Ironworks closure: Cultural vandalism or just business?
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End of an era, final fling, curtain call – these are all terms I've heard to describe the closure of the Ironworks.
As a music venue in Inverness, it seemed to have its place.
Opening in 2006 – the same year I moved to the city – I've always had a soft spot for it.
For me, the venue always represented fun. Probably because I was generally there for fun reasons!
I've been there to see live music, I've been there to watch live wrestling, I've even danced to Beyonce on stage there in a skit as part of the Blitz Awards during my time playing American football for the Highland Wildcats, so I have plenty of happy memories.
However, that's all they will forever be, with no chance of repeating any of it.
Many people will be sad to see it close, they will be even sadder when the bulldozers arrive and knock it down. And for what? Another new hotel.
If you take away the reasons for people coming to a place, then will demand for such accommodation be so high? Also, when will enough hotels be enough?
Business is business though, right? But this seems to be verging on cultural vandalism.
Alternative indoor live music venues exist. There is Eden Court, various pubs and bars, and even the Spectrum Centre (probably, at a push). But none of these were purpose-built for the task.
The arts need respect, rather than being viewed as an add-on. It should be seen as essential, rather than as a luxury – especially in the Highland capital.
Thousands of people have flocked to the venue, not only for music, wrestling and Blitz Awards but business events, the café – and even a performance by a promising up-and-comer called Lewis Capaldi.
It was a flexible facility that surely could have had a future, had Highland Council embraced it.
Instead, councillors were put in a position in August where they accepted a planning application for a hotel on the site of the music venue sparking fury and damaging the local authority’s reputation with music fans.
Looking back, the decision was made by the finest of margins.
Of 15 members of the south planning applications committee entitled to vote – seven voted to approve the plan and seven voted against with one abstention. The decision then fell to chairman Thomas MacLennan (councillor for Fort William and Ardnamurchan) whose casting vote saw approval granted. He's never publicly spoken about his decision to my knowledge – we seek to change that, if only to gain a little more perspective of his decision.
An earlier decision to approve planning permission for student accommodation meant they had no chance of permanently pushing back on a development but the council’s refusal to embrace helping find a new site was extremely questionable.
That's because objections from music fans mourning the impending loss of the city’s main music venue, the impact on the historic environment, petitions and other councillors’ general dissatisfaction with the hotel’s architecture were not enough to halt the project.
Instead, Inverness will get a major new £30 million 155-bedroom hotel that can accommodate up to 100,000 visitors a year, creating 90 construction jobs for two years followed by 65 full-time hospitality jobs.
Developer Bricks Group has been trying since 2019 to get approval for the scheme, even significantly redrawing plans to meet earlier design criticisms.
There's no doubt that the business was determined to get the go-ahead and I'm sure they will be just as determined to make it a success.
It's just a shame it comes at the expense of this treasured venue – a place which felt like it was the city's music venue. It felt like it was the place to be. It felt like it could give hope and inspiration to local musical talent.
All that is gone.
My colleague Margaret Chrystall, who has been to more events at the Ironworks than I can count, previously said: "It would be good to think that there might be a phoenix to rise from these flames – a new building, a new idea even that could investigate new spaces, a neglected building that might with some imagination and a lot of investment and ingenuity, might become an alternative. But these are difficult times.
"It would take a lot of money, an incredible vision and an almost superhuman amount of faith to get something like that off the ground. Hopefully that is out there – and I would love to believe it will happen."
That belief may still be there for some but it's more likely to be tinged with a large amount of sadness mainly due to being powerless over what comes next.
