Thanet council leader Rick Everitt says Margate Winter Gardens has “suffered decades of under-investment” which now needs to be ‘put right.’
The Grade II listed building hosted its last performance on August 7 last year during the Margate Soul Festival before the lease was returned to Thanet council by Your Leisure and the doors were shut in readiness for an appraisal report on the venue and its future uses.
The lease hand back came after Your Leisure faced a substantial shortfall in its income as a result of Covid with trading income down by £1.28million in 2020 compared to 2019 and outstanding liabilities in the region of £8m in terms of loans for Hartsdown and Ramsgate leisure centres.
The council, as guarantor for the leisure centre loans, could have faced extra penalties if the loans were redeemed early.
Some £300,000 has been allocated for the Winter Gardens from the £22.2million Margate Town Deal fund for the appraisal.
The initial Town Deal bid included a £4million allocation for works to the historic venue but this fell down when the government Department for Levelling Up – which issued the funding – asked for more detail on long-term plans which could not be supplied.
The council has appointed consultants Counterculture to put together a night time economy review and strategy for the district, and explore options for the future of the Winter Gardens.
All options for either lease arrangements, operator agreement or sale for the venue are being kept open with a tender opportunity made public in May for an agent to take on the site.
That specialist will launch a marketing campaign. The £90,000 contract was anticipated to start last month and continue until a buyer/operator is found and engaged. Cllr Everitt said the site will shortly be marketed to potential operators “to gauge their interest.”
In March a report to councillors said an immediate cost of £2.5m is needed for structural , building and mechanical and electrical works with a further £3.5m estimated over the next 10 years, meaning total costs are estimated at £6.25m.
The detailed marketing pack will be aimed at securing an organisation to refurbish, improve, maintain and operate the venue for uses that could include a concert hall, theatre, event spaces or leisure and tourism uses.
Talking at a full council meeting on Thursday (July 13) Cllr Everitt says the project will require external funding “to make it happen.”
He added: “ I want to make it clear that this administration will do everything it can to restore the Winter Gardens both structurally and in terms of its status as an iconic entertainment venue.”
However, he added there was “no quick fix” and the priority is “to keep the building safe” despite this possibly giving the appearance of “giving up,” which he said was “very far from the case.”
Ramsgate councillor Tony Ovenden has recently shared photos of the Winter Gardens construction in the early 20th century, remarking on how “the rapid construction of concrete and steel 112 years ago does highlight the challenges we face for the venue. There is going to be huge maintenance cost issues due to age that will have to be overcome.”
He adds: “The rapid development of the tourist industry in the early part of the twentieth century saw rapid developments like pavilions, sundecks and the Lido for example. All constructed to create wealth at the time and not thinking about the long future and sustainability.
“If you look around at anything that linked to early twentieth century tourism it was all done to make money at the time. Nothing was built to last. I just hope something can be done with the Winter Gardens.”
The Pavilion and Winter Gardens took just nine months to build, costing £26,000, and opened on August 3, 1911.
When completed the Pavilion and Winter Gardens consisted of: a large Concert Hall, four entrance halls, two side wings and an amphitheatre. Originally the stage could be viewed from both the main hall and the amphitheatre with the ability to enclose the stage in bad weather. The accommodation was for about 2,500 persons inside the building and 2,000 in the open air.
The Main Hall had been designed as a concert and dance hall. In the early 1920s, the Margate Municipal Orchestra, consisting of 36 musicians, would perform a variety of classical and operatic works, backed by the leading vocalists of the day. Most of these were performers like Carrie Tubb and Harry Dearth, engaged from the leading London Concerts, notably Covent Garden. Others like Pavlova – one of the world’s leading dancers – and Madame Melba were engaged as part of their world tour.
During the latter half of the 1920s Ivan Kalchinsky’s Blue Slavonic Company arrived and presented a cabaret show for six weeks. The company was to present a summer show right up until the outbreak of the Second World War.
The Second World War, unlike the First World War, interrupted the normal life of the Winter Gardens, and within a short time almost ended it for good.
Thanet was made a restricted area, due to invasion fears, and it was prohibited to enter it for leisure or pleasure purposes. The Winter Gardens’ first war-time role was during the evacuation from Dunkirk when it acted as a receiving station for some of the 46,000 troops landed at Margate. It also found other war-time roles such as an air raid precaution and food rationing centre. There were also concerts for the troops on Sundays and Brighten-Up Dances every Thursday and Saturday.
In January 1941 many of the windows were broken when a sea mine exploded nearby, but the main structure was undamaged. Six months later, on July 7, the Winter Gardens received a direct hit causing considerable damage. The main structure of the hall remained intact and the chandeliers survived as they had been removed for storage.
The plans for reconstruction of the Winter Gardens were drawn up in 1943 but due to the war, a start on the work could not be made until February 1946. The work took only six months to complete. The building officially re-opened on 3rd August. Repairs cost £40,000, approaching double the cost of the entire building in 1911.
After the wars stars appearing at the venue included Stan Laurel and Oliver Hardy and Dame Vera Lynne.
In the 1960s the Winter Gardens hosted Helen Shapiro, Billy J Kramer and the Dakotas and in July 1963 The Beatles performed there.
Stage versions of TV shows were also proving popular with Hughie Green’s ‘Double your Money’ and ‘Opportunity Knocks’. ‘Double your Money’ was the first Summer Season to appear at the Winter Gardens since 1939, it played for ten weeks during the peak of the season in 1962.
In 1974 with the formation of Thanet District Council, the Winter Gardens found itself with a new owner and a new man in charge, Peter Roberts. In 1978, it was completely re-seated, re-furbished and re-carpeted at a cost of £125,000 and a new entrance provided on the seaward side of the Main Hall.
History courtesy Margate Winter Gardens/adapted from ‘A History of Margate’s Winter Gardens’ by John Williams and Andy Savage.
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