Refurbishment Updates 2022

September Update

September 2022 has been an extremely busy month for everyone involved with Gloucester Guildhall.  Our renovation work supported by the Galvanised Fund grant of £230k alongside funding from Gloucester City Council has been steadily providing improvements across the facility. 

We welcomed customers back to the site on Saturday 1st October with ‘Open Arts Surgery’ a collaborative production between Gloucester’s Your Next Move and Breakin’ Convention in London Sadler’s Wells developed in just one week with mentorship from hip hop theatre aficionados Jonzi D and Jane Sekonya-John. On Sunday 2nd we welcomed ‘Inglorious’ for a night of hard rock and on Wednesday 5th the cinema restarts with a showing of the National Theatre’s production of ‘Prima Facie’ starring Jodie Comer. 

The main hall floor has now been stripped back and treated retaining our famous bouncy gig experience. 

New lighting, sound and projection technology has been implemented in our hireable rooms. The Fisher Room on our 3rd floor now also benefits from a new sprung dance floor. 

One of the biggest improvements to the Guildhall is hidden from view with super-fast internet now available across the whole building. All rooms now benefit from a stable fast connection that provide the capability for hosting online meetings or streaming productions. The task of laying cabling around our Grade 2 listed building was a difficult one but with a fibre connection now installed any future upgrades will be possible.  

Café improvements include a new performance area for live pop-up gigs in the café bar and till systems have been updated to help staff provide the best service possible. 

Technical improvements have also been made in the main hall with upgraded LED lights and a 4K projector which produces an incredible picture on our retractable screen. 

Alongside all the capital building work Guildhall staff have been busy focussing on other areas to achieve as much as possible whilst the site was closed. One element that was previously hidden from site by carpet was a Victorian tiled floor along the main corridor. This has painstakingly been uncovered and links our modern facility back to its historic past. 

You will also notice that lighting has been improved in the gallery and main staircase areas with chandelier style lighting installed to add to the grandeur of the building. 

The Guildhall box office is now open Monday to Saturday 10am – 5pm. Please call 01452 503050 or email guildhall.boxoffice@gloucester.gov.uk for all of your enquiries. 

For all room hire enquiries across the site please contact 01452 396372 or email hireofguildhall@gloucester.gov.uk. 

The following images show some of the changes that have taken place over the past two months. 

August Update

The Guildhall closed its doors temporarily on Saturday 16th July this year in order to complete some exciting improvement works. Having successfully received an Arts Council England grant of £230k we identified the following areas of work:

·       full refurbishment of our bar & kitchen including an extension to the bar in the main hall

·       brand new dedicated broadband throughout the venue including all meeting and conference spaces

·       the creation of a new dance rehearsal space with a sprung floor

·       refurbishment of the main hall floor

·       upgrades to technical equipment and lighting

The work in the main hall and kitchen was a slow start due to budgetary adjustments and the availability of products. Some alterations have been made to the designs, but we are now pleased to see building contractors onsite progressing well removing all existing fittings, taking out walls and preparing for the new installation. 

The local company HFL Broadband have been instructed to provide us with high-speed broadband throughout the building and they have been busy laying huge amounts of cable that link up all of the rooms and offices. They will be installing access points in key rooms which will enable visitors to connect at speeds that are suitable for conferences and streaming of high quality content. 

The addition of a new sprung dance floor to the Fisher Room has been prepared for with decoration completed of this room as well as the Studio 2 and Henley Rooms. Coupled with the new internet provision these rooms will enable high quality meeting spaces in the centre of the city. 

In the main hall a new 4k projector has been installed which significantly increases picture quality. 

Facility panels have been installed allowing connectivity in different parts of the hall, i.e, stage, front of house and balcony. 

Whilst the intrusive larger works are taking place Guildhall staff are also working hard on improving other aspects of the site and we hope to share more details of the progress soon.