Save the Burr Home

The Latest News

We have received a letter from the City informing us that our proposal was not successful. The City is negotiating with a group who submitted a proposal to purchace the Burr and still use it as a performing arts facility. While we believe it would have been better to keep the Burr as a city-owned facility, this is not altogether bad news.

We look forward to finding out more about the successful bid, and would certainly be interested in collaborating wherever possible to serve the community.

For now we will leave this site up and welcome any comments you may have.

The Burr For Sale!

The City of New Westminster recently published an RFP for the sale of the Burr Theatre on Columbia Street as a means of raising capital needed to purchase land for a new civic centre. While we understand the reasoning, we believe that there is a better approach.

The Save The Burr Coalition

The Save the Burr Coalition was established to promote keeping the Burr as a publicly-owned performing arts facility as the best way to (a) protect the building's heritage value, (b) serve the business and tourism needs of Downtown, and (c) serve the arts needs of the community of New Westminster. The Coalition intends to submit a proposal to that effect.

The purpose of this site is to:

provide information about the Burr, and its potential
keep you informed about the Save the Burr project and how you can get involved
provide you with a forum where you can express your views.

The due date for the RFP submissions is September 18. There is much to do in a short time!

If you need more information on how you could participate, or have any suggestions, please drop us an email.

Typical Burr stage design
Stage of The Ghost of Canterville

On This Site

Mention The Burr and one evokes either positive or negative emotions depending on who you talk to. There has been a lot of misinformation about The Burr which we will address.

The City's Theatre Study is often quoted to substantiate that the Burr is not suitable for theatre.

Burr Not Suited For Theatre?

For many years we have had to pleasure to attend many wonderful plays at The Burr. Visit the Photo Gallery to remind you of just what The Burr is capable of!

In particular the stage is said to be inadequate. While it is not perfect, the photo on the left illustrates that spectacular stage sets are possible.

In the Anecdotes page you can read what role The Burr played in people's lives and even add your own anecdote.

Heritage Value of The Burr

The Burr is a very unique building with immense heritage value. For more about The Burr and how best to protect it, visit our About The Burr section.

Your Support

Keeping The Burr as opposed to selling it, would inconvenience the City's current civic centre strategy. It would require huge and demonstrable public support for keeping The Burr before the City will consider alternatives.

1) Please sign our online petition!

2) We need your suggestions as to how the Burr could be used most effectively as well as possible sources of funding.

3) And, if you have time to allocate, be sure to sign up on our Volunteer page.

4) Contact your councillor

The Save The Burr Coalition

Who is the Coalition? Why are we doing this now? Can you "join" the Coalition. About Us gives you the story behind the Coalition.

The Burr and the Theatre Study

Many of us served on the Theatre Study consultants' discussion panel. We were told specifically that The Burr was not included in the discussions.

The focus of the discussion was to define what our vision would be for a 600 seat theatre.

The list of shortcomings of the Burr, as listed by the consultants in the Study, are mostly correct, but does not prevent excellent theatre to be produced in the Burr.

The Study did not address the role that the Burr has played and could still play in terms of the local economy, tourism, and the peforming arts in New Westminster.