Opportunity knocks: Footscray’s Grand Theatre for sale
Recently, one of Footscray’s old theatres, The Grand in Paisley Street, has been listed for sale and awaits ‘expressions of interest’. Footscray once boasted five theatres but now, as we locals know, there are none. The Barkly Theatre in Barkly Street, a historic treasure, was turned into flats, and now the Grand faces an uncertain future.
Behind metal structures the 1911 façade remains, and inside the stage is intact. The theatre is fairly small, and certainly could be restored by an interested individual or group.
Just imagine, as a live performance space, hosting acts during the Comedy Festival, plays, children’s shows…or as a Cinema, bringing life back to night time Footscray and supporting local bars and restaurants.
Footscray CBD is in transition and is currently not an attractive or engaging destination. Michael Smith’s restoration of the Sun Cinema changed Yarraville for the better, and Footscray can be revitalised too. I encourage local residents, business people and council to see the promise of returning public entertainment venues like The Grand to Footscray.
Lauren Baldie, Footscray
50,000 pedestrians walked the West Gate tunnel on Discovery Day last month. The Westsider was there, asking you your opinions, and what other infrastructure projects you’d like to see in the West.
Here are your comments from the day, and from our social media post.
“As big of a driver as I am, I would love to see the public transport infrastructure catch up to the population growth in the west.”
“My dream Melbourne infrastructure project is a train station in Maribyrnong.”
“FERRY SYSTEM!! like Sydney and Brisbane. Give the trains a break.”
“Better bus network for the West!”
“What I really want to see is those public housing towers, instead of getting demolished and gone forever, to get retrofitted so we can actually continue to have public housing in Victoria.”
“I’d love to see more bike paths actually. More safe bike paths.”
“A lot of people I hear complain about taxes and so on in Melbourne. I’ve got to say living in the States I see infrastructure there crumbling. The stuff that I’m seeing built in Melbourne really argues well for an incredible international city.”
“I’m very surprised and disappointed that they won’t filter the stacks. The preponderance of traffic in these tunnels will be diesel trucks. It’s a question of children’s health.”
“A train line straight to the airport like every other modern city”
“Airport rail. Public transport that adequately supports the booming population in the west. Limit road tolling to paying off the road (plus reasonable interest/income for the company initially outlaying the cost) not an indefinite profit for toll company while taxpayers pay for the road multiple times over! Doing better than the US is a pretty low bar, let’s learn from cities that do much better on infrastructure than us and strive for that.”
*Check out our video from the West Gate Tunnel Discovery Day here
