Seats Replacement

New seats, Woooooo!

If you are able to provide any more information, please contact the Archivist.

Because the seats were finally being replaced the opportunity was taken to refurbish the rake. This was for 2 reasons:

1. The seating company said that they would prefer that the rake were resurfaced prior to the new seats being installed to ensure a problem free fit out. The original ply had been compromised to some degree by the hundreds of nail, screw and bolt holes that had been sunk into it over the years.

2. EUSA were willing to pay for the £850 worth of ply and £800 worth of carpet tiles in addition to the seats themselves. It was all put on depreciation over 10 years.

The refurbishment itself consisted off:

1. Removing the old carpet
2. Removing the old plywood
3. Repairing the rake’s structure
4. Laying new plywood
5. Painting the new risers
6. Laying the new carpet

There are pictures of it somewhere.

In total, the project took around a week and a half to complete and involved:

Notes on the repairing of the rake

The rake was 19 years old and had been subjected to significant changes in temperature. Consequently, some of the beams had warped and twisted. Where necessary these were replaced though this was the exception rather than the rule.

Additionally, because power tools weren’t an option in 1989 the rake was glued and nailed together. Wood will shrink over time and in many instance the nails had failed to function. The glue had also failed in some areas. This was remedied by the use of over 200 3x10 quicksilver screws. In particular the front joints that connect to the risers were reinforced.

Though the structure of the rake itself in terms of it’s design was often perfectly sound, in places however, it was necessary to slightly re-engineered the framework so as to better support the weight. Notably, the area stage right adjacent to the rear of the cupboard required a denser structure than was originally present.

Amongst the more unpleasant things encountered during the project were a mouse skeleton and a considerable quantity of mouse and possibly rat droppings. Some of the programmes and ticket stubs dating back to the early 1980s can be found in the archive.