The good news continues to roll in for the team aiming to restore Selsey Pavilion to former glories and refurbish it as a multi-purpose arts and heritage centre.
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00:00 Good morning, my name is Phil Hewitt, grief arts editor of Sussex Newspapers. Really lovely
00:06 to speak again to Christian Skelton, who is chairman of the Southwark Pavilion Trust.
00:11 And now Christian, every time I speak to you, it's good news, isn't it? What's the latest?
00:17 It does seem that way at the moment. We're sort of going from, at the moment, you know,
00:22 good news to good news, as every other month at the moment is great.
00:26 And the good news now is a further grant, isn't it?
00:30 Yeah, so we've been awarded £50,000 by the Garford Western Foundation, which are a big,
00:37 big national funder. So it's a, you know, real, it's a really good sort of early stage,
00:44 you know, thumbs up to what we're doing and our longer term aims, really, it's brilliant.
00:49 And this £50,000 will go into the pot for first stage, early stage refurbishment, won't
00:54 it? What sort of jobs will that be covering?
00:57 Yeah, so it will be, it will be part of about £120,000 that we've kind of earmarked for
01:03 this early refurbishment, which will be very much about fixing the building, or at least
01:09 repairing, you know, areas of it that need attention. So the roof, the guttering, stopping
01:16 any kind of water ingress, sorting other bits and pieces out, repointing the brickwork,
01:21 just real essential maintenance to keep this building, you know, together, really, give
01:27 us a bit of a, I mean, the idea is to be able to open back up for the public in a kind of
01:34 limited spring/summer season. But obviously, to get to that point, we need to make sure
01:39 the building's safe and secure and really just, you know, in a fit state for the public
01:44 to enter.
01:45 And one of the reasons this latest grant is so lovely is it becomes, it's official before
01:50 you've actually completed the purchase, isn't it? Now, you're so close to completing that
01:55 purchase, aren't you?
01:57 Yeah, it's amazing. I mean, you know, for, we've been working for many years now on this
02:03 project to try and purchase the building and get to this point. And actually, one of the
02:07 major, major hurdles has been trying to unlock any funding when we don't own the building.
02:14 So you know, this was kind of off the back of the grant we received, or at least were
02:19 awarded by the government Community Ownership Fund in March. But it's still, it's a massive
02:24 thing to have, you know, not only been awarded, but actually received the funds before we
02:30 purchased the building. It's a real test.
02:32 Because it's a sign of confidence, isn't it?
02:34 Yeah, it is. It's fantastic. And it, you know, all of these things, we're kind of springboarding
02:39 from one thing to the next is really, really positive at the moment. But ultimately, you
02:43 know, we are, we are still, we're still on track to purchase the building this side of
02:49 Christmas. We really do hope to complete.
02:52 So you must be really feeling a sense of momentum now, a sense that things are coming together
02:57 after years of hard work, but it's happening, isn't it?
03:01 Yeah, it's crazy, really. I think we mentioned this last time we spoke, but going through,
03:06 you know, looking back even two years ago, it seems such a long way off, you know, trying
03:11 to purchase the building. And fortunately, we got some very early sort of funding from
03:17 the Architectural Heritage Fund, which unlocked a lot of the feasibility work. But to jump
03:22 to now and think that actually, in the space of pretty much two years, two to two and a
03:27 half years, you know, we've raised a considerable amount of money. And you know, we are, we're
03:32 now not only, you know, in a position to purchase, but we've got pretty much all of the funding
03:38 allocated to get in the building and do some, you know, really repair it to a point, you
03:43 know, it's not going to be, it's not going to be the finished product, it's going to
03:48 be something that's still going to be very, very bare bones. But we are still hoping to
03:52 be able to put on, you know, live entertainment, cinema, theatre, really try and use the space,
04:00 even if it's only spring/summer, because the building's going to be unheated, but still
04:04 just being able to get in there for the next few years while we then work on the longer
04:08 term vision, which will be a...
04:10 Absolutely. Well, it's a stunning achievement, it really is. Congratulations to you on getting
04:14 there and all the hard work. And yeah, it's a really exciting story that's going to unfurl
04:19 in the months ahead. So keep me posted, won't you?
04:22 Will do. Thank you.
04:23 Thanks.
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