Nottingham Royal Concert Hall is a

concert hall A concert hall is a cultural building with a stage that serves as a performance venue and an auditorium filled with seats. This list does not include other venues such as sports stadia, dramatic theatres or convention centres that ma ...

in the English city of

Nottingham Nottingham ( , locally ) is a city and unitary authority area in Nottinghamshire, East Midlands, England. It is located north-west of London, south-east of Sheffield and north-east of Birmingham. Nottingham has links to the legend of Robi ...

. It is owned by

Nottingham City Council Nottingham City Council is the local authority for the unitary authority of Nottingham in Nottinghamshire, England. It consists of 55 councillors, representing a total of 20 wards, elected every four years. The council is led by David Mellen, of ...

and is part of a complex that also includes the city's Theatre Royal. The Royal Concert Hall's striking

modern architecture Modern architecture, or modernist architecture, was an architectural movement or architectural style based upon new and innovative technologies of construction, particularly the use of glass, steel, and reinforced concrete; the idea that for ...

has proved to be a city

landmark A landmark is a recognizable natural or artificial feature used for navigation, a feature that stands out from its near environment and is often visible from long distances. In modern use, the term can also be applied to smaller structures or f ...

at the heart of

Nottingham City Centre Nottingham city centre is the cultural, commercial, financial and historical heart of Nottingham, England. Nottingham's city centre represents the central area of the Greater Nottingham conurbation. The centre of the city is usually defin ...

, opposite the more recently built The Cornerhouse complex. The concert hall is served by the adjacent

Royal Centre tram stop Royal Centre is a tram stop of Nottingham Express Transit (NET) in the centre of the city of Nottingham. It derives its name from the adjacent Theatre Royal and the Royal Concert Hall. The stop is also close to the Cornerhouse, the Victoria Ce ...

on the

Nottingham Express Transit Nottingham Express Transit (NET) is a tram system in Nottingham, England. The system opened to the public on 9 March 2004 and a second phase, that more than doubled the size of the total system, opened on 25 August 2015, having been initially ...

History

The site of the Royal Concert Hall was previously the old 'Empire Palace of Varieties' designed and built in 1898 by

Frank Matcham Francis Matcham (22 November 1854 – 17 May 1920)Mackintosh, Iain"Matcham, Frank" ''Oxford Dictionary of National Biography'', Oxford University Press, accessed 7 July 2019 was an English architect who specialised in the design o ...

. The Empire closed for the last time in 1958 and was demolished for road-widening in 1969. Designed by the Renton Howard Wood Levin Partnership (architects of the Sheffield Crucible Theatre), the hall cost £12 million to complete. The project's client was

. Work on the Royal Concert Hall began in 1980 and was completed in 1982, providing Nottingham with a contemporary 2,499-seater

auditorium An auditorium is a room built to enable an audience to hear and watch performances. For movie theatres, the number of auditoria (or auditoriums) is expressed as the number of screens. Auditoria can be found in entertainment venues, communit ...

. The first artist to perform there was

Elton John Sir Elton Hercules John (born Reginald Kenneth Dwight; 25 March 1947) is a British singer, pianist and composer. Commonly nicknamed the "Rocket Man" after his 1972 hit single of the same name, John has led a commercially successful career a ...

in November 1982.

References

External links

Official websiteExterior photographInterior photographSee the Royal Concert Hall on Google Street View
{{Authority control Buildings and structures in Nottingham Music venues in Nottinghamshire Concert halls in England Tourist attractions in Nottingham

History

See also

References

External links