The way the staff have been treated, though, is appalling and everyone in Croydon deserves better. The venue is a huge asset and cannot be allowed to disappear.”
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Great shame – there are genuinely nice people working at the Fairfield Halls. I don’t think the right post-refurb trajectory was set for this venue. The Council should have been attracting audiences from way outside the town – this venue has acoustics that put it on par with national venues – I’ve heard cabinet member responsible for arts talk about the venue; strip back the hyperboles and there was never a plan. However, I don’t think it’s too late for this great venue – it’ll rise and find its place.
A great shame, but inevitable I’m afraid.
“I’ve heard cabinet member responsible for arts talk about the venue; strip back the hyperboles and there was never a plan.” True – the only real plan was to off-load the venue to someone else and let them get on with it.
This has passed and still passes for culture in Croydon unfortunately.
I agree with Sebastian. Let’s hope that it will soon be safe to reopen such venues, and that the cancelled Fairfield programme can be reinstated. So very sad for the current staff.
With regard to choice of performances, the task of the operators cannot be easy, as Croydon’s audience comprises a huge diversity of ages and tastes. Some things will appeal to wide London audiences too, but it must be important for the Fairfield to cater for the homegrown crowd- after all, they are paying for most of it.
I have no problem with the halls staging popular art forms such all-star wrestling, and tribute bands, if these please and pull in the punters, and make for a viable venue. The Fairfield always featured these, plus top-class classical performances from major orchestras. What seemed to disappear over the decades were the performances of the real bands or groups. Presumably, the rise of the O2, Wembley and Docklands arenas put paid to smaller venues staging such bands.
However, top-flight orchestras, notably the London Mozart Players, were to feature prominently in the 2020 programme. I had bought tickets for 2, both cancelled due to Covid.
One thing that I am not sure is included in the new Fairfield is a medium sized “room” rather than big “hall” for performances by smaller groups and solo performers. My hope is that Fairfield could showcase such performance. Likewise, that music and dance will be staged open air in the renewed “Fair Field” open space next door. In a post Covid world, open air performace could prove really popular, and encourage new audiences for the Halls.
Why isn’t the furlough scheme more targeted at industries that will be disproportionately affected?