On 30 Mar 2014 at 9:21pm Annoyed wrote:
Adrian Sunderland in BBC's report on the Phoenix fire made a point of saying that Cliffe Bonfire had hired the venue for an event, therefore suggesting the society is held somewhat responsible for the breakout! The people who had hired the unit where merely members of the Cliffe, and hosting a private birthday party, NOT a CBS event as suggested!
Another 'let's blame the Cliffe' moment...
On 31 Mar 2014 at 1:45am Local wrote:
Gosh, you're very touchy! Doth one protest too much, me thinks?
On 31 Mar 2014 at 5:49am The Kronic wrote:
It's the media, it's what they do. They never let the facts get in the way of a good story. I detest the lot of them
On 31 Mar 2014 at 9:03am The Twister wrote:
Was this a properly regulated theatre venue or just an old warehouse occupied by old hippies?
On 31 Mar 2014 at 12:31pm Twistee wrote:
Yep, what productions had been put on there ? Did it have a fire certificate, obviously no insurance, obviously a death trap. Thank God it was empty of people at the time. Or where they sleeping there too ? More questions than answers methinks !
On 31 Mar 2014 at 3:18pm Phyllis Styne wrote:
Despite living in Lewes we'd never heard of the Pheonix Theatre until the news of the fire broke on Saturday, but then we're not 'arty' types.
I have just checked the theatre website and it doesn't look to have any staged event since end of last year (or thir website is very out of date), so as a "theatre" it seems a lightly used venue. Maybe its a venue for "alternative" or fringe productions?
While I sympathise with anyone who has lost studio equipment/stock in the fire, I have little sympathy if the building itself and/or their contents were not properly insured.
As for the likely argument that "But you cannot put a price on hours of creative work!" that may be true to some extent, but the raw materials, the building, furniture and personal property etc can be valued, and can (and thus should) be properly insured.
Is it a major loss to the town? Probably seems so if you were involved with the place, or a regular user of the building, but if you were not, then it probably isn't.
Maybe the redevelopment of the Pheonix quarter (if it ever happens) will result in a better ambience in that part of town, and the arrival of more widely used "art" spaces and studios etc that attract a wider audience.
On 31 Mar 2014 at 3:33pm Monty Don is Sexy wrote:
When I think of the Phoenix area I think of ugly, tatty buildings, arty farty weirdo types, pot holed roads, and ramshackled buildings that should have been pulled down long ago.
Pull the lot down and have a nice riverside garden/park. And while that's going on bulldoze the skatepark. The little tossers have no respect for their enviroment. I refer to the graffiti and litter everywhere.
On 31 Mar 2014 at 3:51pm square pants wrote:
God you people are sooo square and dull, let's all conform, and then lets spread lies and crap on the internet about people we don't know. Why do you all assume it's all hippies, or that there are people living in all the buildings. You obviously don't know the area or anyone who is involved in the area. Mark is not a hippy, and he's lost everything he has worked for. You lot are so reactionary.
As for, it must only show fringe stuff...thank god someone does or it would all be dull as ditch water.
The theatre is mostly used by youngsters to get a foot in the door, but hey, thet're only kids so it doesn't matter does it!
On 31 Mar 2014 at 3:58pm Local lad wrote:
I think the authorities should be ashamed of themselves. Letting an unauthorised venue/theatre/bar be run without any normal inspections that go on with those type of businesses. There could have been loss of life here. As for people sleeping there. It's an insult to those of us who have to jump through hoops to run a 'normal' business. As for charity events to fund their loss, enough said.
On 31 Mar 2014 at 4:38pm Tara wrote:
@Phyllis : "While I sympathise with anyone who has lost studio equipment/stock in the fire, I have little sympathy if the building itself and/or their contents were not properly insured." Mmmm! Conditional sympathy, nice. UNconditional sympathy just doesn't cut it these days, eh?
@Monty : Just shows your ignorance of "the Phoenix Area". Take a closer look sometime.
@Local : They were authorised and inspected. Buildings can still burn down and people can still get hurt.
Simple really : The Fire Service did a great job. We're lucky noone was hurt. Those who've lost everything need the same support anyone in this situation should get.
On 31 Mar 2014 at 5:23pm Phyllis Styne wrote:
@Tara - Yep, thats right, No insurance = No sympathy from me. People have to take responsibility for their own actions. Not checking you have adequate insurance for you own property, or not checking that the building you leave it in has got sufficient/proper insurance should it be danaged/lost, is no-one's fault but your own.
@ Square pants - I was not saying the fringe or alternative stuff wasn't worth doing - my comment was more intended to mean that I'd never noticed any publicity for anything happening down there. And, yes youngsters do need facilities and space to learn and practice their trade, but those facilities should still be properly insured, and if the youngsters expect people to attend to view their work, and thus help put cash in their coffers, the venue in which they are based needs to let people know what's going on there. No-one will come through the door if they don't know there's something there worth checking out.
If Mark was properly insured then he won't have "lost everything" - buildings and content cover will pay for the refurbishment, and "loss of business revenue" insurance will pay for any loss of revenue while place is rebuilt, assuming everything was properly documented and the revenue history can be proven.
Biggest risk is likely to be the loss of 'continuity' of business as people may be forced to look for stdio/performance space elsewhere until Phoenix Theatre re-opens, and then might not return when it does.
On 31 Mar 2014 at 5:30pm Van Gogh wrote:
I was wondering if people are rushing to put on a benefit for some poor soul whose flat has burnt out when he couldn't afford insurance. Or is it just something we do for middle class 'artists'?
On 31 Mar 2014 at 7:06pm bastian wrote:
I have known benevolence in my time, but you are right, it's not fashionable to care about others these days, sad isn't it. Why are you all assuming that no one in the building was insured anyway, do you "know" that they weren't insured or are you all guessing based on what you percieve as devient, or abnormal. It is not possible to insure your art work in a studio, because when it disappears, it is irreplacebale, not because of value, but because it is not of £ value. If you only value £ then nothing else is of value and there fore doesn't matter.
These people are important to the town, particularly to the young who are eternally gong to find things tough. They don't have anything else here, it's a grown ups town, they can't go to the pub so why not give them a cheap theatre, run by dedicated adults, who ahve all the fire inspections done, who do the paper work on all the events and then get pillioried on here as if they are monsters.
On 31 Mar 2014 at 9:18pm Annette Curtin-Twitcher wrote:
Insurance is a bit of an irrelevance when it comes to an artist's own work, surely. Even if they were compensated for the financial value, the work itself is gone, for ever.
Ask the people who lost stuff in the Momart fire.
On 1 Apr 2014 at 7:15am fire starter wrote:
Everyone seems to be assuming this was uninsured. How about waiting for the answers before thinking the worse. Artists lost years of work and a young band lost all of there musical equipment in the fire and all you lot can do is accuse the landlord of having no insurance wether he did or not... Fuel on the fire for the local press I think.
On 1 Apr 2014 at 4:32pm M G wrote:
Jesus. I wish these scum bag keyboard warriors had the balls to identify themselves. Never going to happen,is it!
On 1 Apr 2014 at 5:12pm HellFire wrote:
Apart from a couple of comments on here (thank you Firestarter & Bastian) I think the majority of you should be ashamed of your ill founded, fictitious & pretty vicious comments. Call yourself a community? Doesn't seem that way from what I've read.
Mark Gray not only renovated the Theatre but provided a hub for YOU, the so called 'community' of Lewes to use.
Ballet schools were held there, events held for various Lewes clubs , bands practised there and of course it provided studio space for established local artists.
It was not "an old warehouse occupied by old hippies?" nor was it a "death trap", fire inspections done and all certificates held.
The insurance argument, which most of you are wildly assuming was absent, is not the point here. Mark ran the theatre with passion and his main goal was to provide Lewes with a great venue, something to be proud of, and used by many.
Of course insurance money could pay out for the financial loss but I'm pretty certain Mark has lost more than that.
Instead of berating the Theatre maybe some of you should take a huge leap off your high horse and start thinking about how your COMMUNITY could help those associated with the Phoenix, people who have lost more than money.
I would also like to add that anyone using the term ' METHINKS' ( thank you Twistee) should never be taken seriously, and that Richard Branson and Steve Jobs were both hippies.
On 1 Apr 2014 at 9:07pm Twistee wrote:
Yawn
On 1 Apr 2014 at 9:38pm confused wrote:
Fire Service did a good job???????
They are 30 SECONDS down the road and the place burnt DOWN!
On 1 Apr 2014 at 10:59pm Mondrian wrote:
Someone said Richard Branson and Steve Jobs were both hippies. One is a tax dodging spiv and the other a cheap labour exploiting control freak. Not exactly what hippies were all about.
On 1 Apr 2014 at 11:15pm The Old Mayor wrote:
What about the Fire Station in Norfolk that burnt down a few weeks ago. Didn't have a sprinkler system, that they tell everyone else to get !! There's gonna be problems ! Especially when a load of old boys turn up, who should have been pensioned off years before.
On 1 Apr 2014 at 11:29pm bobajob wrote:
The Fire station is only day crewed, which means during the evening the firefighters are on call to get down to the station from home, within a couple of minutes, so a 30s response time would not have been possible.
On 1 Apr 2014 at 11:39pm bobajob wrote:
And I agree its hypocritical that some fire and rescue services don't practice what they preach with smoke alarms and sprinklers, but its much better to spend the money putting them in a block of flats were hundreds of lives are at risk, rather than a station that is unstaffed at night with no risk of life.