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Sally goes underground with £28m new theatre
Mira Bar-Hillel and Mark Blunden12.03.08
These are the first images of the latest theatrical venture by impresario Sally Greene.
The subterranean venue, with seating for 600, is being built on the site of the former Collins' Music Hall in Islington.
The £28million development also includes restaurants and bars and 72 flats above the ground. Work is expected to finish early next year and negotiations are under way to find a company to perform at the theatre.
Ms Greene, 53, already runs the Old Vic, the Criterion Theatre, Richmond Theatre and the newly refurbished Ronnie Scott's.
The new venue is on the corner of Islington Green and Essex Road, a site with a 145-year-old history as an entertainment venue.
The Lansdowne Music Hall opened there in 1863. It was later renamed the Collins' Music Hall in honour of Irish singer and former chimney sweep Sam Collins who founded it.
The building burned down in 1958 and since then the site has been used as a timber yard and an illegal car park.
Ms Greene and her husband Robert Bourne, the multi-millionaire property
developer responsible for much of the development around the O2 Arena, have set up a charitable trust to run the project.
Andrew Daws, of architecture firm CZWG, said: "They approached us to come up with a design.
"The scheme has been pretty much followed through - flats around two courtyards with restaurants and bars on the ground floor and the theatre underneath the polygonal central courtyard, which is covered with a glass roof. It's quite exciting. There is nothing like that in Islington."
He added: "Sally and Robert have a good track record in running theatres and thought they could bring a different type of theatre to this site."
The couple are said to be worth £70million and the Sunday Times Rich List describes them as "one of London's prime power couples, important donors to the Labour Party and hosts of legendary parties". Ms Greene declined to comment.
