Hear from Grant, our Interim Director, as the countdown to re-opening begins...
The countdown to re-opening has begun!
On my daily walk into work down the Kennet and Avon canal I often use that time to think through life at the Corn Exchange; what are the current and future priorities, as well as everything in between. However, most recently, my main focus on this journey has been to think through the front of house redevelopment. It’s an exciting time for us but there is a lot of planning and detail required to achieve the ambition.
I’m fortunate to be supported by a very able Management and Executive team who are supporting this development, but ultimately the buck stops with me. If overseeing the redevelopment isn’t a big enough project, establishing a catering operation at the same time certainly creates a very ambitious project. However, overall there is a great level of anticipation and excitement for the next chapter and with this week marking the installation of the new flooring, the ground floor bar and box office, as well as the decorators continuing, refining the menu options, the crockery and fitting the kitchen out with new equipment, it is safe to say the countdown to the reopening has truly began!
Sticking with the redevelopment side of the project the decorators have been on site since last week. They started off by removing the paint work to the ceiling trusses, as we are exposing the original metalwork and have since continued to prepare the walls for their new colours. Not wanting to give too much away for the colour choices (and there is one that is certainly going to be statement colour!) the pallet for the space will broadly be quite neutral. The electricians have started rewiring and adding new lights to the ground floor spaces and this all makes way for the tilers to start fitting the new floor.
In other excitement, the new ground floor bar and box office counters should arrive on site on Thursday 27 August for installation and that is the point where we will truly start to understand how the space will feel to audiences. Whilst we have had plans for some time now, it isn’t until the space is being rebuilt that it starts to feel real and you get a real understanding on the impact it will have for our audiences and visitors.
The foyer will be open on Saturday 5 September, so The Scarecrows' Wedding audience will be the first to see how to space is evolving. Then the whole building, including the upstairs, will then be open on Thursday 1 October.
To give an example, as our audiences for Jongleurs and popular music nights such as Solid Gold 70s will know, we often move all the furniture away from the bar to enable easier access. However this has meant there is often very limited seating available for an audience of 400 people. With the redesign there will be no furniture in front of the counter and the other half of the foyer has been opened with seating and tables, therefore providing much needed room for our most busy evenings.
Additionally, our film and live screening audiences will now be able to get to the top floor cinema through a new entrance being created in the corridor towards the auditorium downstairs. Many people continue to tell us they are surprised to know we have a cinema, so with the introduction of this entrance we hope it raises more awareness to what sometimes feels the best kept secret cinema in Newbury. Don’t worry though, there is still only 40 seats so it will still be an intimate space for film goers.
The other side of the refurbishment project is obviously the furniture and soft furnishing selection. Whilst channelling my inner Laurence Llewelyn Bowen and working with the design mood boards given to us by the designer, we have just taken delivery of 45 new, and quite frankly beautiful, chairs. They have travelled all the way from the North of France (I had huge anxieties that they would arrive in time because they appeared to have a typically French relaxed view on delivery!) where they now reside in the auditorium until we can place them in their new home. I’m now on the hunt for some soft furnishing to compliment the look…
Aside from all of this we continue to work on menu selection and finding the right team to work with Matt to drive forward the catering operation. We’ve whet the appetites of the Marketing team with a meeting last week, where we discussed getting the message out there, but what everyone is intrigued to know is what type of food will be on the menu… and let me share some of this thinking with my top three dishes we have discussed so far:
For lunch, a roast beef topside sandwich with horseradish mayonnaise and sweet potato chips; or maybe, a Thai green chicken, red peppers and garlic rustic pizza...
And for dinner, pan fried sea bream with butternut squash and lemon thyme risotto.
Obviously the dish selection is still under review, but I’m sure you’ll agree that lunch and dinner at the Corn Exchange just started to sound incredibly exciting, and that’s before we have shared with you our brunch and afternoon tea menu…
With my belly rumbling and mouth salivating, I think I ought to finish writing this for today. No doubt there will be future updates over the next few days with a bigger focus on the food aspect…
Grant
Interim Director
For more pictures of the Front of House refurbishment project, please visit our Facebook page.