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Dateline: 7th October, 2004
Bridewell to Close London's Bridewell Theatre, often referred to as the music theatre laboratory because of its function in developing new musicals, is to close in January next year. Last year it was told by the St Bride Foundation, which owns the building, that its support - an annual subvention of £40,000, rent-free status and one-off grants for particular productions - has to come to an end. In fact, this happened on 31st March this year, and from 1st April the theatre had to pay full rent and a service charge, totalling £90,000. This was because the Foundation lost its financial support from the Corporation of London. In addition, the St Bride Printing Library collection will transfer from the Corporation back to the St Bride Foundation (it was originally transferred to the Corporation of London in 1966). The now means that the St Bride Foundation is seeking to redevelop the site so that appropriate disabled access can be made available for the building. The St Bride Foundation believes that they will need a commercial element to this redevelopment to provide capital funds and ongoing annual income. As a result they do not expect to be able to provide sufficient space for the Bridewell’s operation to continue at the St Bride Institute. This year it raised £40,000 from supporters and both the Corporation of London and the Arts Council gave grants of £30,000, but these were one-off, and so now the only funding it has is a grant of £32,500 per annum for three years (2004 - 2006) to develop new work. This work will continue but the theatre itself will close. Artistic director Carol Metcalfe, who founded the the theatre and convinced the Bridewell Institute's governors to allow her to create venue which opened in 1994 on the site of a derelict, unused Victorian swimming pool beneath St Brides Foundation Institute, Bride Lane, off Fleet Street, said, "Commercial musical theatre can earn millions and is the most visited theatrical genre in the UK. Its vitality ought therefore to concern anyone who cares about theatre. But as an expensive form to produce, new and developing music theatre's financial needs are large. Our audiences and supporters remain generous but it is unrealistic to ask them to help raise large sums year after year when so much of the money must be spent on simply paying the rent. Much of our achievement has also relied on the commitment and generosity of the artists who have often given their time for little payment because they recognise the importance of our work; but we cannot continue expecting people to work for so little." Arts Council England acknowledges that musical theatre development has not received high levels of funding in the UK but has said that it is unable to take on funding the running of the Bridewell Theatre venue. It hopes however to continue to support the Bridewell Theatre Company's development work, as the company adapts to working without a venue. Please note that all three Archive indices are very long and will therefore take some time to download.
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