With a focus on acoustic excellence, sustainability and heritage, Bristol Beacon required a bold and imaginative strategy to ensure it would excel in use. The Beacon Hall offers near-perfect acoustical conditions for the enjoyment of both amplified and non-amplified sound for audiences and musicians. Flexibility is designed into the acoustic strategy for high sound quality, by adapting for different uses and allowing all genres of music to be performed in optimal conditions. Additionally, the transformation has delivered a reduction in sound transmission between halls and practically removed intrusion from external noise, enabling complete ’pin-drop’ silence. To achieve this, we collaborated with world renowned acousticians Sound Space Vision to implement a creative design that delivers excellent acoustic conditions in each space.

Bristol Beacon encompasses three main performance halls:

Beacon Hall

A professional concert hall with capacity for around 1,800 (2,200 with stalls standing) – is a first-class, industry-leading facility. Designed as a contemporary intervention, we have built a new flexible and adaptable interior within the 1867 original masonry walls. New timber-lined balconies, shaped to optimise room acoustics, with trifurcating steel columns to support the upper balconies and technical decks deliver a unique and dramatic visual signature that combines heritage with world-leading acoustics and 21st century technology.

The new interior has been nested into the building’s Victorian shell. Taking cues from the original pilasters and arched window openings, the design references the visual memory of the historic architecture. The adaptability of the new interior, through variable acoustics, removable seating and access for lighting, makes it one of the most flexible and accessible concert halls in the country.

Lantern Hall

The Lantern Hall has been much altered during the building’s history, having been converted to a theatre, bar, and ad hoc second venue since 2009. Wit a capacity of 300 people (500 standing), it is designed for more intimate concerts. We completed external restoration works that reinstate the original architectural composition of the Colston Street façade by removing later additions, reopening the colonnade to its original width of seven bays and reopening the windows to the Lantern Hall.

At ground level, the former box-office space is now better purposed as a public restaurant and cocktail bar which creates an activated ‘shop front’ with a new screen of frameless glazing positioned behind the stone columns.

The Weston Stage

The atmospheric former bonded cellars beneath Beacon Hall have been carefully converted into a suite of creative spaces for music education, practice rooms, library, recording studio, digital music lab and a new cellar venue for smaller, more intimate concerts and emerging artists. This third hall is an additional performance space or cabaret-style club venue for 100-250 people that can also be used for rehearsal, education or break-out space.