Save the Regent

I am amazed that this development would even be an option for Brisbane, however, sadly looking at our history, the government and developers have not learnt. I guess their pockets are filled and this is as far as they can see.

My mother always reminisces about her time spent at Cloudland. I saw a musical during highschool about Cloudland but I really had no idea of how it really was and what it meant to Brisbane. I feel cheated that this icon was ripped out of our current surroundings.

I am now 27 years old and I have already seen Festival Hall disappear and be replaced with an easily dismissed building, the last Drive-In theatre in Brisbane has been replaced with yet another brick estate and I fear the Regent will have that same fate.

I love the Regent Theatre and I feel that if this is yet another historic loss for Brisbane there will soon be nothing left. I've just spent 18 months living in London and traveling throughout Europe and every time I said with pride to someone that I was from Brisbane the first thing they said was "There is no history there" and "it was the most boring place I visited". I was amazed. This is not how I see Brisbane. If we had kept those amazing places (Cloudland, Festival Hall, Shingle Inn and even my local Drive In), we'd have something special, something to be proud of.

When does a tourist ever look around a city for the glass highrises? But when there are stories and history that come together, it makes a city with a soul. We have a chance to make and keep our history. If we keep knocking it down we will always be a young city with no heart.

I'm proud to be from Brisbane but sad that no importance is currently placed on our heritage. Recently I visited Sydney's Capitol Theatre. It was beautiful and it makes you feel a sense of nostalgia and wonder when you walk in there. This is also how I feel when I visit our Regent. I don't think there is anywhere else I feel this in Brisbane. Why can't a developer see the potential of returning the Regent to the beautiful theatre that it once was while creating an historic space for performance and theatre instead of another structure of glass and steel.

I've attached a few photos that my mum received a while ago (Top and bottom of this page.). She told me stories about these streets that are hardly recognisable as the same city. We have lost so much. I desperately hope that your initiative to help save the Regent is successful before there is nothing left.