Corn Exchange development update

New glass roof sheds light on redevelopment project 

A new glass roof is now in place between the west wall of the Corn Exchange and the Studio Theatre. This will create a first floor circulation space and Gallery Bar with views into the Corn Exchange through reopened west windows.

More information and photos.

What WAS on - West Pier

From the Brighton Herald for 2nd. February 1918:-

The Corn Exchange - Winter 2107 timelapse

Corn Exchange project - time lapse video.

29½ New Road

Dome Studio Theatre

Mr. & Mrs. Brown outside the Dome Cottage

The Dome Studio Theatre, formerly the Pavilion Theatre, stands on the site of a coachman's cottage and Mrs Fitzherbert's stables. The cottage was built for the Prince Regent circa 1806 when New Road was being created. From 1867 to 69 it was occupied by the Inspector of the Brighton Volunteer Fire Brigade, but not given the number 29½ until 1888 when the town's Inspector of Gas Meters, later Inspector of Public Lamps, was stationed there. By then the number 30 had already been allocated to a property at the south end of New Road.

The Inspector of Public Lamps was replaced in 1897 by Frederick William Brown, the Works Supervisor of the Pavilion Estate.  His daughter Miss Annie Brown continued in residence until its demolition in 1932.

In 1937 the present building started life as a Supper Room for the Corn Exchange with kitchen below. It was erected to plans by Robert Atkinson, the Art Deco architect who also designed the much-lamented Regent Cinema. Thankfully the future of his surviving Brighton creation looks secure. Work has recently started on an extensive renovation/remodelling which will see a new cafe/bar on the ground floor opened up to New Road and the Pavilion Gardens, and a viewing gallery into the Corn Exchange created behind the shops in New Road

New cafe/bar

Viewing gallery into Corn Exchange.

See also: 

Arts Council Grant for Dome Complex
Restoration of the Corn Exchange and Studio Theatre           

War Horse visits Brighton beach

Restoration of the Corn Exchange & Studio Theatre

BHCC has appointed R. Durtnell & Sons Ltd. as the contractor for the major refurbishment of the Corn Exchange and Studio Theatre. This is Phase 1 of 3 aimed at restoration & refurbishment of the whole Pavilion Estate and work will start early next month

R. Durtnell & Sons Ltd was founded in 1591 and is the UK’s oldest construction company having been grown by successive generations of the Durtnell family.  They have a proven track record in delivering a number of high-profile heritage restorations and cultural projects including Dulwich Picture Gallery, Turner Contemporary in Margate, and Brighton College’s music school. The firm is based in Westerham, Kent.

The transformation of the Corn Exchange, formerly the Prince Regent’s Riding house, will reveal and restore stunning and previously hidden heritage features as well as providing extra seating and an impressive new viewing gallery.  Major improvements to the Studio Theatre, once a supper room, will include balcony seating, a new artists’ creation space and a café opening onto a plaza at street level.

The majority of funds towards the £21m phase one costs have already been secured from a range of sources, including major contributions from National Lottery players via Arts Council England and the Heritage Lottery Fund, as well as commitments from a number of charitable trusts and individual donors, council capital funding and a public works loan secured by the council on behalf of Brighton Dome and Brighton Festival. Fundraising will continue throughout the build.

Previous post:- Arts Council grant for Dome complex

The Attenborough Arts Centre reopens.

Formerly the Gardner Art Centre, which closed in 2007, this unique Grade II* listed venue on the University of Sussex campus has now reopened.  In the intervening period it has undergone an  extensive multi-million pound refurbishment and modernisation. It is now named after the former chancellor of the University, Richard Attenborough, as the 'Attenborough Centre for the Creative Arts' (ACCA).

The building is now fully adaptable to hosting a wide variety of events and the programme of forthcoming events up to March next year can be found here.

Hippodrome glory

Footage shot inside the theatre sometime in the 1980s. The film shows the theatre while in use as a bingo hall, as it had been from 1967. This represents a rare glimpse of the magnificent and still largely preserved interior of the Brighton Hippodrome Theatre.

Compare with: Hippodrome interior. Aug 2013

Crowdfunding for the Hippodrome

£25,000 is needed to fund Phase 2 of the campaign which includes the commissioning of full architectural plans.

If just 1% of the City's population pledges £10 they'd be there.

Go to:- http://www.crowdfunder.co.uk/hope-for-hippodrome-fighting-fund/

Save Our Hippodrome - latest video

This campaign certainly seems to have legs now . . .

Save our Hippodrome

We have a hidden gem in Brighton. One that could even help Brighton become a City of Culture. Even though Vue Cinemas has withdrawn its proposals the future of the building is still uncertain, so all lovers of theatre and historic local architecture are needed to help rescue the Hippodrome theatre from faceless retail expansion.

Other links:-

"Keep Brighton Hippodrome for Live Performance" - petition to BHHC Council.

"Save our Hippodrome" on facebook

Tweet:- @savehippodrome

"Keep the Brighton Hippodrome"

Brighton Bits was originally rather sceptical about the last ditch campaign to save the Hippodrome as a live performance space. We were concerned at the parlous state of the interior and conscious of the 7 years that had passed since it was closed as a Bingo Hall.  7-years that had produced no realistic proposals for restoration of the building and its return to viable use. Under those circumstances the cinemas/restaurant plans seemed the only possible chance of avoiding the complete loss of the building through disuse and neglect in the same way that the Astoria has been lost. The conversion proposals also essayed to preserving the important historical features of the building and making all alterations reversible. Theoretically therefore, the building would be returnable to theatre use if the demand ever arose, but many, having regard to the likely costs of this, were sceptical whether this could ever be a realistic possibility after the building had been converted.

However a last-ditch campaign "Our Brighton Hippodrome" (OBH) was mounted and against the odds seems to have gained an influential foothold in the debate. OBH have submitted a viability study and a business plan for returning the Hippodrome to live theatre use, particularly for the large West End shows which no other theatre in Brighton is large enough to handle. The OBH submissions claim to show that restoration of the Hippodrome as a theatre is not only viable but fundable and sustainable.

The latest news is that the retail/cinema application is still under consideration by the City Planning Department while they study the OBH submissions. No target date has been announced for release of the formal determination.

A Save Our Hippodrome rally will be held near the Max Miller statue in New Road, Brighton at 2:00pm on Saturday 8 November.  A chance for all supporters to demonstrate the overwhelming strength of public feeling for theatre restoration.

An online petition to Keep Brighton Hippodrome  has now passed the 10,200 mark.

Arts Council grant for Dome complex

F - Corn Exchange
M - Studio Theatre
V - Site of new Viewing Gallery

Arts Council England has pledged £5.8m towards a refurbishment of the Grade I Brighton Dome Corn Exchange and a major renovation of the Grade II Studio Theatre. This complements previous major works completed in 2002.

It will enable Brighton Dome’s three venues – the Concert Hall, the Corn Exchange and the Studio Theatre - to improve their sustainability, working conditions and facilities, whilst also encouraging new audiences, supporting artist development and enabling the organisation to realise its vision to be one of Europe’s leading arts festivals and a year-round destination for artists and audiences.

The main construction proposals include:

• Major improvements to the Studio Theatre including a ground floor bar/café opening on to New Road.
• Creation of a magnificent new Corn Exchange viewing gallery (V) and audience circulation space.
• Transformation of the Corn Exchange with new seating and more efficient infrastructure
• A dedicated creation space.
• Provision for additional offices, back of house accommodation, storage, WCs, catering
• A service tunnel linking the Dome, Corn Exchange and Studio Theatre.

These plans form the first phase of a larger and longer term ambition to reconnect the historic buildings and landscape of the Royal Pavilion Estate to create a world class destination for heritage, culture and the performing arts influenced by the unique spirit of Brighton.

Brighton Dome & Brighton Festival received a development grant (of £199k) from Arts Council England (ACE) in January 2012 which allowed the exploration of concepts and plans for capital development to secure long-term sustainability. The overall fundraising strategy for the project seeks to secure funding not only from Arts Council England but also a phased application process to the Heritage Lottery Fund and a wide range of Trusts & Foundations and individual donations.

Hippodrome cinemas plan to go ahead.

From Stage News:-

"Brighton Hippodrome campaigners have lost their battle to see the building restored as a live venue after the government decided not to intervene over plans to convert the space into a cinema complex.

The Department for Communities and Local Government has decided it will not use its powers to call in the local authority-approved plans – which could have seen a public inquiry launched into whether the conversion should go ahead.

A DCLG spokesman said: “This is a matter for Brighton and Hove City Council. Only a very few planning applications are ‘called in’ each year, as this involves the planning decision being taken away from the local council and community.”

Complete article

Preceding posts:-
The Hippodrome application - a clarification
Public enquiry for the Hippodrome

The Hippodrome application - a clarification

Following some incorrect news reports, Brighton & Hove City Council has clarified the fact the planning application to convert the Hippodrome theatre into a multi-screen cinema and restaurants has not been called in by the government.

The council’s head of planning and public protection Martin Randall explained:  “Following the Planning Committee meeting on July 16, the council as planning authority was procedurally required to refer the application to the government.  The Department for Communities and Local Government (DCLG) will notify us of their decision on whether to ‘call in’ the application or allow planning permission to be granted in line with the planning committee’s decision.  No such decision by the DCLG has been received to date and as such the planning permission has not been issued.”

The council has been given no deadline or timeline for a DCLG decision.

Public Enquiry for the Hippodrome

Brighton & Hove News reported today that Cabinet minister Eric Pickles will decide whether the Hippodrome in Brighton can become an eight-screen cinema and restaurant complex.

He has called in the plans and will make his decision after a public inquiry.

Mr Pickles, the Communities and Local Government Secretary, was asked to intervene by the Theatres Trust, the Victorian Society and Our Brighton Hippodrome among others.

- See more at: http://www.brightonandhovenews.org/2014/08/22/pickles-to-decide-brighton-hippodrome-planning-application-after-public-inquiry/33880#sthash.kU0FuJ0T.dpuf

See also - Hippodrome restoration plans approved.

Hippodrome Restoration - update 2

The planning applications BH2013/04351 and 04348 filed just before Christmas have been declared invalid by Council planners. It is understood that they lacked details and drawings necessary for a listed building and a feasibility study. This is somewhat surprising considering the efforts that were being put into these proposals. New applications are expected soon.

The video below provides a short tour of the development as it is visualised on completion.

There seems much to welcome in the plans, not the least that it is the only realistic game in town to save the basic fabric of the much-loved Hippodrome; but it also seeks to do so in a way that restores and invigorates a somewhat run-down area of the Old Town. Rather than resorting to imitation or pastiche it should be perfectly acceptable for each age to leave the stamp of its own architectural style on the built environment thus adding to the sense of organic variety that makes historic centres so attractive.

Everyone  will have their own opinion but to my eye the cinema entrance proposed for Middle St. seems excellent in detail & scale with the upper edge of the black-tiling aligning approximately with the eaves of adjoining buildings.

On the other hand the building proposed for the Ship Street entrance appears too tall and bulky and too dominating for the narrow pavements and small scale of the nearby buildings.





Previous post: Hippodrome restoration - update

Brighton Open Air Theatre (BOAT)

The BOAT is one of those rare development proposals that seem to attract almost universal support in the City. It was the brainchild of playwright Adrian Bunting who died in May this year and left £18,000 as seed funding. Five of his close friends took up the campaign and Dyke Road Park, Adrian's favoured location, was settled on as the best site. The Council was already consulting publicly on uses for the abandoned bowling green and the Friends of Dyke Road Park were proposing a Community Garden. On hearing about the theatre proposals however, the Friends abandoned their garden plans and threw their weight behind BOAT. The result is the recently filed planning application BH2013/03930. 

Simulated view from the rose garden showing the 'cut & fill' terracing. The horizontal surfaces are laid with astroturf; the vertical surfaces reinforced with wooden sleepers

The Hippodrome restoration project

Brighton architects Russ Drage have been working 7 months on plans for restoring the Hippodrome and returning it to viable use. The Hippodrome and Duke's Lane have the same owner and the site being considered, much of which is hidden to view, is of similar size to that of the Brighton Centre.  The plans ambitiously extend to enhancing the whole area by re-modelling Duke's Lane, creating a new public square off Middle Street, re-fenestrating Hippodrome House, and revealing the Hippodrome's spectacular dome to street view, probably for the first time in 100 years.

The Hippodrome has acquired several layers of decor in its history but restoration will be targeted at the Matcham -Walker interior of 1915 which is what is mostly seen today. The main alteration needed to adapt the space for present day viable use will be the installation of a new floor at the level of the bottom of the balcony thus dividing the auditorium horizontally into two sections. The lower sections will contain 3 self-contained cinema auditoria.  The upper section will be restaurant space allowing patrons impressive views of the tented dome and ornate decor. All alterations are intended to be completely reversible so that the building could be returned to theatre use if ever this became an economic proposition.

The plans are expected to go out to public consultation  this summer and  a planning application submitted in September.

For further details see "The Hippodrome Restoration Project".

Earlier post: Brighton Hippodrome