In order for me to fully portray my message about Union Street I felt it was important for me to have an understanding of both buildings historical context.
The New Palace Theatre opened in 1898 as a musical hall but had to close shortly after opening due to fire damage. In 1899 the building reopened and was know as The new palace theatre of varieties. After many years it was converted into a bingo hall in 1961, and opened again as the New palace theatre until 1983. After this the building was converted into a dance academy, unfortunately the academy was closed in 2006 due to drugs being found on the premises and has been closed ever since.
After a year of work, in November 2013 The New Palace Theatre was declared watertight, however to restore the building to its former glory it would cost around £10m. Unfortunately, to my knowledge there are no further plans to restore this wonderful building.
Image from Google
A new business building has opened only a short walk from the theatre, what does this have to do with a derelict theatre? I hear you say, well. They both have "living walls". The Genesis building which was completed in February this year and cost £4.7m to build and has purpose built "living walls" that house over 18,600 plants of 12 different species. The new build which was backed by the Growing Places Fund via the South West Local Enterprise Partnership and Millfields Trust took 3 years to build and aims to provide more jobs in the local area and replace lost greenery.
Image from Google
There you have it, some historical research on both the buildings and location I hope to photograph!