When the Lantern Hall was the Little Theatre

New tiered seating has been installed at the Lantern Hall which will become a “versatile performance venue” once the Bristol Beacon reopens in November.

The new seats can be moved electronically to add standing room and allow quick changeovers between events in a space that will be able to host up to 500 people.

Bristol Beacon bosses promise that the Lantern will be “a modern reworking of the Victorian hall”.

The Lantern Hall’s historic plasterwork is being restored, previously blocked up windows allow natural light into the room and reclaimed floors are from the original main hall – image: Bristol Beacon

What will soon become the Lantern Hall was from the 1980s used as a bar at the venue formerly known as the Colston Hall.

Prior to that, it was the Little Theatre, with a resident company based here from the 1920s called the Rapier Players.

The Little Theatre name could have originally been a nickname, with another name for the venue being the ‘Lesser Colston Hall’.

In a programme from 1924, theatregoers were given an explanation on their surroundings:

Is the company an amateur one? – No: all the members of the company are professionals, and have had considerable stage experience. The local Press has on very many occasions spoken most highly of their work in Bristol’s “Little” Theatre.

If the venture is a financial success, what will happen to the profit? – The Executive Council consists of honorary officials, who are making nothing out of the venture, nor do they intend to do so. Any profit will be devoted to the furtherance of the repertory movement in our city.

Is the theatre actually a theatre, or is it merely a “fit-up”? – It is a theatre. The Colston Hall Committee of the Corporation must be congratulated on their vision and enterprise. The stage and proscenium are permanent fixtures, as is also the stage lighting. The seating is new, and the hall has been redecorated. Every seat is bookable in advance, and patrons can see and hear from every part of the theatre.

Is the theatre entirely filled by subscribers? -No. The Council made a special point of this, so that the capacity of the theatre should not be filled by subscribers, and that there should be plenty of seats available to other members of the public.

During the first three nights of the week there are many seats available. For the rest of the week the house is extremely well patronised, and as a matter of fact on many Friday and Saturday nights people have been turned away, and the “house full” boards exhibited. Subscribers are being specially asked, where it is immaterial what night they visit the Theatre, to do so in the early part of the week.

In the 1960s, the Bristol Old Vic Company took over the artistic direction of the Little Theatre in addition to the Theatre Royal on King Street.

According to the Bristol Old Vic, “this was the first time a regional company had ever run concurrent seasons at two theatres under one artistic policy”.

Their first production at the Little Theatre in November 1963 was The Importance of Being Ernest, starring Susannah York.

Fast-forward 60 years and November 2023 will see the former Little Theatre brought back to life as the Lantern Hall.

Bristol Beacon bosses say that “modern stage technology means that this space can be transformed into a venue for a chamber music concert or a rock show with ease, as well as being a beautiful space for conferences and banqueting”.

An artist’s impression of the Lantern Hall in a seated format – image: Bristol Beacon

Main photo: Bristol Beacon

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