Since 1964 the John Mackintosh Hall has been central to the lives of thousands of Gibraltarians. This year has marked 60 years of this cultural institution which remains at the heart of this community. I could not let the year go by without featuring this iconic building or pay tribute to the legacy of John Mackintosh which has benefitted us all – I wonder if in his future vision both – culturally and educationally – he could have predicted the enormous role it would play in the daily lives of the people of Gibraltar – a place which can tell a story or two of the development of Gibraltarian life since the mid-1960s.
This week Alice’s Table reaches its 300th edition. It seems unbelievable that we have come so far and have entered our seventh year. To mark this, I felt our column today had to be relevant to all of us. I did not want to just write about one person or a group – I believe it is fitting that 300 columns down the line we concentrate our efforts on an institution that has been a part of all our lives for many years. Over the next three weeks Alice’s Table will feature its history, photographs. and stories. I have been working on this for some time and invited just a handful of people linked to the Hall – users, players and directors. In a sense this is our tribute to John Mackintosh after six decades, and a building so steeped in local history.
Chief Executive at Gibraltar Cultural Services, today Director of the John Mackintosh Hall, Seamus Byrne, believes that in its 60 years of life, the John Mackintosh Hall, continues to serve as an outstanding cultural Centre and hub. Every part of the Hall – theatre, public library, gymnasium, exhibition rooms and ancillary spaces, he acknowledges, have served Gibraltar’s community well.
“As an educational and cultural institution many Gibraltarians have benefited from this extraordinary space and the Hall has developed significantly from the original vision of John Mackintosh, demonstrating the demand and need for a cultural space then and now in Gibraltar,” he emphasises.
Author of the book ‘Making a Difference: The Life and Times of John Mackintosh’, Richard Garcia, tells me how when John Mackintosh wrote his will before he died in February 1940 “one of the institutions that he wanted to endow was a cultural Centre for the promotion of the English language and British culture”. Before 1940 there was nothing like it, that is until the Calpe Institute was created in the latter stages of the war in 1944 to promote British culture funded by the British Council. The Calpe Institute housed a library and held film shows, talks, plays and served to promote the arts and more. It closed its doors in 1958.
Richard continues how when the John Mackintosh Hall was built by the trustees of the estate of John Mackintosh “pursuant to Mackintosh’s wishes as set out in his will” the new building served in part to replace the Calpe Institute but with bigger and better facilities.
The John Mackintosh Hall was opened to the public by Governor General Sir Alfred Dudley Ward, 8 April, 1964. It was purpose built on the old military Grand Stores site which in 1951 had been damaged in the Bedenham explosion.
On the week of opening (April 16, 1964) this newspaper simply carried the headline across its five columns ‘John Mackintosh Hall’. The Gibraltar Chronicle report included a section of the Will by John Mackintosh: “My trustees shall appropriate… a fund… to the intent that the fund so appropriated and the income thereof maybe used in perpetuity for educational purposes for the benefit of children whose parents are resident in Gibraltar and in particular for the purpose of promoting the teaching in Gibraltar of the English language and of English history and literature and generally to promote and strengthen so far as practicable by educational means the ties between England and Gibraltar.”
Richard tells me that the then Chairman of the JMH Trustees, Pepe Patron, worked closely with Mackintosh in Saccone and Speed and knew what the Mackintoshes’ (including his wife Victoria) and their vision for this cultural Centre. He would ensure it was delivered on time and to the highest of specifications.
The first Director of the John Mackintosh Hall was Colonel Charles Hunt who had been at the head of the old Calpe Institute in its closing days. Its staff members in those early days played an important role in its creation: Rossina Gracia, Charles Grech and Mrs Anderson who ran the small cafeteria.
I dare say, generations of Gibraltarians have made use of the Hall – young and old at many different stages in their lives. It is one of the most recognisable buildings after The Moorish Castle, The City Hall and The Gibraltar Parliament.
All organisations both local and international, have made full use of it through the years: charitable, cultural, social, leisure, educational, government departments and political parties. Its rooms and courtyard have seen numerous events from bird, stamps and painting exhibitions to flower shows, from books and poetry readings to lectures and conferences, from plays, dance and music to literary festivals and world book days, from press conferences to GBC open days, from political gatherings, election nights and referendum results. It is also the place where so many groups and organisations have been formed, created and discussed – all within its familiar and homely walls; some of which have advanced and enriched this community – if only its walls could talk.
Richard Garcia’s first experience at the John Mackintosh Hall was in 1969 in the theatre in a combined schools’ production of ‘The Thwarting of Baron Bolligrew’ by Robert Bolt.
“I was thwarted in this play, as I played the title role. I recall the play – as in the case of the Elio Cruz plays – the original Lola produced and directed by the talented Cecil Gomez.”
Richard points out how the opening of the Hall in 1964 came at a perfect moment for the wider community in Gibraltar.
“It was exactly when problems were building up at the land frontier, as the Spanish government began to pile on restrictions to the movement of persons and goods between Gibraltar and Spain leading to the total closure of the frontier by Spain in 1969. The people of Gibraltar needed greatly improved cultural facilities in order to better handle the ordeal of being cooped up in such a small space,” he says.
From day one the JMH doors were open to everyone. Many users had been members of the Calpe Institute under the British Council. In fact, Richard further points out how in those early years one of the rooms on the ground floor became the common room for the Calpe Institute. Another of the ground floor rooms was a reading room, with the latest British and Gibraltar newspapers. The upper rooms of the Hall included a library – the books came from the former Calpe Institute library and would greatly be expanded over the years to include a reference section, and even a record library adjacent to the main library. Richard recalls the late Sally Pons who eventually became its record librarian. Then vinyl records could be taken out of the library, for a week at a time.
There was also a theatre, gymnasium, snack bar and dark room. It soon became evident that its exhibition rooms would greatly increase the number of exhibitions which then averaged two a month. Over 400 documentary films were contained in its library used as illustrations for talks and lectures to schools and the general public.
Today part of the building is still used as a school, and in the 1970s housed part of the original Girl’s Comprehensive school when comprehensive education was introduced on the Rock. For time the Gibraltar College also held classes there.
There have been so many events since it first opened that it would be impossible to list them all. But suffice to say that some of our most important historical moments have taken place at the John Mackintosh Hall – the Referendum Count of 10 September, 1967, the Constitutional Talks of 1968, the Sovereignty Referendum of 2002, and the place used for all Election Nights – and The Count which has been held there since 1969.
It will come as no surprise to many that in the first instant I have chosen to reflect on the John Mackintosh Hall Theatre – where many of us have laughed and cried – and where many of us have performed on stage, or witnessed a performance whether a comedy, a Llanito play, a drama, a ballet, a musical, a concert, a Christmas spectacular or some other kind of entertainment. The theatre first opened its doors with the play ‘Time Remembered’ by Jean Anouilh which was presented by Group 56. By 1966 the first of the La Lola plays by Elio Cruz – ‘La Lola se va pa Londre’ was staged. There have been so many that most of us will have our own personal favourite. I have fond memories of performing on the JMH stage – I can remember the presentation of ‘A Christmas Carol’ by Charles Dickens when I was still a pupil at the Loreto Convent School.
Local author and dramatist Humbert Hernandez recalls the colourful and successful Combined Schools’ Productions of the 1960s and 1970s, always in the able hands of Cecil Gomez; Macbeth, Henry V, The Scarlet Cross, Coriolanus and others. As for Group 56, and later Group 70, the first play would mark the beginning of a close association between the drama group and JMH.
“Though other groups and associations also used the theatre, our use was so sustained, so constant that we came to be looked upon, unofficially, as the resident theatre amateur company in the early days. Several small rooms on the top floor were allocated to us and we were able to store an ample theatrical wardrobe and a collection of small, but essential, props. We also had a set of flats built to fit the dimensions of the proscenium stage which we ‘sold’ to the JMH management and made available to all local drama groups using the Hall.”
Those early years, Humbert adds, saw some of the more important full-length theatrical highlights which appeared on the JMH stage included: Hamlet, Marat/Sade, La casa de Bernarda Alba and Hotel Paradiso.
The first classical concert, 20 April, 1964, was ‘A Symphony Concert’ by the Gibraltar Symphony Orchestra with works by Schubert, Rossini, Granados and local composer Pepe Noguera. Over the years there have been many local and international acts and major events like the Gibraltar Song Festival, the annual Music Festival for Young Musicians formerly Young Musician of the Year, and the Miss Gibraltar pageants, and GBC Open Days.
Principal at the Gibraltar Academy of Dance Paulette Finlayson from a young age performed in, and later went on to direct many shows in this Theatre. The building as a whole, she acknowledges, has been very special to her throughout her life.
“I can recall being with my late father Mario Finlayson when he was preparing for a new exhibition or meeting other artists in the space. I remember my late mum often telling me ‘when daddy talks too much tug at his jacket and say that you want to go home’,” she smiles at the memory but goes on to admit that as she grew up, she adored and enjoyed the conversations she had had the privilege to eavesdrop on.
“I remember thinking the bronze wall as you come up the stairs onto the actual stage, always seemed huge especially at the age of five.”
Paulette looked back on the many afternoons she had tea there “with the wonderful lady who ran the cafeteria, Mrs. Anderson, and Colonel Hunt who certainly kept everyone on their toes”. In the 1960s and 1970s, I often went there too with my own mother – and Mrs. Anderson was just a great motherly figure to all of us.
Then there was the library. How often have I been through the rows and rows of books looking for the perfect book to read and finding new treasures? I also remember how often we had to rush to the lending library because it was time to return the books – two weeks came around too quickly. Now, I use the Library App to catch up on some of my favourite authors.
I have often worked with Paulette, stage managing some of her shows – I have worked through election nights for television, and stage-managed GBC Open Days. But when I think about it, one of my fondest memories was when I visited the record library where I would spend hours going through their large record collection – vinyl of course. But let us get back to Paulette who believes the building has always presented “an air of great importance where so many very brilliant ideas have been shared and developed over the years. Be it at exhibitions, meetings, using the record or book library and of course the theatre. It was also our first-year Comprehensive school building and it had a huge impact on my 12-year-old self.”
Paulette then reminded me of the many evening classes which have taken place there over the years: art classes, pottery classes, learning new languages, cookery, sewing, and so much more – for older students who were able to continue their further education.
But it is the first dance shows as a performer which stand out, “and later on with my own school, the Gibraltar Academy of Dance, and all the amazing collaborations with my father building and painting the sets for our shows.”
And then she hesitates, as she adds, “it is a building that most importantly has certainly played its part in enriching our cultural identity and heritage.”
Present Director, Seamus Byrne, who has for many years organised the Gibraltar International Dance Festival is proud to acknowledge the many Gibraltarian performers that have gone on to be successful on the world stage, and who no doubt started out at this much-loved venue.
Richard Garcia has no doubt, like all our guests this week, that over the last six decades, the John Mackintosh Hall has been at the heart of Gibraltar’s cultural and artistic life.
“No one in Gibraltar can say that they have not enjoyed using some of the host of facilities that the Hall boasts of,” he says.
And that is certainly the case – yesterday, today, and I am sure it will be so well into tomorrow – for the John Mackintosh Hall remains at the heart and at the centre of this community.
Next week: In great demand, the Gibraltar Photographic Society, the Film Society, exhibitions and more guests who like you and I have been users of this wonderful institution.
