CAMPAIGNERS fighting to save a historic Torquay landmark say they are happy with the work carried out so far to shore it up.

Torbay Council has launched an ambitious programme to repair the old Pavilion Theatre on the harbourside after years of neglect.

Engineers have been inside the building to preserve and store some of its most valuable features as well as installing scaffolding and heavy girders to make sure vulnerable parts of the building don’t collapse.

The original 1912 steel had failed on the Princess Gardens side of the building, meaning temporary supports had to be put in. The Cary Green side is said to be in much better condition.

A spokesman for the Save Torquay Pavilion group said: “We have been impressed by the level of dedication and care that workers have shown and how carefully organised everything is inside.

“Great care has been taken to categorise and protect historic features and not to cut corners as happened in the past.”

The harbourside building opened as a theatre in 1912 and played host to some of the biggest names in entertainment all the way through to the 1970s.

Since then it has been an ice rink and an arcade of shops, but it closed for good in 2013, having been handed by Torbay Council to Marina Developments Ltd on a long lease. The company had ambitious plans to build a large hotel, but since that was finally rejected in 2019 the building has been empty.

It had become a target for vandals and ‘urban explorers’, but the council managed to regain the lease last year, and since then engineers have been hard at work protecting the old theatre from further damage.

Among the ideas for its future use is a combined theatre and Agatha Christie heritage centre.

Members of the Save Torquay Pavilion group said it had been a ‘huge relief’ to be allowed back inside the building for the first time in 13 years to check on progress.

“Behind the scenes a great deal has been happening,” they said.

Damaged plasterwork has been removed and labelled and many parts of the building have been opened up to inspect the steel frame beneath.

Almost all stained glass windows have been taken out and carefully stored and labelled, and the famous statues of Mercury have been taken down from the roof and placed in storage.