Internal Strip Out

Although from the outside the external walls have only just started to come down, internally this bit of the building is now pretty much unrecognisable.

Before the large demolition machines can start pulling down the walls and steel frame, the interior fabric has to be pulled apart bit by bit. This includes mechanical and electrical services, partition floors, walls and ceilings, carpets, flooring, fixed furniture etc. Each material needs to be disposed of by type for reclamation, recycling or waste. In more sensitive areas near to the remaining buildings, preparation demolition is carried out by hand, carefully dismantling the structure and fabric to ensure that no harm comes to them. This includes temporary propping of vulnerable walls, weather protection and the diversion of water services to protect the existing buildings. Not forgetting of course, the statues of the elephants, nautche girls, Shakespeare, Burns and the four Muses, that all had to be lovingly taken down and removed from site for reinstatement later on in the project.

Elephant Statues

More of that in a future post.

Here’s a few photographs of the interior spaces in the demolition zone.

Foyer

As you can see in this photograph the box office, bars, wall coverings, doors and statues have all been removed. You can see the original sandstone wall starting to be revealed just to the right of the heavily patterned door that leads into the main auditorium.

Circle Studio Theatre

The stage floor has been taken up and the walls have started to come down revealing the windows that have been boxed in for decades.

Stalls Studio Theatre From Foyer

Even if you are really familiar with the building it is hard to orientate yourself in this photo but it is taken from inside the foyer space stood close to where the bar was looking towards what used to be the stalls studio theatre.

The sloped area of concrete to the right was where the black carpeted ramp used to be within the foyer space. The concrete plinth behind it left and centre used to have the lighting and sound control room for the studio on it. The orange pillar in the centre of the image used to be boxed in between the double doors that took the audience into the venue from the foyer. You can also see a concrete plinth on the right of the image that used to have one of the stone statues on it.

All the ceilings, partition walls, carpets, doors, plasterboard, furniture and equipment have all been removed prior to the area being demolished externally leaving it pretty much unrecognisable. At time of this photo this areas was still having the services taken out.