Iain Gordon: Ten minutes to make sure the Glasgow Pavilion has a future

The Pavilion wasn’t burnt but it suffered from massive smoke damage and ash infiltration. It also suffered as a result of firefighters breaking their way into the building and clambering over the roof.

Now Iain Gordon is charged with repairing the theatre, and determining when he can stage his next show. But he has been denied access to the theatre. “I’ve been told I won’t be able to gain entry for three months,” he says in an exasperated voice at his rehearsal space in Springburn where he is attempting to keep the operation running. “And at the moment, the real fear is the massive repairs that will have to be carried out. All the seats are likely to need replacing, as the ash from the smoke will have seeped into the foam. All the paintwork will have to be cleaned, and fire dust removed from ledges, which involves erecting scaffolding inside the building. And it’s likely the stench of smoke will have ruined the carpets as well.

He takes a deep breath and adds: “Of course, we then have to order new carpet, which can take months to make. And there is a real chance the curtains won’t be able to be cleaned or need to be replaced. It’s a nightmare.”

He can’t gain access to his building for three months and that means he won’t be able to determine what exactly is required, to take carpet and seat and curtain samples to be tested.

He can’t gain access to the roof area, to see if leaks are appearing as a result of teams of firefighters rushing around. “If you are looking at making the seats alone, that’s a six week period. But on top of that, there’s a four to five week time frame to have the foam ordered and cut and all the material has to be ordered. And when you add all that to the 12-week period before I can even get back through the door, you can see how this could wreck our business.”

He adds: “As a result, I can’t programme theatre activity,” he says. “We had the Celtic The Musical set to run next week, but this has been cancelled, and we had nearly half a million pounds of tickets booked. We will have to re-stage it. But when? We have a load of shows planned for the summer and autumn but we can’t tell our customers because we don’t know the extent of the damage to the theatre.”

The longer the Pavilion remains boarded up, problems with the building will increase exponentially. “There is no heating in the building because we are not allowed to fill the fuel tanks. And this will have a huge effect on such an old building. And meantime, the smoke still lingers because there is no ventilation.”

The Pavilion boss and his staff were allowed very brief access after the fire. “We were given ten minutes to remove essentials. But what can you do in that time? We actually thought we’d be back in the building later that day and as a result, when we walked out all the lights, the computers, the electric heating was left on. We managed to take some computers but we weren’t allowed time to take monitors or printers. We weren’t allowed to get up onto the roof to close the hatch which the fire brigade had chopped their way through. As a result, the hatch was left open to the elements. We feared the place would be flooded.”

He adds: “We didn’t get the VAT information, salary information. It’s like starting to run a business from scratch.”

The city council’s Building Control, he says, maintained there was still a danger because the Victoria’s building was unsafe, even though the Pavilion wasn’t unsafe structurally.

“But how unsafe was Victoria’s building,” he asks. “And to me, Building Control have been inconsistent. When we signed into the building that day for our brief visit we walked in past the front of the burnt-out building. Then, as we were leaving, the fire brigade came in and said they needed to get up to the top level. Building Control asked us to take the fire brigade up there, in spite of us already having been denied access. We asked was the building unsafe or not? But we went up with the firefighters and at least we got to close the roof hatch. Had we not we’d now be flooded out.”

Gordon says he’s been able to contend with the bad luck that comes with such a devastating incident but he says his biggest problem is with officialdom. “They are failing to give a clear, consistent directive. And because we can’t get back in we still don’t know if there are major water ingresses, we don’t know what the roof is like, and we still don’t know if our original doors, smashed in by the firefighters with heavy hammers, can be repaired.”

He pauses for a moment and adds: “I’m not criticising the firefighters. These people worked hard to help save our building and I’m immensely thankful for that. But we should be allowed to check the likes of the slates, to work out the damage the battle to defeat the fire has caused.”

The Pavilion has survived two world wars and the Krankies’ beanstalk disaster. It was flooded in the early 1990s when a water tank burst. And the theatre, the only non-subsidised major commercial theatre in Scotland, has had to battle for audiences, continually coming up with new comedy.

In the 90s, the ailing theatre was rescued by Gordon, who brought in hypnotist Robert Halpern, a multi-million earner. When Halpern disappeared, Gordon discovered a new money spinner in Brendan O’Carroll’s Mrs Brown’s Boys. Over the years, the theatre boss has continued to come up with the broad comedy plays that appeal to working class audiences.

“As well as the Celtic play, we were hoping to launch a Rangers play,” says the theatre boss. “And there are all the other shows we’ve had to cancel. Now, some will say we’re insured. But how do you tell an insurance company what you were likely to take in box office? You can be sure there will be arm wrestling.”

He adds: “We’ve had to move our box office out of the theatre to this space. But can we reassure customers the panto will go ahead as planned? And we sell most of our panto tickets in the spring and early summer.”

His voice drops into a state of near hopelessness. “If we don’t get the theatre up and running soon we’re fearful we could lose a great deal of panto business to other theatres.”

There are other problems to contend with. “What do we do about staff? We’ve had to send most of them home, but for how long? And will they now look for new jobs? We need experienced theatre people when we get back to staging our first production.”

Iain Gordon isn’t an angry man. That feeling has subsided. “I’m fortunate in the sense we’ve had lots of renovation work done to the Pavilion in recent years. I had the whole theatre decorated, so I have the contacts with the scaffolders, the painters, the carpet suppliers, the lot.”

But he’s immensely frustrated he can do little to save the theatre which consumes his life. “I can’t instruct anyone because I can’t get access. I just need ten minutes. Ten minutes to let me find out the worst. And if don’t get that I fear the worst. The Pavilion customers have been fantastic to us but we can’t take them for granted.”

He adds: “And you have to consider this; if I had walked away from the Pavilion and boarded it up Glasgow City Council and Historic Buildings Scotland would be down on me like a ton of bricks. And rightly so. But Building Control are in effect making me walk away.

“We don’t want to lose this fantastic theatre. But the council has to become involved and help us here. This theatre has been through so much in the past and its audiences have been incredibly loyal. But there is only so much you can ask of them, and to wait months and months for a re-opening could wreck our relationship. We need the curtain to go back up soonest.”

Raymond Barlow, the senior manager within the council with operational expertise in building standards legislation, said: “The revised estimate for the demolition period is 10-12 weeks. The danger from the structures will reduce as they are gradually brought down. Assessments on this and the danger from ongoing debris removal will be made in relation to the continued exclusion from affected properties. I cannot however give any estimate on when the demolition will be sufficiently advanced to make such assessments. We will endeavour to give an update on any relevant progress on this at an appropriate point in the coming weeks.”