Don’t shoot him, he’s only the piano player: Elton John in concert at the Fairfield Halls in 1976, playing the Steinway that is now believed to be in Croydon Minster
Almost 10 years since it was last seen on the stage at the Fairfield Halls, Inside Croydon thinks it may have tracked down one of the council-owned arts centre’s long-lost grand pianos, which in the past was used in concerts by musicians from Elton John, to Artur Rubenstein, to Andre Previn
Audience members for the regular Friday lunchtime recitals at Croydon Minster first noticed it a couple of months ago.
There, standing in front of them, in pride of place in the middle of the nave, was a shiny Steinway grand piano, the sort of instrument that normally graces the biggest and best concert halls around the world.
Even second-hand Steinways of this kind can today command £120,000. So how had the usually frugal people at the Minster managed to acquire such a prestigious piano?
New home: Croydon Minster has acquired a Steinway concert grand piano. iC has tracked down its most likely source
A preliminary visual check of the piano quickly established that it was far from new. But it still had that special timbre, the tone, that a Steinway has when played well.
Calls were made. Formal enquiries submitted. And before long it became apparent that this Steinway is very likely one of the two concert pianos that mysteriously went “missing” from the Fairfield Halls in 2016, just as the venue was changing management and being closed down for almost three years for the council’s £30million “refurbishment” conducted by Brick by Brick, and which ended up going £40million over budget and over-running schedule by 18 months.
The closing of the venue in July 2016 and the winding up of the charitable trust that managed it to that point, Fairfield (Croydon) Ltd, is shrouded in some degree of mystery and intrigue. The then Labour-run council was keen to get an estimated £1million annual running cost off its books, and the trust was heavily in debt with no future source of income.
The council bailed out the trust with around £800,000 towards the costs of paying off creditors and its redundancy settlement for the Halls’ then 70 full-time and 80 part-time staff.
Despite assurances from the council at the time that valuable fixtures and fittings would be placed safely in secure storage until the re-opening of the venue, several items and artefacts have never been seen since the builders moved in.
And when Fairfield Halls re-opened in September 2019, the Steinways were nowhere to be seen.
Omnishambles: Brick by Brick’s £70m refurb of the Fairfield Halls between 2016 and 2019 left the arts venue without and art gallery and missing its grand pianos
Until 2016, the Fairfield Halls had two concert grand pianos, in keeping with its Concert Hall’s world-acclaimed acoustics.
“A Steinway is the only option for concert halls,” one well-placed classical music expert told Inside Croydon.
“International pianists will simply not play on anything else.”
At least one of the Fairfield’s Steinways had been bought through public subscription. One was acquired by the Halls in the late 1960s, the other around 25 years ago.
A decade ago, both were said to be worth at least £45,000 each.
Some suggested that the managers of Fairfield (Croydon) Ltd had flogged them off, to help settle their bills, as was entirely right and proper. Fairfield (Croydon) Ltd went into voluntary liquidation in July 2017, and although their financial affairs were eventually tied up, none of the official records include a receipt for one, or two, slighty used, Steinway pianos.
In 2019, the management of the Fairfield Halls was handed over to Bournemouth-based BHLive, who promptly entered into a five-year hire agreement for nine pianos, including two grand pianos, from a Kent-based manufacturer called Phoenix. In June 2020, in the middle of the covid lockdown, with the venue closed, at short notice BHLive returned all the Phoenix pianos and cancelled its rental agreement.
The Fairfield Halls is now understood to get by with hiring in pianos as the occasion demands – paying around £1,400 a time. Although, judging by its dull 2025 programme comprising mostly pop tribute acts, professional wrestling and darts competitions, that is not very often.
Virtuoso: Daniel Barenboim is among the many greats to have played on the Fairfield Steinway which is now believed to be in Croydon Minster
The fate of the Fairfield’s Steinways, however, remained an unresolved mystery.
There was some suggestion that, with former members of the board of trustees having close ties with the Croydon Establishment, at least one of the instruments had been sold at a hefty discount to one of the borough’s large private schools.
Trinity, in Shirley Park, for instance, has 25 Steinway pianos dotted around the school, as part of a partnership with the world-famous American-German piano-makers that goes back more than a decade. Inside Croydon has established that neither of the Fairfield Steinways is part of Trinity’s collection.
But according to reliable sources, it now appears that the Fairfield Halls’ former “No2 Steinway”, the older of the two pianos, may have spent the last nine years being used at Old Palace girls’ school in Croydon Old Town. When Old Palace closed its school gates for a final time, there was a Steinway going spare, which has been found a good home just across the way in Croydon Minster.
Once again, the piano is being put to good use for public concerts. Though it is unlikely that even with the often impressive performers appearing at the Minster, they will match some of the artists who used the Steinway when it was at the Fairfield Halls.
Glowing review: the Fairfield Halls used to attract world-leading performers
One 1966 review described, “An ovation for what was one of the greatest performances of recent years greeted Daniel Barenboim and Vladmir Ashkenazy in Mozart’s Concerto in E Flat for two pianos, with the English Chamber Orchestra at the Fairfield Halls, Croydon.”
It is thought very likely that Steinway No2 was probably used in that concert.
There are some Fairfield Halls records that show that Artur Rubinstein played the same piano in 1969, and Ashkenazy was also back in Croydon at a later date, the world-famous pianist accompanied by virtuoso violinist Itzhak Perlman.
All a world away from Kendo Nagasaki and Luke Littler…
There are also records which show that the piano was used in concerts from some of the world’s top orchestras, conducted by Sir Charles Groves and by Andre Previn. There’s nothing to suggest that on this appearance at the Fairfield Halls, Previn did not preside over all the right notes being played in the right order, unlike when “Mr Preview” appeared on the Morecambe and Wise Show.
Of course, the Fairfield piano will not have been used just for classical concerts.
The records show that Elton John performed at Fairfield Halls on two dates: March 28, 1971, and May 9, 1976.
There’s even a photograph in the Museum of Croydon’s Fairfield Collection which shows Elton John playing the piano in the 1976 gig, part of his “Louder Than Concorde But Not Quite As Pretty” tour.
Might the people at Croydon Minster or the Whitgift Foundation manage to invite Oscar-winning songwriter Elton John back to Croydon, to tinkle on those old ivories once again? For old times’ sake?
Read more: The grand scandal at the centre of Fairfield’s absurd saga
Read more: £70m arts centre – with no art gallery and few performances
Read more: Conflicts of interest, incomplete contracts, unlawful payments
Read more: £30m Fairfield Halls project never went to competitive tender
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When the Halls went bust Two grand pianos were seen being removed from the back entrance of the halls and swiftly driven away There was a picture taken but I cant find it
I aways thought that the two Steinways were on loan/hire tuned and maintained by the company
We had photos of the removal of the Phoenix pianos in 2020, Edward.
Not aware of anyone observing the earlier removal of the Steinways.
The late Paul Sowan noted the remarkable ability Croydon Council has for losing track of valuable assets. It is all very well that one has been rediscovered after being removed to the Whitgift Foundation School, but it still seens the original owners ( ie Council) did not receive any form of payment for this. The other valuable asset remains unaccounted for. It does seem there is a certain establishement within the Council that are above the rules of the basic standards of financial accountability and feel entitled to dispose of valuable assets as they see fit.
Payments were made, Derek, for both pianos to Fairfield (Croydon) Ltd, which assisted with it being liquidated.