Demolition Starts

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It’s September 2019. And after several years of design, development, fundraising, tendering, investigation, testing and more, demolition has officially started on site at the Citizens Theatre.

Although we’ve actually been doing various invasive surveys and some internal works for a while, we officially marked the start of the demolition with a visit from the First Minister of Scotland, Nicola Sturgeon.

From left to right: Alex MacGowan, Executive Director, Citizens Theatre; Dominic Hill, Artistic Director, Citizens Theatre; Susan Aitken, Leader of Glasgow City Council; Nicola Sturgeon, First Minister of Scotland; Susan Aitken, Leader of Glasgow City Council; April Chamberlain, Chair of Citizens Theatre Board, James Nelmes, Architect, Bennetts Associates, Sean O'Callahan, Operations Director, Kier Construction.
From left to right: Alex MacGowan, Executive Director, Citizens Theatre; Dominic Hill, Artistic Director, Citizens Theatre; Susan Aitken, Leader of Glasgow City Council; Nicola Sturgeon, First Minister of Scotland; Susan Aitken, Leader of Glasgow City Council; April Chamberlain, Chair of Citizens Theatre Board, James Nelmes, Architect, Bennetts Associates, Sean O’Callahan, Operations Director, Kier Construction.

Donning a hard-hat, hi-vis and trademark high-heels, the First Minister came for a look at the first bits of the building getting pulled down.

The South and West wings of the building around the main-house stage and auditorium are to be demolished to make way for a new front-of-house block, learning and participation spaces, a studio theatre and a new construction workshop. This will also reveal the sandstone walls of the old theatre fully for the first time since it was built in 1878, and that stonework will form part of the interior design of the new foyer spaces.

The challenge of carefully unpicking the areas for demolition from the areas to be retained is no easy task. Even with years of careful planning we just have to hope that there are no surprises waiting for us as the demolition work progresses.