Everything in Spring Gardens seems rosy

To say Bucks County Council's decision to close the Pinions Road amenity earlier this year was contentious would be like saying the Mona Lisa is worth a bob or two. But savings had to be made by a council crippled by Government spending targets and the choice, it appeared, was between nursery school places and an arts centre that was costing the county alone more than £100,000 a year to run and yet seemed to cater for only a minority of tastes.

It seemed the story was over. But now a knight in shining armour may have ridden on to the scene on a horse named Enthusiasm, carrying a sword entitled Rescue Package. You get the idea. Nick Andrews, who runs Ubiquitous Promotions, won a stay of execution for the centre -- it will remain operational until May when it is scheduled for demolition (should permission be granted), during which time it will be available for hire to any local arts organisation.

The news has caused waves of excitement to ripple through the local arts community. The main space and the gallery have already been booked up to the end of the year -- many of the groups backing the new venture have never appeared at the centre before, despite being long established and the centre having existed since 1990.

Steve Darrington, of the Boogie Band, which is due to play a lunchtime gig at the centre in November, says the town has been crying out for something like this venue for a long time.

"Now I know how those explorers felt when they chanced upon the lost city in the jungle," he says. "A friend said he had been playing around High Wycombe for more than 30 years and he had never been invited to play there. With all the bands I have been in, it's been the same with me.

"I don't want to say that they didn't want to invite me, but it is under new management, and now I am invited there. We are even talking about the possibility of regular things there -- not just my band, but friends of mine."

Tim Hill, of Tight Fit Theatre, says not only is the popular professional company performing some one-act American plays there in November, but there is a possibility that the site could become the troupe's base.

Tim says that, although the company will still be performing at Wycombe Swan Town Hall where it presents Bouncers later this month, when the High Wycombe theatre cannot accommodate the group will use the arts centre. The company will also continue to perform at the Beacon Centre, in Holtspur, at Christmas where there is a vacant pantomime slot.

"The Beacon Centre isn't ideal for the size of audience we get. Spring Gardens is sadly the right size," he says.

So who is this Nick Andrews bloke and what is his much-praised rescue-package all about?

High Wycombe businessman Nick also happens to be something of a patron of the arts. He organises an annual play-writing competition and, in his spare time, helps run Ubiquitous Theatre Company -- an amateur group which, coincidentally, is performing Melvyn Bragg's The Hired Man at the arts centre in November.

At first he wasn't that concerned about the centre's plight, then he discovered that the equipment in there -- the lights, the sound desk et al -- was probably going to be redistributed around the county, if the vandals didn't get to it first. That touched a nerve, the nerve of a man who knows the problems encountered by the area's amateur dramatics and small arts groups.

"I could live with the arts centre closing because if there isn't enough money to man it then so be it. But the idea of the money leaving Wycombe when what we don't have here is venues or space -- that's what's missing, that's the kind of thing that everybody wants," he explains.

"I rang Bucks County Council the following morning."

To his surprise the ball started rolling -- helped by supportive voices on the county council. The Spring Gardens Issue left the education department and travelled to property services and it was eventually agreed that Nick could set up a limited company to run the centre with a low rent lease of £4,500 until May 1999. Wycombe District Council provided a £10,000 grant from its funds set up to fill the hole left by the county council cuts. And Nick put in some of his own money to cover the promotional costs of the new venture.

"I have lost all objectivity, I love the place to bits," Nick smiles. "Since the property services got it in March, they have been brilliant - that was when education got their hands off it."

The limited company will be non-profit making, has a management committee and will present accounts to the district council every month, making it publically accountable.

"There were a mixture of events that made this work -- sensible rent from Bucks County Council, the Wycombe District Council grant and Ubiquitous is going well. I have the time and money to invest in my hobby of the performing arts. You put these three things together and you have got a solution".

So, what is this solution?

Performance space can be hired for £250 a week, which includes the seating, lighting and sound equipment. Hiring companies have to provide everything else from actors to technicians, but also receive all the money made from selling tickets, programmes and beverages -- there is a possibility that the venue will have a licensed bar. If tickets are being sold for, say £5 a shot, any more than 50 tickets sold will start bringing in clear profit. Punters will only part with cash on the door, so any cowboy promoters thinking of making off with the dosh without putting on a show will have to think again. Rooms cost £5.50 an hour and include use of the coffee bar and there is free gallery space.

It's so simple it hurts.

Companies will have to measure up to three criteria if they want to hire the space: Is it viable? Are the organisers local? and is it an arts event?

Steve Darrington eloquently explains one of the problems with the Spring Gardens of old: "If you were a left-handed mud wrestler you had more chance of getting in than a jazz band."

It is a fair criticism. Many of the companies that visited the centre previously appealed to a limited number of people. It is something that Nick believes he has addressed.

He is not interested in the more alternative, esoteric artists from outside the district which has opened the centre up to the artists and groups of people in Wycombe.

"It is a community arts centre, directly serving the community it is in. You don't get any challenging art at the moment. There is a place for it. I think it should be in the arts centre, but in due course. That's for year two."

There won't be many people in the area feeling heartbroken at the news. But Wycombe District Council's arts development officer Richard Sockett, who was closely involved in programming the old Spring Garden's Arts Centre, realises there is now a gap left by the demise of the old arts centre. He doesn't accept that it was only catering for minority tastes.

"The perception of exclusivity was in the minds of people who didn't know what it was about," he states. "That wasn't the relationship the local arts community was nurturing."

Richard says the participatory events in which local people could learn from working with professional artists have been lost and will be difficult to replace.

"You could argue that groups couldn't come in and hire it for a week, but now they can. The reason was because there were classes running with 600 people going to them every week.

"Youth theatre and things like that -- it's gone. It is tragic. I love working with Nick Andrews, he has a great enthusiasm for wanting all the things we have lost from Spring Gardens. It is a very different venture and a very positive one, but lets look at ways in which we can reintegrate the new theatre work going on."

In the meantime, Richard is looking at ways to use the town's other venues, including the town hall, to accommodate some of the groups that are no longer using Wycombe Arts Centre. Lottery applications are in.

"It will take many years to replace the range of services Spring Gardens was offering," he says.

But what of the future? What chance does Nick Andrews have of winning the arts centre a reprive?

County Council education spokesman Matt Lenny says: "We would be willing to listen to any proposals, but that's not to say it wouldn't go ahead as planned.

"If he has got an idea and he wants it to happen it is probably worth his while putting a contact in as soon as possible because the longer the thing goes on, the further down the track you are and the harder it is to change what you are doing."

In the meantime, there are no plans to replace what has been lost.

Nick has high hopes for his plans.

"Blind optimism, that's my modus operandi. Without that it would be pointless. I have just got the feeling that if we continue to keep the place full of people doing things, making performances happen it will be very difficult to come along and say 'this is coming down'."

Wycombe Arts Centre at Sring Gardens, Pinions Road, High Wycombe, officially opens on Saturday, September 19, with Bootleg Theatre Company performing Hanging Hanratty, by Michael Burnham. Tickets cost £5. The show is also performed on Friday, September 18

Converted for the new archive on 30 June 2000. Some images and formatting may have been lost in the conversion.