THE EMPIRE STRIKES BACK
One day Roland Muldoon came to me with an idea. He had seen a building he thought would be perfect to revamp as a home for alternative comedy away from the centre of London. It was called the Hackney Empire. Although it had once been a notable venue where music hall stars such as Marie Lloyd and Charlie Chaplin performed, by the mid-1980s it was being used a bingo hall.
I went along to see it. The first fifteen rows were being used by the bingo people but the rest of the building was gathering dust. It was owned by the games company Mecca, and it was obvious they weren’t sure what to do with it. Roland was excited, and so we formed a company with me as the chairman and put in a bid for the building, which was under threat of demolition. After going to and fro for a few months and pushing some papers around, we did a deal. We bought it for a token price – I think it was £1 – but we were committed to paying the rates and raising the money needed to restore it. We wanted to make Hackney Empire the home of New Variety. The Theatre Royal in Stratford was good at connecting to people in its community but we wanted Hackney to achieve even more.
The building had been left in a terrible condition: the seats needed replacing, structural work was required and the top gallery needed complete refurbishment. So we started fundraising and putting together plans to restore it to good order. After a long campaign that won the hearts of the public and local people, we opened.
I was occupied for much of the time with practical matters, like overseeing the building work. In some ways the organisation was similar to the collectives I’d been a part of. It was run by a great group of people who were dedicated to providing excellent egalitarian entertainment. Many of the performers who played there were about to break into public awareness as huge stars, including Ben Elton, Dawn French and Jennifer Saunders, Paul Merton, Julian Clary and Harry Enfield, whose character ‘Loadsamoney’ perfectly lampooned the brash and greedy attitudes of the era.
I only played there a couple of times. I didn’t play there more than that because I didn’t want to abuse my position as chairman. I got my satisfaction from knowing that the theatre belonged to the people and served the community with a diverse range of acts and performances. It was always a struggle to keep it going, but it survived against the odds and maintains its place in London working-class history, showcasing everything from community choirs to panto.