New Century Hall – ADC

Sheppard Robson’s sympathetic refurbishment of Manchester’s New Century Hall has given the grade II-listed music venue a new lease of life.

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Josh Kemp-Smith, Henry Woide

Sheppard Robson has refurbished New Century Hall, a Grade II-listed, 1000-capacity music venue located in the heart of Manchester. Constructed in 1963 for the Cooperative Wholesale Society, the hall played host to many famous names in music, before laying mostly vacant for years. Originally linked to the adjacent New Century House, the architect’s sympathetic reworking has separated the hall, now named ‘New Century’, from the house to allow both to function autonomously. Several key interventions have been made to open up the structure, enabling the music venue, food hall and creative college to operate together, despite being located over three floors.

The creation of public realm at Sadler’s Yard in 2015 greatly lowered the external ground levels to the west elevation of the hall, writes Sheppard Robson. This allowed us to expand what was previously a half basement into an entrance to the new square, with new glazing and doors further activating the frontage of the space. By carefully removing a section of the façade, a new pedestrian link has been created to connect Sadler’s Yard, Angel Square and Victoria North.

Ground, first, and first-floor mezzanine plan

Careful repair and stabilisation of the original curtain walling frame and glazing to the upper floor has been undertaken, with detailed collaboration between structural engineer Healey Consulting and contractor Russell WHBO. The tiled base of the structure has been meticulously cleaned, with individual mosaic tiles retained and re-used for repair.

Internally, two new stairs have been discretely inserted within the existing concrete waffle structure in order to improve navigation around the building to both the venue hall and the three levels of the building. Strategically placed new M&E equipment has been installed on the linking structure between New Century and New Century House, as well as tucked behind a new in-situ cast concrete wall to the east of the building.

The new venue hall stairs sit within the original footprint of the first floor space. In order to retain the perceived volume of the venue hall, the stairs are contained within a series of intersecting volumes housing the accommodation and escape stair, lobbies, and storeroom. Original trapezoidal acoustic baffle lighting panels have been carefully cleaned and re-wired to allow for modern controllable lighting displays. In-situ murals by Alan Boyson and Steven Sykes have been carefully repaired and cleaned.

Outside, the base of textured grey mosaic has been cleaned and repaired with new and reused tiles, and new openings inserted to allow access into the newly refurbished spaces. The black anodised framing of the curtain wall rainscreen has been cleaned and refinished, with new milky-blue textured glass panels inserted to replace broken ones. Louvres have replaced some low-level glazing to facilitate a prep kitchen, with little alteration to the 1960s façade aesthetic.

“Through careful and minimal intervention at New Century, we have been able to bring a challenging building back to life,” commented Richmal Wigglesworth, associate partner at Sheppard Robson. “Though the scheme has three distinct uses, fortifying the links between them has resulted in a symbiotic relationship. It’s great to see the natural relationship between the creative college and the venue hall and how they benefit from each other.”

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