Islington Green is a beautiful part of London and has relatively little to do with Cardiff – with the notable exception of a group of people who are very frustrated by the actions of a company founded by Vincent Tan, the owner of Cardiff City.
In 2012, the subsidiary of Berjaya – a company that Tan founded and of which he was chairman for some time – bought a significant site on the corner of the green. A look back over the years shows planning permission for an impressive transformation of the site in the form of a theatre, nestled within a block of flats with retail units running the length of the ground floor.
In these images, the entrance is framed by two large green columns, fluorescent lighting and posters next to and above a wide walkway. Now a visit to the location – known as Collins Theater – shows several boarded up storefronts and not much else. The flats are occupied, but the large entrance is closed off by a plain gray sheet.
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The shell of a theater is out there somewhere, but there has been no real movement in its use for almost five years. Now residents are calling for its completion – or at least for the six vacant retail units to be brought into use for the community. Sign up to our newsletter to get the latest Welsh news delivered to your inbox.
The site is owned by Berjaya UK Investment and Development, a subsidiary of the Berjaya Corporation that Vincent Tan founded. Tan stepped down as executive chairman of Berjaya Corporation but, local media reported, is said to be “still deeply involved in the group and its business activities”. His son U-Peng Tan is listed at Companies House as an active director of the UK investment and development arm responsible for the development of Islington.
Eric Sorensen, president of the local Angel Association, told WalesOnline: “This is quite a prominent part of Angel town center. These shops have never opened and have been boarded up for a long time. They look ugly and do nothing to enliven or give a good feel to the town center and happy place.
“We want them to be put into use in some way, even for interim or temporary use – anything to get rid of this current eyesore. I’m sure it would be used even if its There are quite a few local theaters in the area, so I could do it.” I can’t honestly say that the only thing we’re clamoring for is another theater.
“Yet that space could be used for a lot of community-oriented and commercial activities. All we want is to get things right, especially the retail units that we see being opened and used on a daily basis.”
Mr Sorensen said the Angel Association had “never” been confident that the theater would be fitted out, nor that the basement would be used and the shops would be opened. A council spokesperson said they sympathized with residents’ concerns but “could not force” Berjaya to fill the space.
A document submitted on behalf of Berjaya in a 2018 planning application details the site’s history. Planning permission was first granted for its development in 2002 by the then owners Fairbriar. It included a 600-seat theater, 72 apartments and 950 square meters of retail space. The flats were completed and occupied while the shell of the theater was built but never opened.
A clause of a Section 106 agreement at the time prevented more than 85% of the flats from being occupied before the theater was in use, but due to “complications” in opening it, the developers were allowed to occupy all the units without the theater opening. At the time, the theater’s furnishings were estimated at a cost of £2.17 million. Support award-winning journalism with WalesOnline’s premium app on Apple or Android.
Berjaya UK Investment and Development purchased the site in 2012. In 2013 it submitted a non-material amendment to allow the site to be used as a theatre, but later withdrew this. In 2015, Berjaya submitted another application to adapt the space so that a theater operator could take it over, including the addition of two smaller theater spaces, and this was approved in 2016, but according to the document, discussions with an operator “never came to fruition” bloom”. and the application was never deployed.
In April 2018, Berjaya applied to reduce the size of the theater from 600 to 514 seats, use the basement space for the commercial units and increase the range of use for the ground floor units. This took several months due to a dispute over a revised Section 106 agreement and Berjaya filed a dismissal appeal. It withdrew this appeal in 2019 after lengthy discussions.
Since then, the theater and retail units have stood empty and the building – apart from the apartments – is a shell. In 2023, members of five Islington-based civic associations wrote to Vincent Tan urging him to reach an agreement with the council over the future of the theatre, saying: “Islington Green is a beautiful, much-loved and central part of our neighbourhood. ..The people of Islington have to live with this ugly image at the heart of our community, seemingly with no solution in sight.”
A spokesperson for Islington Council said: “We sympathize with the views of local residents and share their concerns about the vacant shop units and theatres. We have made numerous attempts to encourage the owner to work with an operator to fill the space and retail units. but without success and we cannot force the owner to do so.” Berjaya has been contacted for comment.