Capital Theatres have just released news the fabulous news that between Edinburgh City Council and The Scottish Government, £7.2m (£3m Edinburgh Council – £3.85m Scottish Government) in additional funds have been made available to the redevelopment fund. This leaves only £1.7m to find of the £8.9m funding gap which emerged due to global instability & conflict last summer.
With this money in place the Board of Capital Theatres, the charity which runs the council-owned King’s Theatre, is confident to proceed with the transformational redevelopment. The remaining shortfall of £1.7m will be raised throughout the life of the project.
Capital Theatres
This is wonderful news, and secures the future of an invaluable Edinburgh institution. The shadow of property developers, and worse, commercial theatre chains has been banished. Now, not only does Edinburgh have Hamilton to look forward to in 2024, it also has the grand reopening of the King’s and the return of the Panto!
(Huzzah for getting the Ballet back for Christmas, rather than November)
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Does the redevelopment include accessibility, or was that already fully available? I’ve been to theaters in New York City that were a nightmare for those who can’t walk or stand – back when I could just battle lack of energy, not mobility, too. Live theater is so distinctly special.
They made great strides to improve accessibility early on, but it’s an A-listed building, so there were limits given the budget. The plan now is to hugely expand accessibility, so that stalls and circle are fully wheelchair/mobility accomodating. They plan to also open a new ground floor cafe which would have far more ground area to make navigation easier. Capital are really a very wonderful company who hold many regular sessions to make the theatre accessible to dementia patients, and those with other additional support needs. It would have been a terrible shame to see the theatre fall into corporate hands who would doubtless care much less. 🙂