Latest news from Victoria Street

[KeefyM]

A short video I have strung together showing the latest as of 29th Sept.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Lcv3W8Pm ... e=youtu.be

Pat

Echoing Ellen's comments, yes that was depressing.

Still plenty of other restaurants in the area, though.

Are they going to leave alone the Wagamama/Nando area in the back? I hope so.

Rich, they are going to leave Cardinal Place alone - where Wagamama/Nando's are, as that is a fairly new development itself.
Therefore, the good news is all the restaurants in Cardinal Place are staying. As Pat said, there are plenty other restaurants in the area, including many 'upstairs' in Victoria Station and there is a lovely Italian restaurant 'Il Posto' a little bit down Vauxhall Bridge Road opposite Wicked.
There will be a new entrance to Victoria Station built in Cardinal Place as seen in Brian and Pat's brilliant links earlier in this thread, so it will save everyone having to 'cross the road' to Victoria Station and its construction will not affect the restaurants in Cardinal Place, i.e. none of them will have to close down and be demolished to make way for the new entrance.

I have to say I'm disappointed to see Bella Italia go as that was one of my favourites for a pre-show meal, although, I knew that was inevitable because as Pat has said the entire block with Sainsburys/Bella Italia/Stage Door Pub etc right around to the buildings on Buckingham Palace Road (as seen in Pat's video) will be "dropping like flies" to make way for a new glass building, so no chance of Bella etc re-opening as they will all be a pile of rubble soon.

Having not been to the VP for 3 weeks I got quite a shock on Saturday to see everything closed down and boarded up and to see the roadworks back after they had been removed for the Olympics, and I echo Ellen & Rich B's comments as it was depressing to see. The poor ol' VP looks quite sorry for itself abandoned on its own with everything else boarded up around it, and I have to say when I arrived on Saturday I thought Victoria Street and the wider area looked like a bomb site and a complete dump with everything boarded up.

Some of the demolished area to the right of the VP and behind it are not just for the expansion of the underground/Victoria Station but also for the expansion of the VP once it is redeveloped as they are going to expand the backstage areas and indeed foyer/audience areas.

On Saturday I had it confirmed by some Front of House staff and a member of the VP General Management that redevelopment of the VP will start in 2014 and he confirmed that obviously the show would have to move during redevelopment.
I was rather depressed to hear them say "obviously the show will have to move or it might even 'CLOSE' completely when redevelopment work starts, but hopefully not and nothing has been confirmed yet".
At the moment there are no definite plans what the future holds for BETM London once the redevelopment of the VP is underway, but hopefully it will move to another West End Theatre or might even go on tour around the UK.

I've also heard that once the redevelopment is completed, the new seating in B row will have people's names on the back, with Spencer on B15, Pat on B16, Den on B17 and I've been allocated to K38 in the Grand Circle .......at Wicked!

Brillant video Pat, really captures what the area is like at the moment and what is happening.
Just to confirm an earlier post, The Victoria Palace is indeed listed - Grade 2 listed.
The VP was awarded Grade II listed status in 1987 from English Heritage in recognition of its outstanding aesthetic qualities.
http://www.london-attractions.info/vict ... heatre.htm

Cheers
Keefy

[patc]

I got quite a shock on Saturday to see everything closed down and boarded up

I did, too. I was there on Friday evening and so, too, was Barry. Just before going in to the show we took a walk down that way. Although the boarding-up was already well advanced all around them, there were still people dining in two of the restaurants. I was further surprised to see so many men working feverishly on a "Satdee Mawnin'" which suggested they are in a hurry to raze the block to the ground.

On Saturday I had it confirmed by some Front of House staff and a member of the VP General Management that redevelopment of the VP will start in 2014 and he confirmed that obviously the show would have to move during redevelopment. I was rather depressed to hear him say "obviously the show will have to move or it might even 'CLOSE' completely when redevelopment work starts, but hopefully not and nothing has been confirmed yet". At the moment there are no definite plans what the future holds for BETM London once the redevelopment of the VP is underway, but hopefully it will move to another West End Theatre or might even go on tour around the UK.

Ideally, temporarily in another London theatre (wouldn't be quite the same, though) but, if a tour, then, not too bad. Ryanair fly to airports close enough to everywhere in UK

I've also heard that once the redevelopment is completed, the new seating in B row will have people's names on the back, with Spencer on B15, Pat on B16, Den on B17 and I've been allocated to K38 in the Grand Circle .......at Wicked!

We'd never permit that to happen, keefy. You're safe.

Pat

[kport]

If we have a US/CA Tour, why not then a UK/EU Tour? You could make an argument that Geordie is as foreign to North American audiences as it would be to Norwegian or German ones; yet it works. I have attended BETM shows where a signer has been present for the hard of hearing; if push came to show the translations could be scrolled on a large video screen (though I am not a big fan of that idea).

[accessmenj]

Europe needs a BETM tour. It would be much cheaper to convert a West End show to a tour than to start from scratch. Then there could be a gala return of the show when the Victoria is re-opened.

[kport]

Europe needs a BETM tour. It would be much cheaper to convert a West End show to a tour than to start from scratch. Then there could be a gala return of the show when the Victoria is re-opened.

That sounds like a great idea to me.

[Wowzell]

All this talk of the VP closing and a re-location of BETM is giving me pre-development depression! For the love of God it had better not close for good.

[Todd]

With the Duke of York pub and the Stage Door pub to be no more, that's two less pubs in the Victoria area of London. Seems I've read that the number of pubs has decreased all over England in the past 20 years or so. Given the fact that pubs make up a good part of the "social fabric" and tradition of England, I wonder if there's been any public outcry - or at least grumbling - over two more being taken away and another modern "glass box" going up in their place.

[Billy Whiz]

The shops and pubs that have closed are not just in Victoria Street.

Here is a map I have copied from Google Maps and all the businesses within the red line - except the VP - have closed. This includes the Rose & Crown (1) pub on Buckingham Palace Road and also the Thistle Westminster Hotel (2).

[James.R]

On Saturday I had it confirmed by some Front of House staff and a member of the VP General Management that redevelopment of the VP will start in 2014 and he confirmed that obviously the show would have to move during redevelopment.
I was rather depressed to hear them say "obviously the show will have to move or it might even 'CLOSE' completely when redevelopment work starts, but hopefully not and nothing has been confirmed yet".
At the moment there are no definite plans what the future holds for BETM London once the redevelopment of the VP is underway, but hopefully it will move to another West End Theatre or might even go on tour around the UK.

Well....Andrew Mills read that and saw the long and concerned faces and was kind enough to pen an official statement for us to soothe the nerves....

At present, there are no fixed dates regarding redevelopment of the Victoria Palace and there have been no discussions, or plans made, regarding how this may, or may not, affect Billy Elliot in the future. While Victoria goes through a huge amount of development and regeneration, the Victoria Palace remains open for 8 performances a week - the show must go on!

Andrew Mills
General Manager Victoria Palace

[angelenroute]

Thank you, James, and thank you, Andrew!

<--happy face haha