Campaigners are calling for a Belfast building to be used as a space for artists.
The current plans for Havelock House on the Ormeau Road are that it will be demolished to make way for a 270 apartment residential building with courtyard gardens and 40 car parking spaces.
However, those behind a group set up to protect the building which formerly housed UTV, Save Havelock House, are calling for it to be used as a much-needed space for artists and creatives.
Read more: Developer makes second attempt to demolish Havelock House for apartments
It comes as a new "cultural mapping" report from Belfast City Council shows that a lack of studio and rehearsal space for artists and musicians risks causing "severe damage" to Belfast's cultural life.
Last month, artists gathered in Cathedral Quarter in protest at the lack of affordable work spaces in the city, with some of these creatives having lost their equipment and work in a fire in a building on Donegall Street at the start of October.
Save Havelock House recently ran a survey to see what members of the public want the future of the building to be. There was very little support for demolition, with a lot of popular support for the building's reuse, with ideas including space for artists and creatives as well as a museum featuring Northern Ireland's often overlooked broadcasting history.
TV Historian, Ken Griffin, is the Chairperson of the Save Havelock House campaign, and told Belfast Live the building is the ideal space for artists to work from, as many of the rooms and studios have been purpose-built for such use, due to Havelock's history as the home of UTV.
The "enormous" space is 58,000 sq ft, and has three professional studios, as well as multiple workshop spaces.
"This building has huge importance as a historic building with cultural significance in Northern Ireland for its role in the television industry," Ken said.
"Havelock House was occupied by UTV for many years, and the requirements the broadcast industry have are quite similar to the requirements artists have. The spaces for studios are similar to the sort of space needed for exhibitions or art galleries, there's also a huge amount of space there for workshops.
"In the old days, UTV used to make all of its own scenery in-house, so there's workshops there for more craft types of artistic works. There's a lot of space within the building, there's 58,000 sq ft which is enormous.
"In that, there's three professional quality studios, ranging in size from around 2,500 sq ft to about 650. One of the ideas we've been thinking about and looking to engage more on, is you could probably have a combination of artists' workshops and a gallery. There's even provision there for a cafe or restaurant, because you can reuse the old UTV canteen."
Ken said the group's ideas are "all in the very early stages" and would require further engagement with relevant stakeholders and the developer.
He added the group's next steps are to evaluate the results of their recent reuse survey, before working on securing funding for a feasibility study.
As the dire situation for artists across the city continues, Ken said Havelock House could even be granted meanwhile use to provide a temporary space for creatives.
He said: "You have a crisis, you have a building which could be used to address the crisis, in terms of our organisation, you have a group who are realistic and pragmatic, we're taking this through step by step.
"It's upon us to see what a feasible reuse might look like, and engage with the relevant stakeholders. The reason we went so strong on reuse was as we learnt more about the building, we were bowled over by its potential."
However, Ken said Save Havelock House need artists across Belfast to help them create a "push" for the site to be used.
"They have a desperate need for accommodation, but we need them to help us along the way, we need that push," he explained.
"We need artists to say to their MLAs and councillors - there's this building that has been written off, but would be ideal for artists. Even if demolition still hasn't been resolved, we would be in favour of there being a meanwhile use at least.
"It doesn't really serve anyone at this time having this building which has great potential for the artistic community, just sitting there idle. But we need to have that push there. "
READ NEXT:
- This is what is happening to UTV's Havelock House in Belfast
- Belfast mum's 'family traumatised' after 'campaign of harassment'
- Former Asia Supermarket and cinema to be 'demolished in the coming months'
- 'My life is in turmoil': Belfast mum distraught as garden 'overrun' with rats
For all the latest news, visit the Belfast Live homepage here. To sign up to our FREE newsletters, see here.
