Bristol Old Vic, 2018

Bristol Old Vic is the oldest continuously working theatre in Europe, completed in 1766. Successive alterations over the years culminated in 1972 with a new foyer and street frontage by the respected British architect Peter Moro, whose scheme incorporated the neighbouring historic Coopers’ Hall as the main entrance and circulation space. The auditorium and back of house spaces were skilfully renovated by architect Andrzej Blonski in 2012, after which Haworth Tompkins worked to open up the Grade I listed theatre’s front of house to a wider, more diverse audience and to place the theatre more visibly at the heart of Bristol’s public life and public space. Radical change was required to address these aims, and so the decision was taken to remove and rebuild entirely the 1970s additions, replacing them with a more transparent and legible foyer space, a new studio theatre in the lower half of the Coopers’ Hall and a reinstated grand public room as originally located in its upper half. The new foyer is conceived as an extension of the street, a covered public square enclosed by a framework of timber and glass to bring day light deep into the space and reveal the much-altered façade of the auditorium for the first time.

“these atmospheric and characterful plans have brilliantly unlocked Bristol Old Vic’s historical riches and allowed us to reveal Bristol’s architectural gem of a theatre after nearly 250 years.” Tom Morris