Having followed the incredible journey that began with the sad closure of the Gateway Theatre but which ends today with the triumphant opening of Storyhouse, The Chronicle’s executive editor Michael Green gives his personal view on what this means for Chester

About a year after the Gateway Theatre closed in Chester a decade ago, The Chronicle launched a campaign to have it reopened.

The reasoning behind the initiative was sound: the financial crisis was hitting hard, the Northgate Development - of which the new theatre was an integral part - looked dead in the water but the shell of the Gateway was still intact and we reckoned it would only take a couple of hundred thousand pounds to replace the seats and make the place structurally sound and operational once again.

It was a campaign which gained a lot of support, particularly from many Chester based arts groups who were struggling to find places to present their work.

The Gateway Theatre in Chester, Feb 2008
The Gateway Theatre in Chester, Feb 2008

One organisation remained strangely silent on the issue - Chester Performs, the group which had been set up to plug the gap between the Gateway’s closure and the new theatre’s opening.

Then I received a phone call from the chief executive of Chester Performs, Andrew Bentley, the man who is now CEO of Storyhouse, who had a simple but serious message to deliver on the matter: “Chester deserves better. We shouldn’t be spending hundreds of thousands on a theatre for the city, we should be spending millions.”

Nine years and £37m later, Mr Bentley has proved he was right and The Chronicle was wrong - today Chester gets not only the theatre it deserves but a cultural centre which goes beyond even the wildest dreams of those who have counted the days until we can boast a venue which befits a city with our rich heritage.

There is such a positive vibe, a real buzz around the opening of Storyhouse. All the scepticism which naturally greeted many of the stages which led us to this point seems to have evaporated which is no surprise because any doubts anyone may have had about the scheme completely disappear once you step through the doors of this incredible complex.

As much as everyone has been looking forward to the opening of the theatre and to seeing cinema return to the city centre for the first time since the Odeon closed, for me the real stroke of genius behind this project was the decision to move the library to Storyhouse.

Not only will this help turn the new cultural centre into a focal point of activity in the city, it will also prolong the existence of a library in Chester - after all, how many newspapers and websites get to report the opening of a new library in this day and age?

Storyhouse Rep Company visit the new theatre for the first time

Mr Bentley has masterminded the initiative from the start with the help of innovators like project director Graham Lister; Cheshire West and Chester Council have supported it all the way, providing funding and finding the backing to make it financially viable; the construction teams have done a magnificent job of combining the old and the new so that anyone who fondly remembers the Odeon will be able to spot all kinds of familiar features in the new building; artistic director Alex Clifton and his small army of creative thinkers have come up with an immensely varied and tantalising programme for the rest of 2017.

Now the rest is up to you and me. We need to borrow from the library’s resources, we have to pop in for a cuppa and a snack, we must resurrect the cinema-going habit in the city centre and we have to book tickets for the shows, both in-house and touring productions.

Chester finally has the cultural centre it deserves - it is up to us to make sure we use it.