Having approved the scheme to create a temporary theatre in the Montpellier Hall in December 1944 things moved surprisingly quickly. Despite wartime restrictions of material and labour, work proceeded on alterations during the first three months of 1945 and an opening date for the theatre – now given the simple name of the Civic Playhouse – was set for 9 April with an amateur production of Arms & The Man by George Bernard Shaw.
It had been proposed during the previous year that the wash baths on the first floor be removed to a new site in Cheltenham as they are too large and out-of-date. This would allow the medical baths to expand upstairs and possibly into the corner shop and yard. While some new treatments were offered and some redecoration and reorganisation of the layout took place, no major changes were made to either wash or medical baths. This turned out to have a been a lucky move as a new government idea was just around the corner – the National Health Service. After an initial huge increase in the numbers using the medical baths due to NHS referrals, this fell away drastically as more treatments started to be offered in the general hospital.
In 1950 a fire closed the Civic Playhouse for several months and with the decreasing use of the medical baths part of the latter was annexed to form much needed proper new dressing rooms and backstage facilities for the auditorium. What was once expected to be a temporary theatre was clearly here to stay. By 1951 much of the treatment rooms were unused and the following year the laundry was permanently closed.
A new volunteer organisation, The Cheltenham Theatre & Arts Club, was formed in 1954 to support the Playhouse and arts in the town and with the medical baths finally closing in 1955 – the same year the building is granted Grade-II listed status – an opportunity presented itself. The T&A (as it is known) agreed to take a three-year lease on the former medical baths and to renovate it; the laundry was converted into a rehearsal room, three of the treatment rooms became one exhibition space, and the rest turned into committee rooms and a club lounge with bar. The club opened for the first time, appropriately enough, the day after Twelfth Night 1956.
Shortly afterwards the council decided they no longer wished to finance the running of the Civic Playhouse and so the T&A also took a one-year lease on the theatre from December 1958; this was done so that both leases would expire simultaneously and could then be renewed with a joint lease covering the whole ground floor (with the exception of the corner shop). The wash baths on the first floor continued to be used until the mid-1970s at which point the T&A also took on this part of the building and converted it into rehearsal rooms and storage spaces.
While the council remained owners, the T&A became responsible for maintenance and upkeep for the building and gradually more and more improvements were made to the property and the technical equipment. The T&A became a registered charity and in 2008 a major refurbishment of the auditorium and green room was achieved; half the funding was provided by the charity including a substantial bequest from founder member Joan Cross and this was match-funded by the council using part of the proceeds from the sale of the former Axiom arts centre.
Click on the drop down menu or links above to read more about the different uses during this period.