Views from the inside

Two views looking across the Upper Circle foyer area. There will be 2 new bars and cloakrooms in these spaces. We all think this is one of the best public spaces in the Hall and hope to use it for more functions and talks when we re-open.

Views from the inside

I said a few weeks ago that we were having a tour of the building. Well, we all got booted and suited and I now have some shots of what's happening inside the building. There is still a lot of demolition work going on to the stairwells. They are concrete walling the basement, and installing a lot of pipes and ducting to upgrade our terrible air-handling system (for those of you at Festival concerts prior to 2007 will know what I mean!).

The first one is taken looking down the Grand Circle corridor from the backstage access door on the Cambridge St (north) side of the hall. The second is looking down the Grand Circle corridor from the Grindlay Suite side. The workman is breaking through the wall to create the opening for the lift.

The Basement

This excellent photo was taken by John Neilson of Heery International. It was taken looking down from the roof on Grindlay Street and illustrates how the basement of the new wing is progressing. This areas will house spaces for food and drink storage, staff changing, plant equipment and IT/phone system. The basement has been dug all the way around the perimeter of the building now to create the space for all the new public toilets and cloakroom.

We are due to go on a site visit in a couple of weeks and I plan to get some photos of the work inside the hall to show you.

Merry Christmas

Disappointingly, Heery didn't manage to get the obligatory Christmas tree on top of the crane and we were missing a bit of festive bling. OK, it's huge and I am sure there are Health and Safety laws about that sort of thing, but all of us at the Usher Hall would like to wish our blog readers and customers a very Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year.