Dance Academy owner: 'I'll work with others to save landmark building'
THE OWNER of the Dance Academy has said he is willing to work with anyone to see the landmark building revived.
Manoucehr Bahmanzadeh says he invited a member of Plymouth City Council's planning and regeneration department to meet him at the Grade II listed building in Union Street.
The pair inspected the various rooms, corridors, stages and features of the former Palace Theatre.
Mr Bahmanzadeh said: "I said: 'Let's have a meeting and talk about what you want me to do'. If anyone wants to help, they are welcome, but with one condition – the help is unconditional. Don't put any conditions, like 'give me the lease' because nothing like that is going to happen.
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"I honestly think the building looks worse than it really is. The bricks are all there, the structure is there. It's cosmetic."
The venue has been closed since police raided it in May 2006. Mr Bahmanzadeh was jailed in 2008, at Plymouth Crown Court, after being convicted of allowing the supply of class A drugs at the club.
Mr Bahmanzadeh won the right to appeal against his conviction in January this year following a review of the case by the Criminal Cases Review Commission. The hearing is expected to take place in November this year.
Mr Bahmanzadeh said he was dismayed how the area around the Palace Theatre had also fallen into disrepair.
He said: "The whole street suffered when they shut down the building. It did not benefit anyone. All the other businesses lost trade.
"They need something viable here to help the community."
The Palace Theatre opened in 1898 as a music hall, playing host to giants of stage, screen and radio including Gracie Fields, Laurel and Hardy, Charlie Chaplin and Frankie Howerd.
The building, which is on the 'at risk' lists of English Heritage, the Theatres Trust, and the Victorian Society, is described as being in elaborate Flemish Renaissance style, blending Art Nouveau with military motifs and scenes of the Spanish Armada.
A spokesman for Plymouth City Council said: "A council building surveyor met with the owner to discuss a minor structural matter."
The Theatres Trust once described the building as as "fantastic and opulent" and "one of Plymouth's best surviving Victorian buildings."
In response to Mr Bahmanzadeh's invitation a spokesman for the Theatres Trust said: "The Plymouth Palace continually features within The Theatres Trust's top ten most endangered theatres at risk within the UK. We would welcome any opportunity to work with a person or group who could provide a credible and sustainable plan for the theatre."
An English Heritage spokesman said: "The Grade II* Palace Theatre is one of the most historically significant buildings in the South West. A former variety theatre and hotel from 1898, it has been gradually deteriorating. Temporary repairs were undertaken in 1997 but it's in a very bad condition. We understand the owner is keen to find a solution for the building and we wait to hear more on his plans."
A spokesman for the Victorian Society appeared to be more cautious at the invite, saying only: "In light of the previous history, the proof of the pudding is in the eating."
Comments
by cooperman23
Saturday, October 06 2012, 10:37AM
“i would love to see this turned in to a gay club that would be fantastic”
by crazyjonhere
Saturday, October 06 2012, 3:05AM
“Will someone please please confirm were the 10 to 15 + million is going to come from to sort this place out'.Its always been common knowledge that this place has been patched up for years and the serious stuff has been forgotten about or just sealed away hoping it will go away,one of the reasons Graham the owner before Manoucehr got rid of it in 97 was the dread of how much it was going to cost to sort back then that and the huge rewire it needed at the time.I reckon the building has had no regular maintenance to keep ahead of what could go wrong rot wise etc since 1980 i even heard off an old stage hand from its theater days that the stage area flies were rotten back in 82 right at the top in certain areas enough not to go up there without the fear of falling through.It makes me laugh that Manoucehr says its all cosmetic and that the building wont need that much work he seams to be forgetting the mess the builders left the old malthouse in some 13 years ago trying to sort that out there's windows and doors that have been removed and have since let 13 years worth of the British elements in to do its damage not forgetting the pigeons who create there own problems as well. The hole side of the great western part of the building is a time bomb of dry and damp rot waiting to give way i bet the surveyor loved walking through that side of the building something tells me he didn't like being in that side to for long dodging pigeons and rotten floor boards'At the end of the the day he should seal the building up best he can try and stop the worst of the elements getting in and sell it to someone who might do something with it other than open it as a music venue forget this pipe dream that the club is going to reopen because the people in the flats behind are going to do there damnedest to try and stop it or even more make it difficult to stay open as there already doing there best to put as many noise complaints about C103 as they can at the moment”
by ChezGuevara
Friday, October 05 2012, 8:08PM
“I met Frankie Howard in the chemist which used to be right opposite the Palace. I was about eight at the time (about 40 years ago!). He was performing in the Palace and needed something for his throat. I never knew who he was; he made us all laugh. Went back to my aunties house and told her.
This place should be reopened and attracting the greats once more ....”
by jaygeek1
Friday, October 05 2012, 5:26PM
“What a lovely bunch of nae-sayers I see below.
After being wrongly imprisoned and around £1m taken from him..............well I think that is sufficient to give the man some lee-way”
by chipbatch
Friday, October 05 2012, 5:11PM
“Err didn't the council already give him a grant to fix it up a few years ago and didn't he just spend it on the inside of the building instead? This man is not to be trusted with this building”
by leroc
Friday, October 05 2012, 4:27PM
“Demolish it and all the buildings between the Pavilions and the Palace. The whole area brings Plymouth into disrepute.”
by bluebell2
Friday, October 05 2012, 4:05PM
“The problem is it was not kept maintained as it should have when it was open as a dance hall its a bit late now so sad .I remember laurel and hardy there and the pantos . bluebell”
by CharlieDodd
Friday, October 05 2012, 3:34PM
“If I owned the building i'd make a mint by flogging it to the yanks sharpish, they'd lurv it!
And is the metal plaque set in the pavement outside commemorating Laurel and Hardy's visit still there or has somebody prised it up and pinched it?
That alone would sell for big bucks on e-bay.
Hey I got an idea- let's flog the whole city of Plymouth to the yanks, they'd soon turn it into a vibrant dynamic place..:)”
by fazer58
Friday, October 05 2012, 12:34PM
“@alsina,the building wasn't put in the wrong place.At the time Union Street was the thriving entertainment hub of Plymouth,if not the stars of the day wouldn't have appeared there.
I agree with the rest of what you say,the damage to the rear of the building is a lot worse than the front.A couple of months ago parts of it were falling down into the car park behind.
Tragic but the reality is that ultimately that building is doomed.”
by ChezGuevara
Friday, October 05 2012, 12:31PM
“You have no chance of opening it as a nightclub again; the licensing committee wouldn't even license the other place down the road 'Millenium' when someone wanted to reopen it.
Best bite the bullet and open it as a Theatre Museum, get it back to it's former glory using Lottery Grants. It's plausible and you would have the support of the English Heritage, Arts Council etc.
Otherwise ... it's going to ruin.”