Last updated 19:16, Friday, 26 September 2008

I write this in response to your article ‘No theatre for 45 years... is Carlisle a cultural desert?’ (The Cumberland News, September 19).

Is Carlisle a cultural desert? The answer is a) Yes and b) No.

a) The fact that there is no arts centre/theatre/dedicated concert hall speaks for itself.

In Carlisle, unlike the residents of Keswick, we have no building which acts as a hub for performances.

To visit the Theatre by the Lake is a pleasure. It is purpose-built and offers accommodation appropriate and flexible enough to stage a wide variety of events.

Its magnificent setting is unique of course but that is about the only element one can realistically not dream of appropriating when it comes to envisaging something similar for Carlisle.

Deciding whether the Lonsdale is fit for conversion into a working arts centre, with theatre and musical performance provision, seems to be taking much longer than one had foreseen.

In the meantime the tally of empty buildings surrounding it seems to grow by the week and Botchergate possibly no longer appears quite the most appropriate place to locate something new, exciting and “iconic” (a token term for our times I feel obliged to make use of).

b) All the same, in spite of this lack of proper provision, quite a lot happens in the town to counter the cultural desert label.

The Sands’ orchestral seasons apart, there are frequent choral concerts, albeit amateur but of a very high standard.

The cathedral hosts a number of musical concerts throughout the year, including during the Carlisle (International ) Festival, and North Cumbria Recitals promotes six excellent chamber music concerts each season.

Most of these events, as it happens, take place in churches in and around the town, are largely run by volunteers, have modest, if loyal, support and are rarely attended by any one under middle age.

Would attendances improve and would they attract a wider demographic if the venues were secular, more relaxed and modern?

Jazz and folk enthusiasts are largely catered for in pubs and clubs. It has always been this way, but have you been to the Keswick Jazz Festival at the Theatre by the Lake? It is booked out a year ahead, spills over into pubs and clubs bringing business to the town. It is lively!

Similarly the literary festival held there each February. People come from all over to stay in Keswick and attend these events, spend money, have a great time, fall in love with Cumbria, as they well might.

How wonderful it would be if Carlisle could stage something similar, not just in pubs and churches, but in an arts centre of its own, welcoming people of all generations, offering cultural diversity and a broad range of experiences to everyone, particularly if the ethos established was one of inclusivity and innovation.

Until it does, Carlisle will retain a rather parochial feel, limited in its appeal to visitors, indifferent to, or even unaware of, the growing industry of cultural tourism.

DIANE WALKER
Wood Street
Carlisle

• Thanks go to Roger Lytollis for such an informed and informative article last Friday – it was excellent.

Nowadays when people ask me where I come from I almost eagerly tell them “Carlisle – it’s a cultural desert”.

The cultural situation in this city is truly appalling!

I remember with so much pleasure going to Her Majesty’s as a boy. I fell in love there for the first time – with Snow White (after all I was only seven, I think). I still remember Lionel Lightfoot’s wonderful productions. I first saw musicals there – Blue Moon sticks in my mind.

I mourned deeply the passing of that elegant old theatre, and the sight – indeed site – of Her Majesty’s car park still undeveloped today is like a running sore on the face of a city which deserves better.

The myriad of opportunities which have come and gone and been ignored by those in charge is mind-boggling.

The sheer stupidity of some of their ideas – even believing for a moment so-called consultants’ reports that we need over £20 million to develop a theatre – leave me astounded.

They only confirm the second part of my greeting sentence to those who ask my provenance: “It’s a cultural desert, run by Philistines”.

The class wars of politics clearly have something to do with this. The quality of our mediocre education system probably has more. And our history as a working class city with a population brought in to build railways (like parts of Soviet Russia) also play a part. But I have been to Russia and seen the wonderful cultural opportunities available there, and at a price which many can afford.

The costs of doing anything in this country are ridiculous, which doesn’t help.

Why should I pay large sums to go to a concert of mediocre works in a sports hall with the most ghastly acoustics, when I can buy the CD for less (and download it for still less than that) and hear it better at home.

Why should I pay anything at all for most of the mediocre rubbish at the Sands that passes as entertainment?

And now they are talking of using this awful sports hall for more ‘culture’? Are they completely mad?

If we won’t develop the Lonsdale, which would have made a passable venue at low cost, why don’t we build a decent small theatre beside the river – a fabulous site which would enable us to emulate (not compete with) the lovely Theatre by the Lake which manages to pretty well fill its house every day of the year?

Such a location should be able to attract better visiting companies as well as audiences who at present have to travel to Newcastle, Edinburgh or Glasgow – and provide for local productions.

The answer we will hear is that the population doesn’t want it. The implication of that would clearly be that “Carlisle is a cultural desert run by Philistines for a population of Philistines”.

Well some of us aren’t, and it’s time we made our voices heard even louder. Bang the drum some more, please, Roger! Alternatively, just tell me who do we unelect?

ANDREW BUCK
Carleton

• I read page 12 of The Cumberland News and had a feeling of déjà vu.Surely many letters supporting the old Lonsdale have said these very things.

Edna Croft has already pointed out some of them in a most amusing manner.

The lack of such a place in a city, the Shakespeare not coming here, how people will mourn the loss of the Lonsdale, like Her Majesty’s. Her letters have said all this.

But who is talked to for this article? And if Brian Gray is going to talk to people then his first priority should be those who have fought long and hard for the Lonsdale.

I’ve admired all that they have done and they have already said all of this but at the same time put up a good fight to get what? The very thing that this is going on about.

Did the arts people do this? Did they organise a march or coffee mornings or write to the paper?

I don’t think so but I bet they will be in there taking the credit if the old Lonsdale is saved and going on about art and culture, when it took these people to do the actual work.

If Brian Gray wants to know more about the Lonsdale he only has to talk to these people.

They are not in hiding, in fact they have been very public and not been afraid to go for it.

I have supported them and I know many others who have too. But maybe not all those other venues, they’ve been too busy looking after themselves, where the Lonsdale is to save something for everyone.

K WILSON
Wigton Road
Carlisle

• I was shocked and very disappointed to read that the city council will get rid of the wonderful arts development manager Mick North.Having travelled the world extensively I still, for some reason, live in the city where I was born and where my father was a major employer.

One of the many things I enjoy about living in Carlisle is the wide range of entertainment and he is one of the excellent organisers of this. If the city council reduces the amount of money paid on entertainment that would be disgusting.

I appeal to the council not to do this.

CHRIS PRETTYMAN
Trafalgar Street
Carlisle