Arts & Entertainment
The show goes on... After all these By Anya Noakes Shaftesbury’s thriving arts centre is housed in the old covered market in the centre of the Saxon hilltop town. The iconic Gold Hill and the ruins of the once mighty Shaftesbury Abbey lie at its very heart, its magnificent views inspiring artists, writers, musicians and pilgrims for centuries. Poet and novelist Thomas Hardy was fascinated by Shaston: “The city of a dream… one of the queerest and quaintest spots in England… breezy and whimsical.” Shaftesbury became a busy market town, connecting London and Falmouth, and traders needed a market hall. In 1855 Richard Grosvenor provided one, its entrance through elegant iron gates on the High Street, another entrance in Bell Street, which is now the Shaftesbury Arts Centre. When General Augustus PittRivers built extravagant pleasure gardens at the Larmer Tree, locals attended summer picnics while tourists flocked to Shaftesbury. Travellers looking for overnight accommodation on market days found it in the less salubrious, overcrowded houses on Gold Hill and along St James. This changed in 1919 with the famous “Sale of Shaftesbury”. The Talking Pictures had arrived and with them a cinema. The Palace Picture House stood at the bottom of the High Street but was demolished in 1925. The Savoy Cinema opened on Bimport in 1933. In austerity ridden post-war Britain, it was clear that Shaftesbury needed a permanent organisation to encourage people to take part 64
GRAND RE-OPENING: The cast of production of The Sleeping Monk from 1957
FROM THE PAST: A crowded Gold Hill in 1905, the High Street in 1920 with the Palace Picture House and, below, the Savoy Cinema in 1940. Right: The arts centre today
in cultural life. The Shaftesbury and District Arts Club was born. Their ambitious first offering was staged in the Savoy Cinema. Performers included Zuilmah Hopkins (soprano),
Sybil Willey (contralto) and Sydney Snape (baritone). Drama, music and camera groups followed and the club arranged its first Art Exhibition at The Town Hall. They needed a home.
Local architect Eric Stevens suggested purchasing the empty Upper Market Hall in Bell Street, secured in 1952 for the grand sum of £750. Donations came from Miss Belfield’s Chalke Valley School of Dancing, the Drama Group agreed to stage at least four productions a year and other members went all out to raise funds with sales of artwork, bridge drives, concerts, exhibitions and raspberry teas. Volunteers were drafted in
