Victoria Hall
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The new face to the Grade II listed Victorian building
Dennis Gilbert/View (website) Download Original
Restoration and extension of a Grade II Victorian concert hall to host community events in addition to traditional concerts
The red-brick exterior is minimally detailed with the original classical features echoing the adjacent Victorian brickwork.
Most of the ground level is faced in vandal-proof material, rather than the fragile terracotta used above, with little glazing. The accentuated staircase towers, were used to block views of the unused land towards the south of the site.
Front-of-house, where the four-storey extension has been built on to the south facade, contains the box office and administration. Inside, giant roof trusses are left exposed. The foyer building had a reinforced-concrete-framed structure with added columns for increased stability. The glass-clad atrium linking new with old was framed in exposed steel with a barrel-vaulted roof with double skin polycarbonate dome.
In the hall, the main access and storage areas behind the stage had to be enlarged. Walls from this area, which supported a five-tonne organ, were removed and replaced with paired steel box frames.
Enlarging the stage affected the sight lines, so the pitch and length of the balconies had to be altered.
Backstage spaces have been rationalised and extended to provide more convenient access and storage for props and equipment.
Data
- Begun: Feb 1997
- Completed: Oct 1998
- Floor area: 5,242m2
- Sector: Arts and culture
- Total cost: £6.1M
- Funding: The Arts Council of England
- Tender date: Dec 1996
- Procurement: Management Contract JCT 87
- Address: Victoria Hall, Bagnall Street, Stoke-on-Trent, ST1 3AD, United Kingdom
Professional Team 
- Architect: Levitt Bernstein
- Project architects: Axel Burrough, Colin Muir, Mark Shepperson, Neil Whitaker, Paul Moore, Peter Warrington, Ron Bayliss
- Client: Stoke-on-Trent city council
- Quantity surveyor: Bucknall Austin
- Arts Projects Consultant : The Arts Business
- Services consultant: Max Fordham & Partners
- Structural engineer: Cameron Taylor Bedford
- Acoustic engineer: Acoustic Dimensions
- Fire management: Warrington Fire Research
- Public Art Consultant: Heather Ackroyd and Daniel Harvey
- Main contractor: Norwest Holst Construction
- Theatre consultant: Theatreplan
Suppliers
- Piling : Norwest Holst Soils
- Seating Refurbishment: A J Owen
- Damp Treatment: A F Restoration
- Steelwork: Atlasco
- Aluminium Cladding: Alucobond
- External terracotta tiles: Argeton
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