If you know Brighton, you know Brighton Dome. Linked to the Royal Pavilion Estate, the magnificent arts and heritage site has been around for over 200 years and houses three venues.
Two of those venues have been undergoing mega renovations for the past six years but now the Grade I and Grade II-listed Corn Exchange and Studio Theatre have finally reopened.
The revamp cost a whopping £38 million and includes two new bars, a restaurant, a new copper roof, restored seventeenth-century wooden beams and a horse sculpture. Its aim is to draw more international and local artists and visitors to the site.
The Corn Exchange was originally commissioned as a stable block and riding house by the Prince Regent in 1803 to go with the palatial Brighton Pavilion. The Studio Theatre was built as a supper room in the 1930s. Over its existence, the hub has been used for an abundance of things, from a Victorian skating rink to a military hospital in WW1 to a women’s roller-skating football space (yes, that’s football played on roller-skates).
Andrew Comben, chief executive of Brighton Dome and Brighton Festival, said: ‘We have come together believing in the central importance of arts and culture to Brighton and Hove's identity, its economy and its social wellbeing.
‘It is our enormous privilege now to open our doors and share the stories these beautiful buildings hold already and those yet to be written.’
Here are some pics of the refurbished venues.
The Dome is yet another example of recent efforts across the UK to restore some of our oldest and most gorgeous historic places. In the past year alone we at Time Out have reported on plenty of that sort of stuff, from an abandoned gun tower off the Kent coast and a reconstructed Roman gateway to Norwich Castle’s £15 million glow-up and this gorgeous historic cliff lift in Kent.
Did you see that this street has been crowned the UK’s best for independent shops this Christmas?
Plus: you can send someone a free Cadbury chocolate bar this Christmas.
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