Salisbury City Hall renovations to cost in excess of £2million
The Leader of Wiltshire Council has given us an update
Renovation works to Salisbury City Hall are set to cost Wiltshire Council more than £2million.
The much-needed roof repairs, alongside refurbishment works to improve the acoustics and bar in the venue are all part of a more significant set of repairs than expected.
The venue has been closed since being used as a COVID vaccination centre during the pandemic.
But Leader of Wiltshire Council Richard Clewer says he remains committed to reopening the venue as a live-entertainment venue, who described the price tag on the repairs as ‘eye-watering’:
“We are absolutely committed to reopening City Hall's live entertainment venue. But with that price tag, Let's see what we can do to really enhance the building. And that comes back to the cultural quarter.
“This has been an aspiration on and off for decades now to try and bring together aspects of Library, City Hall and the young gallery into one location in Salisbury, to bring it all together in one venue that is more, more and more fit for purpose.”
Cllr Clewer added: “We're looking at a feasibility study to work out whether we can put bring whether the idea of that bigger cultural quarter concept is within the kind of funding that we would be able to apply.”
First-class entertainment venue
A first-class venue is the aim for Cllr Clewer, and while that goes beyond just an entertainment complex, the auditorium needs significant upgrading:
“The acoustics in City Hall are not good. It wasn't built to play modern music through modern equipment. It's not seen as a particularly good auditorium in that sense, so you need the appropriate sound baffling to make sure you don't get funny echoes coming back and you don't get distortion of whatever live music being played on stage. You need proper facilities for people visiting. You need a proper bar.”
He also wants a more flexible library space that better serves the community, as part of the Cultural Quarter:
“Libraries have moved on an awful lot for a place that people come to borrow books. For example, if you're in Universal Credit, you've got to do that online, and if you don't have good access yourself, the library is the place you can come to do essential things like that. Increasingly, we're seeing libraries used for engaging with health services in some ways.
So, it's about having a space that is more flexible from a library perspective that can be used for books. But then bookshelves can be rolled to one side and create more flexible spaces.”
Marking the War Memorial
Cllr Clewer also feels that the War Memorial within City Hall needs to be commemorated better:
“I challenge anyone who doesn't know to go and find the plaque in there that actually celebrates the fact that it is a War Memorial. That commemoration needs to be there, but equally there is no point in having a War Memorial in a building where the roof is falling down and it's not functioning properly.”
Wiltshire Council’s Leader also says this is an opportunity to be ‘visionary’ and bring the building into the 21st century and beyond:
“If I was a one of the big names touring the UK, I'd be quite sceptical about attending a venue that had out showers and changing rooms in quite the state that city halls are we really need to bring it up to the 21st century, even perhaps to the 22nd century.
Let's think ahead and create something that is going to be visionary and is going to attract, act in and bring that vibrancy to the evening economy that the Playhouse.”