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Category Archives: Arnhem Gallery
£67m arts centre – with no art gallery and few performances
EXCLUSIVE: The Fairfield Halls fiasco gets worse by the day, with Bournemouth-based venue operators BHLive staging shows on just 24% of available dates. Croydon is supposed to be London’s ‘Borough of Culture’ in 2023… By STEVEN DOWNES Croydon is London’s … Continue reading
Posted in Alison Butler, Arnhem Gallery, Art, Ashcroft Theatre, BH Live, Borough of Culture 2023, Business, Croydon Council, Fairfield Halls, Hamida Ali, Mayor of London, Neil Chandler, Oliver Lewis, RIPI II: Fairfield Halls, Sadiq Khan, Talawa Theatre Company, The Wreck, Theatre, Tony Newman
Tagged Alison Butler, Ashcroft Theatre, Brick by Brick, Croydon Council, Fairfield Halls, Labour, London Borough of Croydon, Mayor, Oliver Lewis, Sadiq Khan, The Wreck, Tony Newman
7 Comments
‘The damage to the Fairfield Halls reputation is severe’
CROYDON IN CRISIS: While the cash-strapped council remains preoccupied with its finances, the once prestigious arts centre on the other side of Park Lane risks sliding towards cultural oblivion. By our arts correspondent, BELLA BARTOCK There are growing concerns that … Continue reading
Posted in Arnhem Gallery, Art, Ashcroft Theatre, BH Live, Borough of Culture 2023, Business, Croydon Council, Fairfield Halls, GLL - Better, Mayor of London, Neil Chandler, Oliver Lewis, Paula Murray, Sadiq Khan, The Wreck, Theatre, Tony Newman
Tagged Ashcroft Theatre, BHLive, Borough of Culture, Croydon, Croydon Council, Fairfield Halls, Labour, Oliver Lewis, Paula Murray, Sadiq Khan, The Wreck, Tony Newman
13 Comments
Council has no answers over missing Fairfield Halls sculpture
Croydon’s crass council has been accused of another act of cultural vandalism, after “losing” a significant piece of mid-century street art from the site alongside the “award-winning” (try not to laugh) Fairfield Halls. The art installation, in a modernist, geometric … Continue reading
Fairfield Halls’ £70m fiasco: ‘BxB didn’t know what it was doing’
CROYDON IN CRISIS: Trade newspaper The Stage has described the five-year saga of the Fairfield Halls refurbishment as a ‘catastrophic mess’ and a ‘£70m fiasco’. Now, the centre’s former artistic director has broken his silence over the bungling of Brick … Continue reading
Posted in Arnhem Gallery, Art, Ashcroft Theatre, BH Live, Borough of Culture 2023, Fairfield Halls, Neil Chandler, Oliver Lewis, Sadiq Khan, Tony Newman
Tagged BHLive, Croydon, Croydon Council, Dame Judi Dench, Fairfield Halls, Neil Chandler, Oliver Lewis, Sadiq Khan, The Stage, Tony Newman
17 Comments
Croydon in crisis: Contractors in £9m row over Fairfield Halls
EXCLUSIVE: The council’s blundering house-builders Brick by Brick face the threat of a multi-million-pound legal action in a payments dispute over the refurbishment of the town centre’s arts venue. By STEVEN DOWNES The building contractors who carried out the refurbishment … Continue reading
After £41m+ spend: art centre has no gallery space for art
An arts society formed in the borough 150 years ago faces an uncertain future as it has emerged that after spending more than £41m on refurbishing the Fairfield Halls, in a display of incompetence stunning even by Croydon’s usual standards, … Continue reading
Posted in Arnhem Gallery, Art, BH Live, Chris Clark, Community associations, Croydon Art Society, Croydon Council, Fairfield, Fairfield Halls, Jo Negrini, Paula Murray
Tagged Chris Clark, Croydon Art Society, Croydon Council, Fairfield Halls, Jo Negrini, Labour, London Borough of Croydon, Tony Newman
6 Comments
Now council refuses FoIs over Fairfield Halls’ £41m costs
Croydon Council, which Tony Newman once promised would, under Labour, become the most open and transparent in the borough’s history, has started to block Freedom of Information requests from Council Tax-payers who want to know where the £41million of their … Continue reading
Will long-delayed Fairfield Halls re-open on time? ‘It’s got to’
Our arts correspondent, BELLA BARTOCK, donned a hi-viz jacket and hard hat to check on the progress being made on the £41million-plus project on the borough’s arts centre, where the first month’s programme runs from royalty to Redknapp No expense … Continue reading
Who’d pay £50 to see Barry from accounts as Max Bialystock?
It may be more than a year late in re-opening, and is at least £11million over budget, but that hasn’t stopped the operators at the Fairfield Halls from continuing to pursue their pointless exercise of re-naming the Ashcroft Theatre. Workmen … Continue reading
Black theatre group handed studio space at Fairfield Halls
A renowned black drama group, the Talawa Theatre Company, has been given offices and use of a 200-seat studio theatre at the refurbished Fairfield Halls in Croydon when it reopens in September. The building will enable black artists “to make … Continue reading
Joy to the world: Please don’t wreck our Arnhem Gallery
Political editor WALTER CRONXITE on a rare outbreak of critical thinking in the council chamber, as one councillor spells out for the Fairfield Halls management the blatant imbecility of one of their proposed name changes At last, a Labour councillor … Continue reading
Posted in Arnhem Gallery, Art, BH Live, Fairfield Halls, Joy Prince, Neil Chandler, Oliver Lewis
Tagged Arnhem Gallery, Fairfield Halls, Joy Prince, Labour, Neil Chandler, Oliver Lewis, Waddon
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£400m+ scheme at risk after council’s failed property deal
BARRATT HOLMES, our housing reporter, on how bungling by ‘award-winning’ Brick by Brick has put in serious jeopardy half-a-billion-pounds’ worth of new homes, has damaged the Town Hall’s relationship with Croydon College, and leaves a gaping funding hole for Fairfield … Continue reading
Posted in Alison Butler, Arnhem Gallery, Brick by Brick, Business, Chris Philp MP, College Green, Colm Lacey, Croydon Council, Croydon South, Fairfield Halls, Housing, Jo Negrini, Paul Scott, Planning, Tony Newman
Tagged Alison Butler, Brick by Brick, Chris Philp MP, College Green, Colm Lacey, Conservative, Croydon College, Croydon Council, Fairfield Halls, Jo Negrini, Labour, London Borough of Croydon, Paul Scott, Tony Newman, Tory
3 Comments
How CEO Negrini used council money to promote herself
Here is the text of the ‘sponsored competition’ which appeared on the website of the Architect’s Journal on December 5, just after the publication was announcing that Croydon Council’s Brick by Brick house-builder (which has yet to build a single … Continue reading
Can there really be a happy ending to the Fairfield fairy tale?
CROYDON COMMENTARY: Building delays, budget-busting over-runs, the inexplicable changes of the names of long-established venues… The council’s £30million refurbishment of the borough’s largest arts complex has been a Pantomime from the start, and says DAVID WICKENS, it is Fairfield Halls’ … Continue reading
Now Fairfield operators want to re-name the Ashcroft Theatre
Our arts correspondent, BELLA BARTOCK, on the latest piece of meddling going on around the much-delayed arts venue’s refurbishment Neil Chandler, the former cruise ship entertainments officer who has been placed in charge of the Fairfield Halls’ artistic programme has … Continue reading
People of Arnhem say ‘We won’t change Croydonplein’s name’
The good burghers of Arnhem, Croydon’s twin town in the Netherlands, won’t be changing the name of Croydonplein, the residential square in the town centre, regardless of how the Fairfield Halls might discard part of this borough’s heritage by renaming … Continue reading
92% say council should stop Arnhem Gallery name change
Even long-standing council staff have been outspoken about the proposals to change the Arnhem Gallery’s name. “Who comes up with this twaddle?” they said, as our arts correspondent, BELLA BARTOCK, reports Nine out of 10 responders to an Inside Croydon … Continue reading
Posted in Arnhem Gallery, Art, BH Live, Fairfield Halls, Neil Chandler
Tagged Arnhem Gallery, BHLive, Fairfield Halls, Neil Chandler
10 Comments
