Macbeth (The Warehouse Theatre)

Like a needle in a haystack, occasionally in the world of architecture amid modern societies relentless development one has to look almost beyond the realm of human capability to find a piece of construction worthy of examining and appreciating properly. Similar to that of a train enthusiast Croydon plays with this dilemma with amazing efficiency. Beginning from the towns oppressive East Croydon business district with the Wellesley Road tar covered no-mans-land between it and the town centre, many examples of intriguing and strangely interesting architecture exist within this area of high-rise office blocks and cheap hotels. The friendly warmth of The Warehouse Theatre happens to be just one of these examples.

Chances are you have passed this building many times either on your way to the train station or maybe just getting a coffee at the nearby Cafe Nero or Pret a Manger or Starbucks (the discussion on coffee shop invasions is for another day!), yet its physical existence has simply dissolved into the blurry void of your peripheral vision to become nothing more than another set of bricks in Croydon. This situation should not however be blamed solely on the architecture, its unfortunate location between empty development land and what can only be described as a ripe example of a peculiar 1950's office building does not make for a comfortable situation. However, venture inside The Warehouse Theatre on a cold afternoon when all those coffee shops are like sardine tins and you will be pleasantly surprised to find a cafe inside, which just so happens to be greatly more affordable and one cosy little mother.

Beyond the warmth of the cafe the future for the theatre appears extremely positive on paper with the new East Croydon development incorporating a fresh new space for the theatre to replace the neglected existing building, but I can only see a loss of history. The beauty of The Warehouse Theatre is that the architecture matters none and that it is about the theatrical productions and eccentric characters that are created and portrayed within the space created by the architecture that is of the most importance, perhaps the only importance. Nevertheless it cannot be ignored that the buildings structural and material integrity is obviously as reliable as a investment bankers promise and requires a great deal of attention, but this could easily be achieved with the help of local skills and labour and with some time and coordination a fully revived and Macbeth like architecture would have been created, no, saved.

From previous observation it can safely be assumed that the theatre will nonetheless full into the bloodied hands of the East Croydon development and all we can do is hope that the theatre receives its deserved share of attention and respect. The fear is small but greatly appreciated existing architectures like that of The Warehouse Theatre are often swallowed up and regurgitated somewhere in the forgotten darkness of modern developments, or built last when the money has run dry and never rebuilt at all. If this were to happen to The Warehouse Theatre a daylight urban tragedy would have occurred before our very eyes, and Croydon will at best be left with a bronze plaque stating 'Here lies The Warehouse Theatre'.

tW