Falmouth Princess Pavilion manager hits back at critics

Chas Palmer-Williams, general manager of the iconic venue in Falmouth, responded after claims that the venue was empty when thousands of people were in town for tall ships.

Mike Tuffery from The Peoples’ Princess Pavilion Falmouth Independent Group posted a picture of the pavilion garden with nobody there on Tuesday evening.

The picture of the empty Princess Pavilion which Mike Tuffery posted on social media (Image: Mike Tuffery Facebook)

Writing underneath the picture he said: “This is what Princess Pavilion looked like at 7 [pm] this evening (apparently it also looked like this at 6 o'clock).

“Middle of the Summer season and with thousands of people in town for Tall Ships and we have a top class venue funded by locals that is closed because it seems that we have a team that are incapable of attracting people in.”

He said at 6.30 [pm] the beaches were full, there were well over 100 people strolling along the seafront.

“I personally saw three dog walkers make the trip up the path and an elderly couple with walking sticks, only to find locked doors. I met a family of four, who are on holiday from Watford when I was heading back to Cliff Road, when I told them it was closed, the husband replied "why?", I had no real answer to that.”

He said people were recently told that the Bar / Café was supporting the losses in the theatre.

“It's not going to support anything if it is closed,” he said. He added: “When is this fiasco going to end??”.

Responding to the post, Mr Palmer-Williams said after seeing quite a lot of negative comments online, he felt as though it would be only fair to share some accurate information regarding the Princess Pavilion.

He said the pavilion is doing much better from a financial point of view, with numbers to back this up.

He said the new management team with years of collective experience in venue, event, hospitality, wedding and music industry management had looked closely at what does, bring in revenue to the Pavilion, and were prioritising these areas of the business first to help that area grow, which it was.

“We do acknowledge that there are many improvements that can happen here and we take on board this feedback on a daily basis,” he said.

“We will get these things done, but we have to do the most pressing first.”

He said the team had now booked in over 200 events for this year whilst still helping community groups meet here over 200 times a year.

“It would be great if the people who are most vocal with their criticisms actually helped support the pavilion in a positive manner as our staff work very hard, 363 days of the year,” he said.

“Abuse online or in person to our staff is not acceptable.”

He said if anyone is interested in all the events that they have booked they can pop in and join the mailing list or grab a flyer from the pavilion that will be available next week or follow any of its social media channels which were updated regularly.

“We would like to thank all the amazing customers that actual come to The Pavilion and are always very supportive. We take these all on board and will have many more improvements on the way," said Mr Palmer-Williams

“If you do appreciate what our staff are doing and have come to events or community groups, we would love to hear your comments below.”