Six years on from the council takeover of the Burton Street Tabernacle, the building remains unused and refurbishments remain unfinished.
In 2004, City of Sydney Council purchased the Tabernacle and said it would be used as a multi-purpose community facility.
“The Burton Street Tabernacle, a large and prominent Victorian building, will provide an opportunity for enhanced program-based activities across our local government area, provided by the City in its own right and in partnership with other bodies,” the then Lord Mayor Lucy Turnbull said in a media release.
Another Council statement at the time promised that “once refurbished, the Tabernacle building will be available for a number of different purposes, including community facilities, recreation activities for various ages, cultural and arts uses, theatre and public meeting facilities.”
But today, building restorations and refurbishments are yet to be complete, leaving the building unused.
Andrew Duckmanton, President of the Darlinghurst Business Partnership, said he was supportive of the council takeover of the building and its plans to use it as a community facility. “To me, that makes sense as a strategy. Because if you want to make this into a cultural quarter, which is what Clover has embarked on since 2006, you clearly need to have more culture than discos and a couple of schools,” Mr Duckmanton said.
His initial optimism has now turned to disappointment, after seeing the building unused for so many years. “This is beyond shocking, because they have taken what could have been six years of really strong growth in Sydney and they’ve turned it into [sic] stagnant.”
Lesley Dimmick, who has been managing TAP Gallery across the street from the Tabernacle for 16 years, said she has seen Council’s neglect of the building first hand.
“We saw the roof fly off one morning – the whole roof almost landed on top of us when it landed on top of several cars in front of our window,” Ms Dimmick said.
“They took an awful long time to fix the roof. When the roof was just tarped, every time it stormed it would come off and we’d ring the council and tell them that the rain was going through the roof and it was going to get damaged.
“The roof should have been repaired immediately and it’s still sitting there unoccupied. It’s been empty for six years, since Lucy Turbull bought it.”
A City of Sydney spokesperson defended the council saying major refurbishment had been completed. “Significant work on the Tabernacle is complete, including internal refurbishment, stabilising, waterproofing, general repairs, a new Welsh slate roof and copper guttering, repairs to the stained glass and tuck-pointing the façade,” the spokesperson said.
“The next stages of preservation works involve removing salts from the brickwork (desalination) and plaster restoration.
The City is also preparing a concept design for the adaptive reuse of the building as a theatre and cafe/gallery, the spokesperson added. “Construction work for this will begin early 2011 and it is anticipated that the Darlinghurst Theatre will relocate into the Tabernacle from Potts Point in 2012.”
Mr Duckmanton said the council could no longer be trusted with its “spin-doctored” promises.
“They (the council) are inept. Incompetent to me, is one of those words that suggests somebody gave you a plan and you just didn’t do it. It just suggests that they’re unable to do something they’re supposed to do. These guys are inept. They have no ability to actually think of the things and run the projects properly. This is beyond a joke.”
by Ehssan Veiszadeh
