Field Notes: 26 March 2025
Two theatres, built just 22 miles and 1 year apart, face very different futures. Plus leisure centres and the suggestion we can defeat Putin with <checks notes> rebuilding Plymouth city centre?
I’m currently working on a look at the history of the Burgh Island Hotel. You’ll recognise it from film and TV adaptations of Agatha Christie novels. Then I’m going to focus on some Cornish buildings for a bit. But today, we’re off to Somerset.
Two houses, alike in dignity
When I saw that the reopening of the Octagon Theatre in Yeovil, Somerset, has been delayed to 2027, it made me think about regional theatres. More precisely, it made me think about two 1970s theatres, both in Somerset, and their very different fates.
The modernist Octagon was built by South Somerset District Council in 1974, opening as Johnson Hall. I’ve not found an architect’s name yet.
It was renamed in the 1980s. Then it went through refurbishments in 2003, 2008 and 2013. As a district, South Somerset had elections every four years, including 2003, 2007 and 2011. That suggests they dedicated at least some of their capital budget to long term investment in the local theatre.
South Somerset District Council was folded into the new unitary Somerset Council in 2023 and the Octagon became part of their property portfolio. Somerset are committed to the refurb, but will then hand over ownership and running of the Octagon to Yeovil Town Council. This suggests the current refurb may be the last capital investment in it for a while.
Meanwhile 25 miles away in Shepton Mallet, the brutalist 1975 Amulet theatre is on the theatres at risk register and is in a very sorry state.
It was a gift to the town by the Showering family, famed local brewers of that most 1970s of drinks, Babycham. The architect is also unknown. You can watch silent footage of its opening on the BFI archive.
Watch Babysham's Shepton Mallet Theatre online - BFI Player
A gift from Babysham founder Francis Showering, the Amulet theatre opens in Shepton Mallet
Where the Octagon received regular renovations as it approached its third decade, the Amulet didn’t. It’s currently closed, and a friends group is looking to raise funds to restore and reopen it. They had a strong bid in for some of the Levelling Up Fund for Culture but the government announced they were minded to cancel the fund back in the autumn budget. The Friends are running an open day this Sunday, 30 March, where the foyer of the building will be opened up for people to look around. It’ll be the first of several events this spring and summer, and I’m hoping to get up to one of them.
Leisure hives
I’ve recently watched Chris Spargo’s brief YouTube primer on why there might have been a surge in leisure centre projects in the mid 1970s. That both the Octagon and the Amulet opened in the mid-1970s reminded me of Chris’s theory on why so many leisure centres appeared around then. I’m also aware the C20 Society is about to publish their guide to 100 Twentieth Century Sports and Leisure Buildings (pre-order available in the C20 shop).
Here in Exeter the 1984 Riverside Leisure Centre by Marshman Warren and Taylor is due to be retrofitted to make it more energy efficient. The 1937 Pyramids pool by City Architect John Bennett however, is long derelict. The space age St Sidwell’s Point pool is within sprinting distance so I can’t see the Pyramids being restored. Perhaps it could be converted into a theatre, given it’s just across the way from a cinema and lots of carparks?
Local news of C20th buildings
In which I fight my way through local ad-laden news sites to find stories about twentieth century buildings and related topics. Just the one this week.
Plymouth’s civic centre redevelopment
'To deter Putin we need to build more homes in the city centre' is quite the pull quote. Reading the story in full, one of Plymouth’s MPs is making a good case for rethinking not just the 1962 Grade II listed building but the whole centre of Plymouth. And if the Dockyard is going to scale back up, homes will be needed for the workforce.
Civic Centre to be 'beacon' for new look Plymouth city centre - Plymouth Live
'To deter Putin we need to build more homes in the city centre'
If you know of an event or news item you think I should know about, you can contact me on Bluesky.
I’m off to apply ze little grey cells to Burgh Island.
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A journey around modernist buildings in the West Country.