Ten years on: How Battersea Arts Centre rose from the ashes

On March 13, 2015, the future of Battersea Arts Centre hung in the balance after a huge fire ripped through the grade-II listed building.

Plumes of black smoke and giant flames leapt from the historic building after the blaze took hold at around 4.20pm in the afternoon.

Devastated onlookers were seen crying in the street as crowds watched the fire engulf a large section of the roof and gut much of the venue’s 1893 Grand Hall.

More than a dozen fire engines and about 80 firefighters battled the blaze well into the night, with crews being hoisted into the air on ladders to tackle the flames from above.

But there was a glimmer of hope in the early hours the following morning.

Staff announced that the front of the building had been spared. The fire had stopped dead at the grand hall’s inner doors and two-thirds of the building was intact.

The centre’s artistic director at the time, David Jubb, said: “Brick by brick, we will bring that building back.”

The next evening, the independent arts centre managed to host a show in the front of the building, the debating chamber, which had survived unscathed.

Over the next two years, more than 6,000 people supported the arts centre by helping to raise funds, re-house shows and rebuild the Grand and Lower Halls.

On September 6, 2018, the Grand Hall officially re-opened. 

BAC welcomed the public with open arms, for a building-wide season of 10 free events – the Phoenix Season – to thank those who supported the institution after the fire.

As part of the five-month run, theatre company Gecko were invited back to perform their show Missing.

The group were midway through a run when the 2015 fire broke out. Their set, props and costumes were all destroyed. 

One of the most striking features of the renovation was the decision to keep the charred walls as they were left by the fire.

The surface of the walls reveals some of the 125-year history of the Victorian hall, which suffered the worst damage in the fire. The cleanup operation revealed successive generations of paintwork, brickwork and ironwork including a renovation of the grand hall balcony in the 1930s. 

At the time, Mr Jubb said that having the scorched walls as a “permanent reminder” of the disaster would offer audiences a better understanding of the centre’s past.

Looking back on the past 10 years, BAC artistic director and chief executive officer Tarek Iskander credited the “outpouring of support” from the community for the venues achievements.

He said: “From becoming Wandsworth’s main Vaccine Centre during the pandemic, to hosting our artistic programme and offering spaces free of charge to local community groups, we have been able to adapt and reimagine ourselves as an organisation in our historic home of Battersea Town Hall. 

“This has been made possible thanks to the courageous and proactive work of the emergency services, staff, artists, volunteers and wider communities who rallied together to save it in 2015. 

“We are incredibly grateful”.

Pictured top: The BAC Grand Hall in the aftermath of the fire (Picture: Haworth Tompkins)