Conservative councillors in Beckenham are working with officers from the Council to ensure that any development at the site of the Beckenham Theatre Centre retains a substantial community use. It had been operating from a large Victorian house at the junction of Bromley Road and Manor Road, Beckenham.
Earlier this year the trustees of Beckenham Theatre Centre Ltd, a charity which owns the building, took the decision to sell their building due to rising maintenance costs and the discovery of asbestos, which would have prevented the theatre from reopening.
The amateur dramatics charity will continue to operate within the Beckenham community. It’s costume wardrobe is being relocated to storage space at the Glades shopping centre, in conjunction with another amateur dramatics group, Bromley Little Theatre.
The trustees have made a condition of the sale to include a safeguard ensuring any development on the site still has space for community use - a decision welcomed by councillors in Beckenham, who are working with Council officers to determine the best use for this.
Councillors were also disappointed to see the trees surrounding the site cut down unnecessarily, although the new owner of the site claims this was to allow hoardings to be put up to protect the site.
Conservative candidate for Beckenham Town & Copers Cope ward, Carline Deal, said:
“We will be eagerly awaiting the plans from the new owner of the site to see what they hope to do with it. Any new development must meet two criteria: that the design and scale are in character with the nearby properties; and that a space for community use is safeguarded”.
Correction: Beckenham Theatre Article in Recent Leaflet
The recent Autumn 2021 edition of our newly titled “Beckenham Town & Copers Cope Matters” featured an article on the sale on the building currently used by the Beckenham Theatre Centre. This article was based on information that the decision to sell the building was made by the Church Commissioners and also claimed that the Church Commissioners owned the site. This was an error and was not factually correct. The building was owned by the Beckenham Theatre Company who took the decision earlier in the year to sell. Updates and reasons for the sale can found on their website at https://beckenhamtheatre.com/
We apologies for this error and will publish a printed correction, in addition to this online one.
