ENTERTAINMENT venues that have closed to the public tend to be gone for good. So the plan to reopen Bournemouth’s Palace Court Theatre – also known as the Playhouse – constitutes a dramatic comeback. It is 35 years since a lack of public support seemed to have brought down the curtain on the building s days as a theatre and cinema. It became a place of worship, over the objections of Bournemouth council and many supporters. Now Arts University Bournemouth (AUB) has acquired the venue – a neighbour of Bournemouth’s Premier Inn on Hinton Road and Westover Road. It plans to restore the 1930s art deco building as a teaching space with performance venue, complete with 400-seat auditorium that will welcome the public as well as students.
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Cllr Philip Broadhead and AUB’s Paul Gough and Katharine Piercey at the Palace Court Theatre I WAS really delighted to read that the Arts University have agreed to acquire what those of us of a certain age would refer to as the Palace Court Theatre. I well remember back in the eighties when a group of us on Bournemouth council battled to try and save this lovely theatre as a purpose- built arts destination for locals and visitors. No doubt priority will be plans to involve the theatre in the work which goes on at the university, now recognised I think as one of the country’s leaders in its field.
A THEATRE which has been used as a place of worship for 35 years is to become an entertainment venue again after being bought by Arts University Bournemouth (AUB). The university has acquired the former Palace Court Theatre – later the Playhouse Theatre and Galaxy Cinema – on the town’s Hinton Road. Bournemouth’s last surviving 1930s art deco theatre will be restored as a teaching space with performance venue, including a 400-seat auditorium, interval bar and rehearsal space. AUB vice-chancellor Professor Paul Gough said: “AUB’s acquisition of Palace Court Theatre firmly brings to life our ambitions to invest in the local area, particularly through key assets that contribute to business creativity, arts provision and skills development.
John Headford, a very private man who touched the lives of hundreds of people, has died aged 94. Born in Bristol in 1926, John’s youth included a grammar school education and national service in the Royal Engineers, a Regiment of which he was very proud. In Bristol he was a member of the Cathedral Players and the Shakespeare Society and he produced the Royal British Legion Festival of Remembrance in the Colston Hall. John’s university life, studying maths and music, was cruelly cut short by a year in a sanatorium with tuberculosis. A career in insurance brought him to Bournemouth as Manager of the London and Edinburgh in 1959. He and his new wife, Maureen, joined the Bournemouth Little Theatre Club and took an active part in productions at the Club’s own Palace Court Theatre in the centre of Bournemouth. They were also involved in staging Shakespeare’s “The Tempest” on Brownsea Island, the pre-cursor of the group now established as the Brownsea Open Air Theatre