‘Jewel in Croydon’s crown’ for sale: the Fairfield Halls has suffered a checkered past few years, with a botched and incomplete refurbishment costing the council £72m
CROYDON IN CRISIS: With the council’s annual overspend reaching £100m, Whitehall-appointed commissioners could force the sale of the arts centre, which the C20 Society describes as an ‘underappreciated South Bank Centre of the suburbs’. EXCLUSIVE by STEVEN DOWNES
Croydon could have to sell the Fairfield Halls, the latest “asset disposal” forced upon the cash-strapped council as it faces a new financial year confronted by a £100million budget overspend and without any real prospect of plugging its financial black hole.
A sale is unlikely to recoup anything close to the £72million cost of the Halls’ 2016-2019 botched refurbishment, piling yet more misery on the borough’s long-suffering residents.
The shocking news was first aired by this website’s monthly podcast, The Croydon Insider, when Ria Patel, a councillor for Fairfield ward, revealed that she had been told at a briefing by the government-imposed improvement and assurance panel that they were recommending that the Fairfield Halls should be sold.
Councillor Patel called any sale of the Fairfield Halls, “Like selling the family silver.”
Croydon Council did not respond to repeated requests for comment on a possible sale of the Halls. Significantly, the council failed to issue any denial.
Gala occasion: the Queen Mother at the Fairfield Halls opening in 1962
However, a spokesperson for the Ministry for Housing, Communities and Local Government, to whom the improvement panel is answerable, told Inside Croydon that the panel “continues to work with the council to identify suitable properties to include in the asset disposal programme”.
The Fairfield Halls, world-famous for its Concert Hall’s peerless acoustics and a little less-well-regarded for staging professional wrestling for ITV’s World of Sport in the 1970s, has long been regarded as Croydon’s cultural “jewel in the crown”.
Designed by Robert Atkinson in an unapologetic nod towards the architecture of the Royal Festival Hall, the Fairfield Halls was intended to be part of a larger development project in the area that would create “a modern and vibrant town centre”.
The council-owned arts centre was opened by Queen Elizabeth, the Queen Mother, in 1962 and over the subsequent decade or so it staged performances by an impressive range of top-of-the-bill acts, including The Beatles, David Bowie, Ella Fitzgerald, Pink Floyd, Stevie Wonder, The Who, Status Quo and Queen, as well as hosting classical concerts by some of the world’s leading orchestras, instrumentalists and conductors.
Its Ashcroft Theatre was also well-known for producing high-end drama, family shows and annual pantomimes, as well as staging am-dram productions by local groups as well as some of the best-loved comedy acts.
Love Me Do: The Beatles on stage at the Fairfield Halls in April 1963. one of the major acts the venue used to attract
The fate of the Halls this century has been less storied, however, with its facilities – front- and back-of-house – needing urgent upgrading and modernising, while its productions have become increasingly lacklustre, hosting more tribute acts than genuine stars.
In 2016, the Halls were closed for what was supposed to be two years for a £30million refurbishment. The Halls re-opened three years later, in September 2019, but were soon forced to close because of the covid lockdown.
The controversial refurbishment was overseen by the council-owned housing company, Brick by Brick, which at that point had not managed to build as much as a garden shed, never mind undertake a significant and complicated project with a heritage building.
It proved to be a disaster, it emerging later that the botched and incomplete refurbishment had in fact cost £72million – proving to be one of the major factors in the council’s financial collapse in late 2020.
Any forced sale of the Fairfield Halls is likely to be viewed as adding the final insult to the injuries caused to Croydon by the toxic legacy of former council chief exec Jo Negrini, her Brick by Brick brainchild and the Labour-run council under Tony Newman and Alison Butler.
Wrecking crew: BxB’s Fairfield fiasco, spending £72m on the botched refurbishment, was a major factor in bankrupting the borough
Since 2019, the Fairfield Halls venue and its artistic programme has been managed by BH Live, a Bournemouth-based swimming pool and leisure centre operator. The arrangement suits Croydon Council, which no longer has to provide the £1million annual subsidy towards the venue’s production costs.
But two artistic directors have resigned their jobs at the Fairfield Halls since 2020, the latest leaving 18 months ago and never having been replaced by his employers, BH Live, who do not seem to be in any hurry to find a replacement, nor to provide a more dynamic and attractive programme of shows.
Now, what just 12 months ago was at the heart of Mayor Jason Perry’s Borough of Culture celebrations, faces an even more uncertain future.
The possibility of another arts promoter coming in to buy the venue seems unlikely.
That would leave the prospect of the Fairfield Halls being bought by a property developer, facing the bulldozer as the site might be cleared for housing.
Man with a plan: Tony McArdle, the £1,000-a-day chair of the improvement panel since 2021, wants Croydon to sell the Fairfield Halls
In his last report to the government, Tony McArdle, the £1,000-a-day chair of the improvement panel, said that Croydon “remains financially unsustainable without significant government support”.
That was when the 2025-2026 budget overspend was thought to be only £83million. Reports published by the council yesterday show that that overspend has ballooned in just two months to £98million, while the overspend for the current financial year, 2024-2025, has now increased to an estimated £35million.
“The council is likely to require a greater level of exceptional financial support in 2025-2026 than in the current year,” McArdle wrote in his report in November.
“The ability of the council to meet its asset disposal target this year is also at risk,” he warned.
That’s where the sale of the Fairfield Halls could come in.
“When we’ve met with the improvement and assurance panel,” Patel, a Green Party councillor, told the Croydon Insider podcast, “that are guiding Croydon, supposedly, through this financial mismanagement, they have mentioned the Fairfield Halls as an asset that they are keen the council disposes of.”
Selling the family silver: Cllr Ria Patel opposes the idea of selling the Fairfield Halls
Councillor Patel described the idea of selling the Fairfield Halls as “very, very poor”.
Patel highlighted that some of the properties being sold by the council, including the Fairfield Halls, lack much of a profit motive for potential buyers – which drives down the asking price and reduces the returns for the cash-strapped council.
“Ultimately, we really shouldn’t be selling our assets,” Patel said.
“Once we sell our assets, we’re losing council properties that would be really difficult to buy back if ever we want to provide real services to Croydon residents.”
The council’s track record for achieving “best value” on recent asset sales is, in any case, pretty poor, with valuable bits of real estate – such as the Croydon Park Hotel site and a former Croydon College site adjoining the Fairfield Halls – among those to have been sold for below market price or development value.
The Ministry for Housing, Communities and Local Government spokesperson confirmed to Inside Croydon this week that Croydon Mayor Jason Perry had indeed finally got to meet Jim McMahon, the local government minister. The meeting was held on January 27.
“The meeting was part of regular ministerial business as part of the aim by this government to provide a more supportive approach to stewardship for local councils,” the spokesperson said, adding that the meeting had also been attended by the improvement and assurance panel – the latest demonstration that Croydon’s Mayor is in office, just not in power.
Locally listed: the C20 Society says it will be keeping a close watch on the Fairfield Halls’ future
“The improvement and assurance panel continues to work with the council to identify suitable properties to include in the asset disposal programme,” the spokesperson said.
“Developing a viable and sustainable business plan for Fairfield Halls that delivers best value to the residents of Croydon is part of the agreed exit strategy, which the council, in conjunction with the panel, continues to progress.”
The 20th Century Society expressed concern that a heritage asset such as the Fairfield Halls could be under threat in this manner.
“The C20 Society believes the Fairfield Halls to be an outstanding example of a mid-century modern ‘Festival of Britain’-inspired concert hall,” Oli Marshall, the society’s campaign director, told Inside Croydon.
“It’s locally listed and despite being rejected for national listing previously, it clearly merits a reassessment in due course.” Sooner rather than later, if the Halls ends up sold to a property developer.
“We’ll be closely monitoring any developments on the future of the Halls, and stand ready to make the case for saving this underappreciated ‘South Bank Centre of the suburbs’.”
Read more: Kroll Report provides no answers to £73m Fairfield fiasco
Read more: Fairfield Halls left haunted by acts from its more glorious past
Read more: Police drop all investigations into council’s financial collapse
Read more: CEO Negrini’s long campaign to shut down Inside Croydon
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