Your letters: Outrage at planned closure of Cellar Bar - 20/08/10
Outrageous! What is South Kesteven District Council thinking?
Closing the Cellar Bar at the arts centre is an act of stupidity!
The bar has been part of the arts centre community for many years. Andy Croft, manager and bar owner, has made it to be more than a simple place to get a drink, it has become a community.
Every single group which supports the centre support the bar. Andy has encouraged open mic nights for young and old, quiz nights, chill out nights, a venue for after show parties, comedy nights, a place to meet before going to a show /cinema /event, a place to get a drink before, during and after shows/cinema.
He has provided many fine wines and real ales for events such as weddings and special occasions/dances, held in the ballroom.
In fact many of the artists would go down to the bar after a performance and socialise with the public and quite often there would be impromptu performances creating a perfect end to a perfect night.
What will happen when it's gone? Another piece of Stamford taken away by the district council?
Recently the Cellar Bar
was the venue for the auditions for the The Bandstand Youngplugged event on the Recreation ground, celebrating 100 years of the Rec.
After the event many of the youngsters came to the open mic nights that Andy held and were encouraged to play and receive help and advise from experienced musicians.
This venue has given many a budding artist the encouragement and opportunity to practice by playing to an appreciative audience! Where will these youngsters go now?
Is the district council determined to kill the town and its youngsters' future? Please tell me why people who work for the district council in Grantham think they know what is best for our town.
Maxine Couch
Fitzwilliam Road,
Stamford
We are shocked by your article reporting the closure of the Cellar Bar.
It is beyond belief that the district council thinks it can run a thriving arts centre serving the people of Stamford and beyond without the provision of a full bar in an atmospheric and historic building.
How can it expect us to visit the centre to view films, art exhibitions, theatre, readings, comedy, poetry, and musical concerts ranging from classical to roughneck American blues without a bar to congregate and return to at intervals and the end of the show?
Where do they think people who use the centre for all their workshops in the creative arts and long-term evening groups will go at the end of their session and where will they have end-of- term parties?
Andy Croft has been running the bar ever since we started going 10 years ago as members of the choir Woven Chords, and has provided a fantastic venue in which anyone interested in the arts, music and socialising can go to drink real ale and good wine.
He has always been open to suggestions for events and always willing to help with parties and committee meetings.
In recent years he has run many open mic events
where musicians from Stamford and as far afield as Grantham and Ramsey regularly meet to perform to a listening audience often resulting in new collaborations and much artistic creativity.
We can only surmise that the district council has the intention of running down and closing the entire arts centre with the aim to saving money to house some of its bureaucratic officers rather than giving the people of the region the opportunity to engage in and enjoy all aspects of art, music, film and theatre.
Peterborough now has no such venue; we must fight to save ours.
Penny Stevens, Les Woods and Graham Dale
Pennyless folk group, Exeter Street, Bourne
I was in the arts centre bar at the beginning of May, after many years abroad, and it was very obvious that it is still a very popular meeting place.
I was one of the early members of what was then the Arts Club Bar, recruited by such luminaries as Robin and Mary and Chris Mahany.
Since it opened, the arts centre bar has been the breeding ground for a great many good things in Stamford.
It was also there that I saw the mad carpenter sing there for the first time (anyone around in the 70s knows who I mean).
Many friends tell me that any visit to the arts centre has to be rounded off with a visit to the bar, it's part of the evening out.
South Kesteven District Council's scorched earth policy shows it to be the face of cultural bolshevism in the 21st century.
Hannah Joyce suggested a singing petition; well a singing revolution worked in the Baltic States, so get down to the district council and sing them to madness!
Stay awhile amid its ancient charm – until the district council forbids that too.
Alistair Tarwid
Flensburg, Germany
We are certainly among those disappointed, though hardly surprised, that South Kesteven District Council has decided to close the arts centre bar.
There is a strong suspicion that this closure has been the object of a hidden agenda as nothing is done to encourage arts centre patrons to use the bar.
The impression is given that the whole of the centre closes immediately after the end of any evening film, play, concert, etc. and audiences are funnelled out onto the street in exactly the opposite direction to the bar.
The complete lack of publicity it gets elsewhere in the arts centre must ensure that many patrons will be quite unaware of the bar's existence. If only this policy were reversed the bar would surely thrive.
Stamford Arts Centre generally is a terrific asset to the town and provides a lovely mix of things to see, hear or do, and for many the enjoyment of any of these things is enhanced by ending up in the friendly bar.
In many other flourishing arts centres the bar is a focal point and having an arts centre without one is almost unthinkable.
Closing the bar risks fundamentally damaging the quality of the arts centre experience and we fear that, once flawed by this change, the centre may start to wither.
So if, instead of being negative, the council were to be positive and promote rather than close the bar, everyone would benefit and the arts centre would flourish even more than it does today.
Tony and Heather Wass
Green Lane, Duddington
What a shame if this closure goes ahead.
What exactly will the council do with the space I wonder? Is it going to be sold off and will it be a cellar bar?
It may become something of very little use to the people of Stamford.
We need to know the details before we lose out as we have done with some of our shops. This lovely little bar has indeed had a mixed history in terms of its popularity.
I can remember it buzzing with life in the 1970s when it was a popular venue for theatre groups rehearsing at the then assembly rooms.
In the 80s and 90s it was the in place to be for the town's young people, and now it is a music venue enjoyed by young and old alike.
Its more recent low attendance is due to the fact that very little money is obviously allocated to it, it has been refurbished once to my knowledge in all the years I have been going there.
It has become the poor relation of the arts centre. There is little going on to really attract people to the bar, and advertising that it actually exists is practically nil. No wonder few people patronise it!
This is just one more example of "let's allow this to rot and, surprise surprise, no-one is using it so let's get rid of it."
What is needed here is enthusiasm and imagination to develop a place with great potential which will bring in the people and the money. Instead of closing down and taking away all the time, take the opportunity to turn it into something spectacular.
After all this is what happened with development of the arts centre and look at the plans for the recreation Ground! It can be done.
So come on people of Stamford, put your foot down, let's form a friends group and challenge this.
Corinna Kitson
corinna.kitson@btinternet.com
I AM writing in protest at the closure of the Cellar Bar.
Stripping this asset may be a quick financial fix, but it looks like the thin-end of the wedge in terms of community demolition.
Stamford, through its arts centre, offers the greatest wealth of cultural activities in the area.
This is what sets Stamford apart, forming a vital part of its unique identity.
Stamford residents take pride in its many stone-built houses, bridges and churches. None would consider demolishing these, so why let the council chip away at the social fabric with its closure of the Cellar Bar?
The bar offers art and drama groups the chance to discuss plays or artwork in an informal space. Here people can exchange ideas and share a laugh over a few drinks. This is where group identities are formed.
The convenient location of the Cellar Bar means that more group participants are likely to make spur-of-the-moment visits to the bar. Here they can cement the friendships begun during actual group activities.
Recent studies prove that the opening of new branches of a big supermarket chain in small
American towns led to the destruction of local community groups. The towns were left dead in the water, with inhabitants isolated and no community bonds. This mentality is based on the idea that financial profit is the only thing worth considering.
Perhaps if the councillors involved took a slow walk around these sorts of towns, where the community assets have all been stripped away –only to be replaced by graffiti, boredom, and a palpable lack of pride or ambition – they might have another look at the books, taking social values into consideration.
MRS J BLESSETT
Church Street,
Deeping St James
I too am horrified at the thought of the Cellar Bar closing.
It has quite a unique atmosphere, so different to a pub and with the demise of the theatres in Peterborough it seems even more important that the Arts Centre in Stamford has a bar for it's patrons.
J Bateman
Ancaster Road, Stamford
Seldom have I been moved to immediate action by an article in the Mercury but this is it!
Whoever monitored the use of the cellar bar has drawn a very sad conclusion.
Those of us who attend the cinema in Stamford rather than Peterborough do so because we value the civilisation of the bar, a quiet and delightful glass of wine after the film gives time for reflection and discussion.
To close it is to deny the generation who don't want the noise and hassle of the local pubs.
We are the people who regularly fill the seats at performances of all kinds, it may not be 'night after night' but the facility is important and adds to the pleasure of using the arts centre.
Please draw up a petition and show the 'spokesman' for the district council that he is wrong.
Marion Purllant
Deeping Gate
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