Site of Little Theatre cleared for first time since ’80s fire
A HUB of entertainment in the island up until the 1980s is being cleared for the first time since the building burnt down almost 40 years ago.
The Little Theatre was created after the Occupation, when a ramped auditorium was built
to replace the site’s former purpose as the St Peter Port Central Hall.
The space had been derelict until it was sold in April last year to chartered surveyor Jeffrey Doble for £500,000.
He has still to decide what his plans are for the space.
Wheeler Developments spent four months last summer removing tonnes of bramble and scrub to investigate what state the rest of the property was in.
‘We had to cut the gate off to get in because there was so much shrubbery,’ said James Ridout of Wheeler Developments.
‘It will take years. For our level of development this will be a huge undertaking, it won’t have any foundations and will need a complete clear-out,’ he said.
Little is known of how exactly the site was laid out, but the shell of a house and an outbuilding remain.
The theatre was used by Gadoc until the 1970s as well as for the Eisteddfod.
Renoir’s nightclub, which was on the ground floor of the building, was a popular Town spot for clubbers the year the property caught fire.
Surrounded by large buildings and houses, the space is inaccessible for large vehicles, and a production line of tractors, a digger and a mini crane were used for the waste removal. There is still lots of overgrowth to be removed, but Mr Ridout said they could now begin to think about the next steps.
‘We can survey it now and explore a bit more.
‘It’s really about looking at what can be done with the space,’ said Mr Ridout.
The cause of the fire in 1984 is unknown, but there were suspicions that it had been deliberate. Due to its location, firefighters struggled to tackle the blaze and the building was gutted.
