Forum topic: "Intimate" destruction?

Not the driver, but the cheque book!

Very well done to St Monica Players and just how refreshing it is to see such a proactive attempt to save this local asset and then some. There’s only high level detail available across the 30 odd slides but I can envisage an even wider range of uses than outlined with decent management: we have local dance groups, local choirs, local orchestras and music groupings, local artists, no farmers market anymore, nor craft markets and on and on.
I have a few links which may be useful and know of one or two ideas running in the background which may be possible to leverage to mutual advantage should SMP wish. I’d have no problem with a week’s worth or so of performances at the end of Augusts linking itself to and being a new, extended part of the Palmers Green Festival for instance. And I’m sure there’s a whole lot more.

Fair play for trying, the SMP team have done a good job with the resources they have, although having reviewed I don't know how they can genuinely say it is fully costed and deliverable.

Not sure I buy into the conerns w.r.t parking and the existing nearby development. Council planners want more residential space and less parking. I've bought into much larger developments in Finsbury Park and Clissold Park, both of which had no parking whatsoever and an absolute preclusion on being able to apply for neighborhood residents parking permits. Didn't harm popularity at all.

Yes, indeed!

Up And Down

Garry Humphrey's petition to save the Intimate is still gathering votes by the hour or possibly even by the minute - five more votes in the past half hour, bringing the total so far to 3,358. Click here to go to the petition.

At the end of the report that I wrote yesterday about St Harmonica's blues club leaving the St Monica's parish centre after nine years, I included some information about the alternative concept for the Intimate proposed by St Monica's Players:

It's worth going through the short slideshow on the Players' website, which you can find at this link. It describes the theatre's significance for local history, the pros and cons of the present set-up, and a modernised Intimate that the Players say could meet the church's requirements.

At the Winchmore Hill ward forum Warren McWilliams explained that SMP can't afford the increased costs of hiring the Dugdale or the Millfield Theatre. So who knows where they will be performing in future years? The same goes for Acorn Theatre and the London Pantomimers.

This is a continuation of the loss of larger clubs and shows that were once held in PG. The blues club was originally set up in the Palmers Green station buffet, then moved up the road to Cannon Hill and is now moving further away from us, to Southgate town centre. They were beaten to the first Friday slot at the Southgate Club by the comedy club that used to be in Palmers Green, at the Fox - another largish venue that we've lsot. There are still live music venues in PG - thanks to enterprising and community-spirited proprieters - but they only have room for one or two performers at a time.

A smartened up Intimate might attract more theatrical companies - touring groups that find the Dugdale and Millfield a bit to expensive - and help resuscitate our high street. I definitely think that St Monica's church should take more pride in the Intimate's history and its place in our community - after all, churches have always had an important community function - and look seriously at the alternatives to demolition.

I would be as sad as anyone else to see the demise of the Intimate theatre, however I don't think the SMP proposal shows much understanding of the needs of retired priests. Retired priests still need to say Mass daily and be involved in other Church activities, so to suggest that Cannon House would be a suitable location for retirement flats is flawed. Proximity to the Church is necessary. Regarding difficulties with parking, priests retire at quite an elderly age, so this may not be an issue.