No Phoenix Here, Alas...

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We were just talking about the long lost AADW studios in Y Capel Tabernacl [blog posts passim], Bethesda, which eventually burnt down in the mid 1990s, to be replaced eventually by a block of houses [pictured above, after the fire and and before its demolition]. The branch had an association with Theatr Fach, who for a while stored various flats and props in the chapel. There was, as I remember it, a plan afoot to stage productions there by the company, but financial restrictions meant that we couldn't bring the building up to the appropriate standards for public performance, such as fitting adequate fire doors, supplying sufficient fire alarms/extinguishers or even decent toilet facilities(!), so the grand idea withered on the vine along with our enthusiasm for the project. 

It was a shame, really, as the upstairs housed a large stage area, with audience seating on three sides for a good eighty to a hundred people; but unfortunately the only realistic exit, whilst wide enough, was effectively the back stage access which I guess would definitely not have been adequate. The place was a firetrap really, anyway; as evidenced in its eventual demise: all that hundred-plus-year-old pitch pine burned mighty well, and got the place hot enough to delaminate and turn all the slate in the building, including the three-inch-thick slab of the stuff that formed the hand-carved sign at the top of the front gable of the place, into a mille-feuille of micron-thick sheets of a grey, metamorphic paper, which rose on the updraft of the fire and into the air above Bethesda, as we all looked on [the lower, smaller slate sign by the door survived intact].

The branch and AADW had ceased to exist by the time of the fire anyway, but it was still sad to see the old place go in such an ignominious way, let alone the loss of all the gear that was still stored in there. Still, there you go. I would have loved the opportunity to stage the Steven Berkoff setting of Kafka's 'The Trial' there, however: the place was perfect for it...

Comments

  1. Anonymous4 September 2025 at 10:33

    I suspect that it only got hotter when my 300ft 4in diameter polypropelyne rope went up!:(
    ATB
    Joe

    ReplyDelete

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