Bristol Beacon ADC

Photos

Tim Crocker

Words

Jason Sayer

Inside its original 1873 masonry walls, the Bristol Beacon theatre has a new heart. Once known as Colston Hall, the venue had been closed from 2017 after a seagull chick made its way into the roof and dislodged remnant asbestos. After that, the hall was forced to close for three weeks, which prompted its occupiers, the Bristol Music Trust (the venue is owned by Bristol City Council) to find a home elsewhere. The following year, the trust decided to refurbish the hall.

That process, it turned out, was far from simple. Further problems and faults quickly racked up, and it was even discovered that the columns supporting the roof were hollow. Furthermore, Elizabethan wells were uncovered, with one be found underneath the stage.

“Trust me, it was in a really shaky state, incredibly fragile,” Louise Mitchell, chief executive of the Bristol Music Trust told the BBC in November 2023. “That’s one of the reasons the project has taken so much longer and the costs have increased in a way that we could not have anticipated five years ago.”

But despite the building’s fragile state, Levitt Bernstein has retained the original fabric of the Grade II listed building, first designed in 1867 by local architects Foster and Wood, allowing its distinctive ‘Bristol Byzantine’ Victorian architecture to flourish and be part of a venue now geared for the future.

This approach is immediately evident before entering the building, with a new restaurant now incorporated into a historic colonnade that looks out to Colston Street, with the Beacon also now connected to the foyer building – recently renamed Bridgehouse – also designed by Levitt Bernstein and built in 2009.

“From the outset, it was important that this project was about more than a concert hall. It is a resource for the people of Bristol and, with the support of the Council and the Music Trust, our work means this venue can bring classical and contemporary culture and innovation to the city,” Mark Lewis, associate director at Levitt Bernstein said in a statement.

“We have been careful to retain the historic character of the building, working sensitively within the constraints of the exiting fabric, to create a space which is both respectful to its heritage and environmentally sustainable, while bringing the halls within up to standards that can compete with venues on an international stage.”

The Music Trust’s brief called for an extensive overhaul of the venue’s programmatic demands. Existing performance areas (including back stages) were to be upgraded, cellars to be repurposed as a club-style venue, music studios and more, as well new AV, stage engineering and upgraded building services.

Of the venue’s three concert halls, Beacon Hall – the largest – has been refurbished by the architects and built as a flexible performance space that makes use of timber-lined balconies, employed to optimise acoustic performance. Steel columns, meanwhile, support further balconies above and branch into three to support technical decking.

The result is a significant departure from the upgrade the venue had in 1951 (from city architect, J Nelson Meredith) and reveals a pre-existing black brick shell structure, which is complemented through soft uplighting and an array of acoustically arranged timber panelling and baffles.

Lantern Hall, the venue’s secondary performance space, has been refurbished outside and in, with the colonnade being opened up to its original width of seven bays and later additions being removed. With the stage area on the first floor, the colonnade on the ground – once the venue’s box-office area, has been turned into a public restaurant and cocktail bar, fronted with a contemporary frameless glazing screen positioned behind the stone columns.

With a smaller capacity, ranging from 300 to 500 (standing), the Lantern Hall has been specifically designed for smaller concerts, able to host new artistic creations, spoken word performances, and other events.

Below ground, cellars also have been repurposed, finding a second life as music studios for education, rehearsal, a library, digital music lab as well as another venue for more intimate performances for up to 250 people.