News / Bristol old vic
Food, glorious food at Bristol Old Vic
It was originally built as a grand banqueting hall but has since been a fruit warehouse, auction rooms and most recently little more than a glorified staircase for the Bristol Old Vic.
Coopers’ Hall, completed in 1754, is in fact older than the Theatre Royal built a dozen years later behind it.
When the theatre’s new front of house reopens this time next year it will be restored to its former glories, with Old Vic bosses hoping it will become one of the most sought-after event spaces in the city.
is needed now More than ever
Hard hats, hi-vis and sturdy footwear are all still needed when accessing the room in its current state, but once completed an oak floor will host everything from wedding receptions to large corporate functions, light streaming in through the south-facing windows you currently have to use to access the building after climbing up a couple of ladders.
“It will become a place of celebration,” said Old Vic chief executive Emma Stenning, as she welcomed representatives of Fosters event caterers to Coopers’ Hall, its soon-to-be-restored Georgian splendour still a little bit of a leap of the imagination away.
Representatives from Bristol Old Vic and Fosters standing on the reinstated floor of Coopers’ Hall, originally built in 1754, 12 years before the theatre
The team at Fosters will not only cater for the events in Coopers’ Hall from autumn 2018, but will also run the bars and cafe in the theatre’s new lobby as well as a private dining room called The Foyle Room.
The hope is that the historic building and its modern counterpart will be used from breakfast until dinner for people not just coming to the theatre to see a show – either in the main auditorium of the new studio theatre to be built on the ground floor of Coopers’ Hall.
“We are trying to make better use of all this space that we have on King Street,” said Stenning. “It’s going to be completely beautiful.”
It may be 12 months until it opens, but booking is now open for the new Coopers’ Hall event space, which Fosters chief executive Neil Lodge hopes will become “the place to be”.
“We are extremely proud Bristolians,” Lodge said as his team toasted their new partnership with the theatre. “We want to see the city prosper off the back of what we do.”
Bristol Old Vic is celebrating three nominations in the UK Theatre Awards 2017. New musical The Grinning Man from director Tom Morris picked up two nominations, with best performance in a musical for lead Louis Maskell and a best design nomination for Jon Bausor. While co-production The Rivals (Bristol Old Vic, Citizens Theatre and Liverpool Everyman and Playhouse) also received a nomination for best supporting performance for Lucy Briggs-Owen.
Our top newsletters emailed directly to you
