City set to buy ruin for Blitz bombsite memorial

The National Civilian WW2 Memorial Trust wants to turn the National Picture Theatre, wrecked in a raid on Hull in 1941, into a memorial and educational resource.

Hull Council set aside £150,000 several years ago for the building which is said to “illustrate uniquely well the Second World War Blitz”, but has been unable to strike a deal with the owner.

Despite facing cuts of £48m, the ruling Labour administration’s budget made saving the building a priority.

Today Cabinet members will discuss the compulsory purchase of the building, with a final decision to be made by the planning committee next month.

In December the owner was given two months to carry out repairs, but nothing has been done.

Officers writing the report recommend action – saying if not the council would appear “weak and ineffectual.”

Council leader Steve Brady said: “This is part of the city’s heritage. As far as we know there’s nothing really like it anywhere else.

“The story was never told about Hull during the War (it was often referred to in bulletins as ‘an East Coast town’)

“You just have to make sure it all stacks up and it won’t be a drain in the future.”

National Civilian WW2 Memorial Trust secretary Alan Canvess and three other trustees will be at today’s meeting.

Once the building is acquired, he said, they will be able to finally put in bids for funding to secure the building’s future.

Mr Canvess said: “We are delighted that the council is following this procedure and hope they choose at least two of the options – to buy it and lease it to us or obtain it through a compulsory purchase order and lease it to us.

“We are happy to enter into a third-party agreement to lease it.

“The application for funding is ready to submit the moment the council agrees to obtaining the site whether through a CPO or straightforward purchase. We want to get on with this.”

A report says the “poignant, significant and remarkable” remains of the building stand alongside other rare examples of bombed buildings preserved in Germany, Eastern Europe and Japan.

On the night of the raid 150 people, who had been watching Chaplin’s The Great Dictator were sheltering in the foyer. Fortuitously the bomb hit the rear of the building, blowing in the screen wall and collapsing the majority of the building. No one was killed.

For years advertising hoardings have hidden the ruins. Roots and ivy festoon the stage and exposed staircases climb towards the circle, lost more than 70 years ago.

Hull was one of the first and last towns to be bombed and suffered raids throughout the war, being regarded by the Germans as a prime target for heavy bombers. By the end of the war just six per cent of its houses were left undamaged.

There are now only two other blitzed ruins, both churches, still standing, in the north of England, and according to the most recent research, the theatre “is the least altered standing survivor of a Blitzed building of any kind in Britain in a non-military context”.