Ken Dodd tickled to open new Floral Pavilion

Dec 15 2008 By Staff Reporter

Floral Pavilion

AROUND 400 invited guests gathered in New Brighton’s Floral Pavilion on Saturday to enjoy an opening night to be remembered.

Ken Dodd fulfilled his pledge to be the first act to grace the new stage of the completed theatre after its multi-million pound revamp.

And his jokes at the expense of many of the invited guests – about Wirral Council’s proposals to close libraries across the borough gained some of the loudest laughs of the night.

Dodd, in the sold-out show, had chosen one of the most contentious subjects facing many of the elected members of Wirral Council, many of whom who were in his audience, including the leaders of the three main political parties.

Cllr Steve Foulkes, leader of the Labour group and council leader; and his deputy on the council and the leader of the Lib-Dems Simon Holbrook, along with Conservative leader Jeff Green, all watched the veteran comedian perform.

But before the Squire of Knotty Ash took the stage, the architects, developers and council workers took applause for their work in seeing through the redevelopment.

Few would see the resemblance beyond the name of the extraordinary building, which has risen up overlooking Fort Perch Rock and Liverpool Bay beyond, compared to the Floral’s previous incarnation.

The Floral Pavilion began its life in 1913 and has hosted hundreds of household names, but recent years had seen it become sadly run down.

Liverpool architect Ken Martin designed the new building as the first part of Neptune Development’s £60m regeneration programme to revitalise the resort’s tourism sector.

At the opening Mr Martin called it the happiest day of his professional life, and was warmly applauded after he told guests it had been one of the best commissions he had worked on.

Overlooking the Mersey, the new Floral Pavilion features an enhanced 800-seat auditorium, a spacious foyer, bars and lounge, alongside 765 sq m of multi-purpose conference, meetings and events space.

It is envisaged that the venue will host a range of events from musical theatre, panto, dance, live music to conferences, exhibitions, award dinners and wedding ceremonies.

Among the acts lined up for the coming weeks are Billy Ocean, Dave Spikey and Asia.

And former councillor Pat Hackett, who risked his career championing the Neptune Developments scheme, couldn’t hide his pride at the role he had played in pushing forward the project against considerable opposition.

“It’s a spectacular building, something for New Brighton and Wirral to be proud of, and it wouldn’t have been possible without the Neptune scheme.”