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What's happened to the Arches?


_Ren

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a not insignificant part of me moving to sheffield was the cracking times i had at the arches.

 

it was always the most appalingly run place in the world tho. how they ever thought they could run a businesss only really opemning one night a week is beyond me. they (everyone who tried to run it) always struck me as incompetent and idiotically rude - so that no one wanted to work with them.

 

Be good to have it back again.

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I was fairly convinced that it was being demolished for the new dual carriageway that is going through that area, a friend said they had been surveying the place only recently in preperation for it being knocked down, I could be wrong though

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Originally posted by iffypop

Wow, you know after they closed down the Hacienda, squatters / party people broke back in and set up a free party, to give the place their own goodbye. Someone should do that (and invite me!) :)

 

Hey I was at that party! It got quite mental when the police turned up. A proper lock in, lol. The Hac was in a much better condition then than the Arches is now tho.

 

In general the problem with the Arches is three fold. The drainage between the central arches has been blocked and accumulated about 15 years of sludge (approx 10 feet deep, ik). This means that any rain instead of draining forward and down the out flow pipes has been making it's way through the building and ending up in the fuse room along with all the 3 phase electricity, which is nice. When we were setting up for a Headcharge once there was literally an inch of water on the dance floor in the backroom! Secondly, the security roller covering the fire doors is well and truly shafted and without this being sorted there'll be no license granted. Lastly, as anyone knows who's worked nights there, the management regime at the Arches has always been, shall we say, a bit challenged in understanding about how to fill up a roster of complimentary nights. Costing over a grand ever since I've been going there (95 onwards) it's hardly going to bring any fledgling nights in is it. In fact I lose count of the amount that did one night where all their mates come down, break even and then on the next one lose 2or 3K Without having a cross platform appeal i.e live music, a variety of dance music nights and maybe some daytime access for the local community then the Arches will never turn a profit and could well end up being that sofa warehouse that was threatened before Shannon took over the lease last time.

 

The deal with the devlopment of the riverside and the new road is not that the Arches gets demolished, just that the third arch (the one to the left of the entrance) needs to be filled up with concrete to increase the structural strength to a point necessary for the road. As far as I understand this would definately put the club out of action for about 6 months. If you're paying a lease to run the place as a club and all of a sudden you can't do owt for 6 months then you better have some wedge behind you to tide you over. I don't think anybody knows yet when the road development will finally go ahead so it's a bit of a sticking point that.

 

Having said all this, I've heard good things about the ongoing repairs. It'll cost a packet to fix the current issues never mind get a decent rig in there again, but it is being attended to slowly, electrics, plumbing etc. I can't see the capital being there to do stuff like a second bar, third room and other things that have been eternally mooted until the road development has finished (and that's been coming for a number of years already) I'm quietly confident you'll see some sort of re-emergence, but I can't see that in 2005. I'd be happy to be proved wrong however.

 

Thats my two penneth, anyhoo.

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