In what may prove the final nail in the coffin of Melbourne’s besieged Palace Theatre, an independent heritage consultant has found that recent internal damage wrought on the Bourke St venue is so bad that the building is no longer worth saving.
In a move that could likely result in the demolition of the beloved Melbourne music venue, Graeme Butler has reversed his recommendation to Melbourne City Council that the century-old theatre be granted heritage protection at a local level.
According to Butler, damage made by construction workers to the interior of the venue over the past two months has destroyed its key features, at the same time that a heritage review was taking place following an October meeting by the Future Melbourne Committee.
[include_post id=”426409″]
As The Age reports, when Butler inspected the building earlier this week, he found that most of the building’s original plaster ornamentation, glazed stair tiling, and period joinery that had been intact in October had been “removed”.
“These sweeping internal changes have necessitated this review of the original findings,” he said. When Mr. Butler previously visited the theatre in October, his conclusion was that the Palace had wide-ranging importance to Melbourne and should receive internal protection.
Mr. Butler’s report also found that the partial destruction of the interior of the Palace had in fact begun well before the demolished remnants of the theatre were first discovered by members of the Save The Palace and Melbourne Heritage Action activist groups.
[include_post id=”426451″]
Melbourne councillors were due to vote on Butler’s recommendation for local heritage protection later this evening. With Mr. Butler releasing his new report, which indicates that the damage has been done and heritage protection is not worth pursuing, just hours before the planned meeting.
Upon discovery of the demolition works going on inside the building, Melbourne Council released a statement in which they claimed that they were pursuing emergency interior protection as part of a bid to save the building from further damage.
However, councillors have now been advised to abandon their bid for emergency protection and wait until the application to demolish the Palace Theatre is considered before making any other moves to recognise the building’s local significance.
[include_post id=”420897″]
However, Fairfax notes that by then it will likely to be too late, as the demolition application is due to arrive before council next week. Meanwhile, the property’s new owner, Jinshan Investments, is pursuing action against council in the Victorian Civil and Administrative Tribunal.
According to the site’s controversial new developer, the council failed to decide on their application within the statutory time period. Late last month, the company released a statement defending their destruction of the Palace interior.
As The Age reported at the time, Jinshan Investments claimed that they had been “informed” that the interior of the building “held little heritage value”, and claiming that they were “undertaking works to improve site safety, which had become compromised in the period following the departure of the former the former music venue tenant”.
[include_post id=”408445″]
Greens councillor Rohan Leppert has described the actions of the developer as an “act of vandalism” and said council had taken too long to act to protect the beloved site. “The contempt that the big end of town has for Melbourne’s cultural heritage shows once again how deficient our planning rules are,” he said.
Meanwhile, Save The Palace have released a statement in which they insist, “To change a report and recommendations and make it only available to the public on the day of the council vote is outrageous. To not consider the remaining relevance of the building and it’s significance both architecturally, aesthetically and culturally is a crime.”
“Do we need to start sharing images of the Regent Theatre of the fire in 1945 that destroyed the building? The Regent Theatre is listed for both its State and Local significance. Council should be considering all of these points in their assessment and vote tonight. Really, who are the goalposts moving for now?”
