The Covent Garden Community Association has accused the Royal Opera House of sacrificing essential backstage facilities in the James Street, WC2, portion of the Royal Opera House redevelopment for commercial gain.
Recently the ROH submitted a subsidiary planning application to revise the amount of commercial space on James Street by converting the basement, as well as the ground floor, to shops. Last year Westminster council gave the go-ahead for a £150m redevelopment plan of the whole Opera House site.
According to an ROH spokesman: “The revision does not require the sacrifice of the amount of overall backstage facilities …. There will be no overall impact on the amount of backstage facilities as a portion of the whole redevelopment — it is only the local balance, in James Street, that will change.”
