Swansea Palace removed from ‘Theatres at Risk Register’

The Theatres at Risk Register is run by Theatres Trust, the UK’s national advisory body for theatres.

It says there are 38 theatres at risk, which are facing major sector-wide challenges of the ongoing effects from the pandemic, cost-of-living-crisis and energy crisis.

Three theatres are being removed from the list this year, as they are no longer considered at risk due to support from Theatres Trust and their local authorities, operators and community groups – and one of those is Swansea’s Palace Theatre.

It says that the Palace is a distinctive Victorian musical hall that has been on the list since it started in 2006 – the year the building closed as a nightclub.

It says the Palace is reopening as an office, with space for small-scale performances and events, under a sensitive scheme by Swansea Council.

In its report, the Theatre’s Trust say: “It was evident that there was not the demand in the city to make another theatre viable, so this sensitive scheme by Swansea Council (funded by the European Regional Development Fund and Welsh Government via its Transforming Towns programme), protects the building’s historic features and could easily be reversed in the future, making it the best outcome in this situation.

“While our preferred outcome would always be for a theatre to return to live performance use, in cases where that is not viable, Theatres Trust is supportive of sympathetic alternative uses, which can be reversed in the future if local demand changes. This is a much better outcome than allowing the building to sit empty and risk severe deterioration and potential structural decay.”

Welsh theatre’s still on the list of theatre’s at risk include the brutalist Theatr Ardwudy, Harlech, which is the first post-war theatre listed in Wales, and Conwy Civic Hall, situated in a World Heritage Site.

(Lead image: Ian Grundy)