Refurbishments to theatre
We’re pleased to announce that our beautiful heritage theatre will undergo a number of refurbishments this autumn to further improve the building for our audiences and other visitors.
The theatre will undergo work to upgrade its Circle level toilet facilities upstairs and install bi-fold doors at the Tower Street end of the foyer to improve its downstairs space.
We have already started the work to refurbish our Circle level toilet facilities upstairs and we hope to provide audiences with two brand-new sets of toilets – a block of women’s toilets plus four individual self-contained cubicles, each with its own sink and hand-dryer, which everyone can use.
It is hoped the improvements will help to reduce queuing, provide everyone with facilities they feel comfortable using and improve the overall audience experience.
The new toilets will also help the theatre reduce its environmental footprint as the new facilities use significantly less water than the current facilities.
The Circle toilet project began in late July and is expected to be completed next month.
Audiences are still able to use the theatre’s other facilities downstairs via the Atrium, as well as the accessible toilet opposite the lift entrance in the Atrium.
Our second building project is set to improve the foyer space downstairs and this autumn bi-fold doors will be installed that will open out onto Tower Street and the space outside The Arc.
We hope that the development will bring more light into the building and allow audiences to enjoy pre-show drinks in that space during the warmer, summer months.
We expect the work to start end of September and last approximately six weeks.
During this time a temporary hoarding will be in place for the comfort and safety of our staff and audience members and the Box Office will be temporarily moved to the other end of the foyer into the Atrium and will be open Tue – Sat, 10am – 1pm.
The Circle bar upstairs – which is located above where the work will take place – will be closed and our Front of House team are exploring alternative means of selling drinks to prevent queues forming at the main bar downstairs especially at busy times.
The Tower Street entrance and accessible toilet next to it will both be out of action during this period.
Deryck Newland, Chief Executive of Play to the Crowd comments “We are really excited that this phase of work is starting, it’s been a long time in the planning. We originally had hoped to put in the bi-fold doors when we reconfigured and refurbished our foyer in 2019, although it was too much of a financial stretch at that time. Fortunately though we have been able to secure some funding from the Garfield Weston Foundation and the Community Infrastructure Levy, as well as using some of the restoration levy that is added to every ticket sold at Theatre Royal Winchester to fund this project.”
Deryck continues, “The bi-fold doors project is all about breaking down barriers to entering our building – we want to be as transparent as possible and encourage everyone to see inside and be encouraged to come in! We have needed to improve our toilet facilities for a while now. The plan for the circle toilets refurbishment is about beginning to increase the number of toilets we have as well as introducing some gender-neutral cubicles to give additional flexibility and make everyone feel welcome. This project is also supported by the Garfield Weston Foundation and our own Restoration Levy. We had hoped that both projects would have been completed by the start of our autumn season but delays out of our control haves meant that the works are ongoing. We ask our audiences for some patience during this time – it will be worth the wait and disruption!”
