Baker Street

Two local visionaries have hatched a tantalising plan for Paisley town centre.

Older readers will recall that Paisley was once home to a thriving network of independent cinemas. These days, like so many towns across the UK, it doesn’t have any.

However, that may be about to change. Local businessman Gary Kerr and entrepreneur Andy Campbell are working alongside the council on an ambitious £24.7 million project that will hopefully transform Paisley’s landscape in more ways than one.

They plan to build a state-of-the-art cinema and performing arts theatre complex on a piece of derelict wasteland near the town centre. That’s why, in 2014, they co-founded the Paisley Community Trust, a registered charity focused on the community-driven regeneration of Paisley.

Named after the hit song by the late Paisley native Gerry Rafferty, Baker Street will encompass two theatre spaces, five boutique cinema screens, a performance academy plus restaurant, café and bar facilities.

“We’re looking along the lines of the Grosvenor in Ashton Lane in Glasgow,” explains Kerr. “You can go there and see Mamma Mia! or Bohemian Rhapsody, but you can also see niche art-house films.” It’s undoubtedly a labour of love for these proud Buddies. “We were born, bred, raised and educated in Paisley,” says Kerr, “so we wanted to give something back. A town the size of Paisley deserves a cinema.”

“In Paisley you can do one of three things,” says Campbell. “You can stay and moan about things you might not like, you can choose to leave, or you can choose to stay and do something. We’ve chosen to stay. How can we play our part in helping the regeneration of the town? We remember the days when Paisley had a booming night time economy, but we’ve seen the decline of that in recent years. It’s all about revitalising that.”

The proposed site, which is jointly owned by the council and a private company, is viewed each year by seven million train passengers as they arrive into Paisley. As Campbell admits, it’s not the most inviting introduction.

“That site is really the front shop window to the town, and you’ve got all these passengers thinking, ‘Yeah, maybe Paisley isn’t somewhere I want to be stopping.’ However, once you get beyond that point we’ve got some wonderful heritage buildings. We want to develop something on that site which will encourage people to get off and explore. It’s about making Paisley a destination rather than a departure point.”

Kerr concurs. “One of the strategies is bringing people back into the town centre,” he says. “There’s also a strategy along the lines of protecting and investing in our heritage assets. Our research led us to believe that not just Paisley’s population, but Paisley’s transient population of students, really need something to anchor them in the town centre and get the night-time and leisure economies up and running again. That’s a massive part of the motivation. There’s also personal motivation: my son is 18 and he’s never been in a cinema in Paisley town centre. We’ve not had one for about 30 years.”

It’s hardly surprising that a project on this scale has taken so long to get going. Nevertheless, Kerr and Campbell are hopeful that 2019 will welcome the final green light.

“As business guys we went into this ambitiously with a fast-track approach,” says Kerr, “but we’ve entered into the realms of public and third sector. That means it’s taken a bit longer than we thought, but we understand that. The process now is that we deliver our business case to the council and all the major stakeholders in February 2019, then we move forward from there.”

“We’re very visionary and ambitious,” says Campbell. “Why should we not shoot for the stars for Paisley? However, we’ve been very pragmatic in the steps we’ve taken.”

If it eventually comes to fruition, Baker Street will be a thriving arts hub that not only entertains the masses, but also celebrates and supports Paisley’s creative community.

“Paisley has got phenomenal talent,” Campbell enthuses. “We’ve punched well above our weight over the years.”

Get involved with the project at paisleytrust.org.