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Jimmy Savile RAI

Leeds events complex caught out after naming multi-million venue in honour of Jimmy Savile

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By The Drum Team | Editorial

October 4, 2012 | 3 min read

Saviles Hall, a Leeds-events complex which is owned by the Royal Armouries and is named in honour of Jimmy Savile, appeared to be distancing itself from the late entertainer who is at the centre of sex-allegations.

The complex - also known as Saviles - had a close association with Jimmy Savile, which went beyond simply taking his name. Since it opened ion 2007 it displayed artefacts from his Jim'll Fix It days and was heavily involved in his lavish funeral arrangements and hosted charity auctions that sold his possessions in the months following his death.

When he was alive Savile regularly attended events at the Saviles, some of which featured his famous chair. The complex felt it was benefiting from the celebrity endorsement of a local Leeds hero. However, it seems the strategy has backfired. Many newspapers are now running negative Jimmy Savile stories, complete with pictures of him taken at the venue which feature the Saviles' logo.

This afternoon Royal Armouries International appeared to have removed a portion of its site which featured content on Sir Jimmy at events taking place in the hall. The portion of site removed included the Help for Hero’s charity event, the venue’s Christmas event, and the memorial event held following the Jim’ll Fix It stars death. (This links takes you to a cached version of what has been taken down.) At the time of writing the live version simply showed a message saying 'Ooooops, Apologies but the page you requested could not be found.'

Is this the start of a permanent move away from an association with Sir Jimmy for Saviles Hall? It wouldn’t be the first this week after Scotstoun Leisure Centre in Glasgow took down its statue of him from its entrance way.

The BBC has also confirmed it has postponed screenings of old editions of TOTP which feature Savile.

The Drum contacted the managing director of Saviles who commented: “Bearing in mind the very serious nature of these allegations and the long period of time that has elapsed, RAI do not feel it appropriate to comment further at this time.”

When asked about the RAI Blog he commented that as far as he is aware “nothing has been removed consciously.” He went on to say that “things drop in and out of blogs.”

Jimmy Savile RAI

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