Exclusive:Prestigious 146-year-old Scottish theatre to be fully revamped under £8m grant

The Scottish Government has agreed to plough another £8 million into a revamp of one of Scotland's most historic theatres after the cost of the project soared over the past year.

The Citizens Theatre in Glasgow is set to reopen next summer after a seven-year closure | Mark Liddell

Ministers have signed off a second major grant for the biggest ever overhaul of the Citizens Theatre.

The new support will allow long-delayed work on the building, which dates back to 1878, to finally be completed by next summer.

The new-look Citizens Theatre in Glasgow is due to fully reopen in the autumn of 2025.

However, the cost of the project, which has seen the theatre closed since 2018, is expected to rise to around £40m.

The bill, which has increased by around £10m in the space of a year, is four times more than originally envisaged when the revamp was first announced more than a decade ago.

The new-look Citizens Theatre in Glasgow is due to fully reopen in the autumn of 2025

Plans to reopen the venue with a Christmas show this year had to be shelved in the summer due to rising costs and the complexity of the work on its original Victorian-era auditorium. The city council agreed to put in another £2m to help rescue the project.

All building works are expected to be finished by the end of this month before a six month "fit-out" to turn the new-look Citizens into a working theatre again.

The original sandstone building has been "wrapped" in a new three-storey building, which will create a new 152-seater studio theatre, a new studio for rehearsals, workshops and classes, new bars and expanded foyer spaces.

The new-look Citizens Theatre in Glasgow is due to fully reopen in the autumn of 2025. Picture: Mike Hume

Promised improvements in the main auditorium include better sightlines, new wheelchair positions, and a new ventilation and air handling system, a lower-raked stage and a taller fly tower.

The new £8m grant was secured as part of the Scottish Budget and brings the total public funding for the revamp up to £37m, leaving an official fundraising target of £3.5m.

Culture Secretary Angus Robertson said: "The Scottish Government will provide £8m in funding to the Citizens Theatre in the next financial year from its capital budget. This is in addition to the £6m that has previously been provided for this project.

“This will help ensure that Glasgow’s major producing theatre and one of the leading theatres in the UK will be able to complete its significant renovation project and reopen.”

The new-look Citizens Theatre in Glasgow is due to fully reopen in the autumn of 2025.

A spokeswoman for the Citizens said the final cost of the project was the subject of "commercially sensitive negotiations". But she added: "We anticipate the total cost to be in the region of £40m."

Executive director Kate Denby said: "We’re incredibly grateful to the Scottish Government for contributing an additional £8m of funding towards the completion of the redevelopment.

"With main building works set to complete by the end of the year, we look forward to welcoming audiences, artists and communities from across Scotland through our doors once again in 2025.

"The support and commitment of our funders will ensure we reopen a transformed historic building at the heart of the Gorbals community, that will deliver inspiring creative experiences for generations to come."

Although the Citizens was last open to the public in June 2018, work did not start until September 2019, when it had a price tag of £21.5m. Progress was held up by the pandemic and there were then further delays when work in the main auditorium proved “more challenging than anticipated”.

The Citizens spokeswoman said: "There have been a significant number of unprecedented global events since the project originally got underway more than six years ago.

"In addition, there is the complexity of renovating a historic building that has never had a comprehensive architectural overview in the 146 years it has been standing in the Gorbals. The project is transforming an ageing building into a fit-for-purpose, accessible, cultural hub for a broad range of audiences, artists and communities.

“With main construction works set to complete by the end of the year and the building being handed back to the Citizens to commence its fit-out, we are now able take a more definitive view on final costs, subject to negotiations concluding.

"Best estimates have been given throughout the period of construction until we reached this key milestone."