The Theatre – Planning Permission

We have at last received planning permission for the revival of the Theatre to be used as a theatre.

We were bombarded by congratulatory text messages, whatsapps etc. last week as news spread. Now we are feeling some mild pressure!

For those unaware of the history of this building, the theatre (previously known as the assembly hall) was for c.100 years a significant social venue in Framlingham. David Bowie played here, tea dances and fundraising balls were held here. Tractors were launched here. Many of the town’s older residents had their first kiss on a Saturday night here. After over 20 years slumbering as an antiques shop, a rather dull looking piece of paper now gives our building a licence to wake up again. It will still be an exhibition space, as it has been sporadically and successfully in the last two years – but now we can achieve more with it. Our Ukraine fundraising concert last year gave an inkling of its other potential.

Thank you to the many who wrote in support of the planning application in September 2021, including our closest neighbours. A few near and nearish neighbours objected, some even commissioning consultants in an attempt to stop it; they may be unlikely to celebrate this Planning Permission, but hopefully they will soften. We have tried to explain our intention to be good neighbours, and that remains the case.

Of course every now and then the occasional whoop of joy may be heard, but we will take reasonable measures to keep the peace – and we have already drafted a Noise Management Plan with that in mind. But we also need our neighbours to be reasonable in acknowledging that a town centre location will never achieve the levels of quietude as might be expected in a country churchyard.

SO TO THE FUTURE: our plan is to set up an arts trust as a vehicle for moving this forward, and we are beginning to get that going. We will then need to raise money to make things happen: a downside of 2 years delay is that the costs of building and borrowing are rather higher than they were in 2021. But let’s not dwell on all that!

None of this will be quick but at least we now have permission to proceed. 

Thanks for your patience. 

Mark & Ted

Unplugged for Ukraine

In the Theatre
Saturday 2nd April – 2.30 – 7pm

Either come for it all or just for some

OPEN TO ALL – entry by donation only (no tickets)

All donations going to the Disasters Emergency Committee. Cash Bar by Fram youth charity FAYAP to support its work. Borscht thanks to Leo’s Deli. Various Auctions. Parking available at the Castle from 2.30pm by kind permission of English Heritage

25 performers:
Jazz, Chamber Music, Indie-Folk, Singer-songwriters, Poetry, Spoken Word & Hands-on Art

Bands: The Glass Thistles, The Pancakes, Flaxen, Solitude, D# Quartet, The Mills Quartet

including Framlingham primary and secondary school pupils and  Stumrebi – a Cambridge Georgian polyphonic choir

(Stumrebi will lead an open collaborative workshop at 5.30pm to learn a Ukrainian song prior to their concert)

Please wrap up if it’s cold – this as an unheated indoor festival: bring folding chairs or a picnic rug and cushions if you have them

Theatre and Club Update

Spring at last and we are coming out of hibernation…..We haven’t updated on news for some time.

Looking back to last autumn, the inaugural exhibition at the Theatre (Sarah Lucas, Don Brown, Kate Boxer and Gary Hume) was incredibly well received and attended, with good coverage in local and national press. We also had a very positive public open day about our future plans which resulted in a large flurry of supportive letters and emails being sent to East Suffolk Council. Thank you to all who made the effort to find out what we are trying to do and then to write in support.

In October we were awarded the Diaphoros Prize in the Georgian Group’s 2021 Architectural Awards, and hot on its heels we were also delighted to receive a Quality of Place Award from East Suffolk Council.

Our planning application for the Theatre has not yet been concluded as we were asked to provide a noise assessment (which we have now done but were a bit slow with), so fingers crossed a consent will soon be forthcoming and we can plan the next steps of new life for the building. Meanwhile we are beginning to plan a series of exhibitions and events in the theatre over the spring and summer, and will give news of some events soon.

The cafe continues to thrive and the studios at the club are all full, with a great bunch of people working there. Bookings are steadily growing in the downstairs short-hire spaces and Corner Room, but there is still space for more, so please do get in touch if you are interested.

More News on the Theatre

It’s been heartening to witness the enthusiasm amongst the community and visitors at the re-opening of the theatre (opening times for the exhibition are on the posters on the the corner of No.10, and on the 10 Church Street website).

www.10churchstreet.org

We have now submitted a planning application to East Suffolk Council which will allow the theatre to function again more as it was originally intended – and as it did for 80 or 90 years up until 2000 or thereabouts. 

Our vision is for  an updated version of the old assembly hall/theatre albeit a smaller hall and we imagine more genteel activity than in bygone days (although we are too young to have known its heyday). We don’t know precisely what the viable mix of activity will be – and by viable we mean what works with neighbours and the community as a whole, what is financially viable and what demand there is likely to be. Our application seeks flexibility to allow things to evolve in a smaller hall than the original, which would be acoustically buffered from the street by the insertion of a new mezzanine studio, loos and a kitchenette, and buffered at the rear by a holiday let. The building would be largely unchanged externally and the appearance on the street would be unchanged apart from new double glazed painted timber windows to replace the current single glazed windows. We will also repair and smarten up the gates in due course.

We are aware that flexibility of use is worrying a few neighbours (mostly worried by the potential for increased noise). Our hope is to be good neighbours to everyone, as we have tried to be so far in our alterations to the old club, and so far all the comments we have had on that have been very positive. There has been a loss of ‘public’ buildings in recent years in Framlingham despite the growth in housing; our ambition has been and remains to avoid this for the Con Club and theatre.

We understand the challenges of noise and indeed parking if we want to allow more people into the theatre; this is a building which has lately been used mostly as an antique shop with relatively modest footfall, but that recent period has been a small percentage of the life of the building and we think the theatre can have a more significant presence in the life of the town, as it did in the past. The capacity of the theatre will be slightly less than was recently permitted for the new St Michael’s Rooms opposite but we have proposed the same timings for potential opening as proposed (and permitted) for that. Some people have questioned the need for both buildings as public event spaces, so just to clarify this, we do not want to duplicate what the new St Michael’s Rooms will offer; our hope is for a more ‘arts-led’ use of the building, which the first opening exhibition hopefully communicates pretty well. There is more said about this in our planning application documents and a letter of support which we sent last year to the St. Michael’s PCC (also included in the planning documents).

We are also hoping that it will be possible to make occasional use of the stage. In the past the building was used for amateur dramatics and concerts (with David Bowie being the most famous name playing there). We think it would be wonderful again to have some activity on the stage – but we aren’t proposing a return to the raucousness of the 1960s, however much some people might want that. We know that our neighbours most certainly won’t and we don’t want to be dealing with complaints in the middle of the night either. But hopefully some music might be possible? 

We are hoping that the town as a whole will consider what it thinks is in its best interest, and so we would encourage as many people as possible to consider and comment on our application – and please use the democratic planning process to express your views. We are holding an Open Door event in the Theatre from 3pm-8pm on Thursday 16th September and would encourage as many people as can to drop in and discuss what we are proposing as well as to see the exhibition there if you haven’t already.

The best way to make your views known in terms of influencing a planning decision is to email your comments to Framlingham Town Council and East Suffolk Council. We think that the deadline for responses to the Town Council will be on the 19th September ahead of their planning committee meeting on the 20th (which we understand is a public open meeting, and so any supporters would be welcome). The East Suffolk Council deadline is 23rd September – but best ‘press send’ by the 22nd just to be sure! Obviously the more support we have from the Framlingham community, the more likely it is that we can bring more life and public use back to the building. If there is inadequate support for it being a more public building again then we will need a re-think. There will certainly be options available for less public use and frankly easier options than what we are attempting, but we feel this is a more exciting course to attempt. Feel free to agree or disagree, and let us know. But if you are anti-change, please moderate your hostility!

You can see the proposals on the planning part of East Suffolk’s website if you search by the application number or postcode (IP13 9BH). The Design and Heritage Statement will be the best document to read first as that sets out the overall context of the application and explains what we are trying to achieve.

East Suffolk website (follow link below and you can then go into ‘public access’ to see the documents or can comment directly:

https://www.eastsuffolk.gov.uk/planning/planning-applications-and-enforcement/view-and-comment-on-a-planning-application/

Framlingham Town Council:
email: dtc@framlingham.com
email: townclerk@framlingham.com

Email addresses for comments are below; please make clear that comments are on proposals for the Old Theatre, Framlingham (planning  application reference no. DC/21/3737/FUL)

East Suffolk Council:
email: Planning@eastsuffolk.gov.uk

If you want to contact us, the email below is best. Or please do come along on the 16th. Support appreciated but we know that not everyone is with us on this.

Many thanks

email: mail@paperhouseproperties.co.uk


Instagram – for latest news and photos: @exconclub

New Website

In all the distractions of the last few months we forgot to announce our new website….

www.10churchstreet.org.uk

We will continue to add news here from time to time but the other website and instagram will be more regularly updated….

The Old Theatre re-awakens

Various bits of news about the theatre.

We haven’t said much about this in the last eighteen months but are now at a point where things are happening. Very excitingly we have had a tidy-up, have just taken out some of the partitions inserted over the last 20 years, and the inside has had a lick of paint. From tomorrow the building will be open on Fridays and Saturdays for a month with an exhibition of new work by artists Kate Boxer, Don Brown, Gary Hume and Sarah Lucas. It’s an amazing body of work and looks fantastic in the space. The photo here shows the space mid-painting… an amuse bouche of sorts.

Meanwhile we have submitted a planning application to make minor changes to the theatre which would enable more public activity there (as it used to have until recent years); we are hoping that it can again become a significant place in the life of the town. We went to Framlingham Town Council’s meeting this evening and had a mixed response – there are clearly challenges with noise and parking which comes from a return to more public use for the building, but we feel the building deserves a public life and that it must be possible to achieve a good result for everyone. If you are interested in our proposals please visit East Suffolk Council’s planning website:

https://www.eastsuffolk.gov.uk/planning/planning-applications-and-enforcement/view-and-comment-on-a-planning-application/

… (it’s easy to find the application on their planning application search if you enter the postcode IP13 9BH) – and please do register support if you think it’s a good idea. Most people we have spoken to seem supportive but we know that immediate neighbours are worried and we want to find a workable future which everyone is happy to live with. Conversion to flats would be such a dull outcome….

And in the club next door Ross Holden will be showing work in the Club Corner Room for much of September, and other artists based at the club may also have work on show in the entrance hall. More posts to follow in the coming weeks. And the Common Room cafe is as good as ever.


Spring Equinox (almost)

Spring is definitely happening – the weather is just a bit stop-start like the locking-unlocking-locking-unlocking human world.

But it does seem that soon we’ll be in a position to open doors more.

We have been busy behind closed doors and the studios are all full which is great – a feisty creative bunch doing their stuff. No Common Room open yet; we’re hanging on for that moment….

Meanwhile we have a new website waiting in the wings which will replace this as a place to go for day to day news, bookings etc. – and it’s rather more visual than this bloggy world. We will hopefully get it live very soon.

We will continue to update this site from time to time but our plan is that the new website becomes the main www connection to the club.

Thank you for your interest in what we have been doing and thanks all those who have supported us in the last two years.

Lockdown 3

December seemed to be going well, until the spiky virus ran away with itself again.

Obviously the Common Room cafe is closed. We shelved plans to open up some of the short-hire public rooms which we had hoped to launch in January.

On the bright side the Common Room is offering a takeaway menu which is proving very popular. More details of what’s on offer can be found at:

https://www.commonroomtakeaway.com

The studios continue to be used by those who can’t work from home but the place is a bit quiet right now. We are all looking forward to the spring and hoping normal life resumes soon.

It’s all a bit out of our hands….

Post Lockdown / Pre Christmas

The Common Room opened again last week; it’s not quite business as usual, but it is business almost as usual. Do come along – the food and atmosphere are as good as ever. Christmas opening times are on the notice board outside or telephone 01728 768238.

The studios remain open and much used. Our shared workspace is now up and running, with generous spacing between desks (see photo on Instagram). There is space for up to two more people so please get in touch if that might be of interest (email address on home page).

The gallery and other rooms for hire are waiting for their moment of proper unlocking. 2021 will be a year to look forward to.

Lockdown – Take 2

The Common Room cafe has temporarily closed in line with government guidelines. Hopefully to re-open on 2nd December.

The gallery remains closed. Some of the short-hire rooms were due to have had their first use this week but plans for that have been put on hold.

In line with the guidelines, the studios remain open for those who are unable to work from home.

But we are all well, happy and feeling chipper!