Philharmonic Hall

The first Philharmonic Hall, a fine stone-faced Italianate building, was destroyed by fire in 1933. Its replacement, which opened just before outbreak of the Second World War is a large building of warm grey-pink brick with a façade in the Dutch Dudok style. Mainly of three-storey height it has a symmetrical front flanked by semi-circular stair turrets. Above the canopied entrance are seven large vertical windows separated by piers topped by abstract emblems. Detached piers contain poster panels with rounded mounts.

The auditorium contains a continuous rising plane of seats broken at one level by a line of horseshoe boxes panelled in light wood, six each side ten at rear, and is backed by an end wall of sound-absorbent material. Above the balcony the suspended ceiling curves like a lobster back, narrowing to meet the resonant wall at the platform end.

The large concert stage, rounded in front has the provision of a disappearing proscenium and screen for projection driven by an electric motor (revolutionary in 1939 and still uncommon). The organ console, on a revolving base, rises the same way behind it between the conductor’s rostrum and the curves of seats for the choir.