St Mary Trustees terminate lease
Trustees of St Mary in the Castle Charitable Trust announced last week that they will terminate their lease of the Grade II* listed event venue on Hastings seafront in November 2022. In a formal statement on the St Mary in the Castle website they state that all booked events will take place up to that point; it will then “no longer be operational or open to the public”. The premises will revert to the freehold owners, Hastings Borough Council (HBC).
Organisers of any events booked beyond November are said to have been personally contacted and their events cancelled, with any deposits being repaid in full. Any ticket holders for such events are advised to contact their ticket provider for full reimbursement.
CREDIT: Dave Young
The trustees blame the demise of the trust’s management of the 197-year-old building on “the devastating effects of the pandemic” and its continuing aftermath – fewer venue hires and lower audience numbers. During lockdown they successfully secured funding from various sources to enable the building to re-open in September 2021, and report that they invested over £80,000 over the last year to comply with safety requirements. But receipts from events have been simply insufficient to maintain the building adequately and cover other costs – the electricity bill alone has risen, they say, to £5,000 a month – without further public subsidy.
A finger is pointed at HBC. “We have had many communications regarding financial help from the Council and despite providing numerous business plans and financial documents at their request, to this date, they have not formally responded to our request. Having looked at all other funding opportunities to no avail, we now have no choice but to close.”
As it happens, HBC chose the same week to launch its draft Cultural Strategy 2022-27 – see our Arts Diary entry on page 17. Although the document is described as taking “a year in the making” and “the result of hundreds of conversations with local people and stakeholders”, it never descends from a level of aspirational generality into discussion of actual people, specific cultural forms, venues – or finances. It will be interesting to watch how this Strategy may impact on the issue which should now be at the top of HBC’s cultural in-tray – what to do with St Mary.
We hope you have enjoyed reading this article. The future of our volunteer led, non-profit publication would be far more secure with the aid of a small donation. You can also support local journalism by becoming a friend of HIP. It only takes a minute and we would be very grateful.
Leave a Reply