The new owner of Boston’s Assembly Rooms has promised to return it to its former glory – but would not be drawn on its exact future.
Matthew Clark, who took over the ownership from Boston Borough Council this week, said he ‘did not yet know’ what he would do with the historic site, but confirmed that it would be used as an entertainment venue of some sort – and possibly as a nightclub.
The leisure entrepreneur said: “Never say never. A nightclub is not that dissimilar to what the Assembly Rooms used to be. I’ve been thinking it could be a good venue for years.
“If it became anything which would be dubbed a nightclub I would hope the trading environment would reeducate people into what such a venue should be.”
The controversial sale, which went through on Monday, has been made in a bid to save money for Boston Borough Council, which says it has paid out over a million pounds for the upkeep of the building in the last six years alone.
Council leader Peter Bedford said he would be pleased to see the building returned to its former glory, as conditions of the sale stipulated the exterior must be brought up to scratch as soon as possible.
He told The Standard: “It’s sad as a local person that changes have to be made, but it has to go into the hands of the experts who are going to care for it and look after it. The town could no longer afford the Assmebly Rooms.
“Now the building has a future, but not at any cost to the public purse.”
Work on the outside of the building is to begin ‘as soon as weather permits’, a council spokesman said.
The recently-closed toilets beneath the Assembly Rooms are to remain shut, despite strong public opposition to the closure.
“I don’t think there is any economic sense in opening them,” Mr Clark said, adding that he did not know what they would be used for.
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