Snape Concert Hall and River View Cafe, Tunstall, Suffolk

Summary

Former malt house of mid-C19 for Newson Garrett. It was converted to a concert hall and ancillary space in 1966-7 but following a fire it was reconstructed in 1969-70. Architects Arup Associates, with engineers and acousticians Ove Arup and Partners, were commissioned in October 1965 to make a feasibility study when the lease of the old Maltings was first offered. Much of the work was carried out by Derek Sugden, assisted by Ron Marsh. Max Fordham worked on the services and assisted with the acoustics. Contractors Freddie Corke and Bill Muttitt of William C Reade of Aldeburgh.

Description

A former malt house, of mid-C19 for Newson Garrett converted to a concert hall and ancillary space in 1966-7 by architects Arup Associates, with engineers and acousticians Ove Arup and Partners. Much of the work was carried out by Derek Sugden, assisted by Ron Marsh. Max Fordham worked on the services and assisted with the acoustics. The contractors were Freddie Corke and Bill Muttitt of William C Reade of Aldeburgh. The Concert Hall foyer was extended by Purcell Miller Tritton and Partners in 1996-7 and further refurbishment and additions by Penoyre and Prasas in 1997-9.

Materials: red brick with slate roof coverings and timber doors and windows. Timber weather boarded roof ventilators sit above the galvanised steel roof truss structure. The roof is lined in Columbian pine boarding, also used for the doors. Local pamment tiles are used on the foyer floor.

Plan: The concert hall is rectangular in plan with the restaurant range running across the eastern end of the hall and extending slightly to the north.

Exterior: in its fundamental form the concert hall resembles the former malt house it once was. The brick walls are surmounted by a steep pitch roof with four evenly spaced ventilators along the ridge. Wide guttering is supported on iron brackets. The northern elevation is characterised by a series of 17 stepped and recessed segmental arches of varying width. The two easternmost have double-leaf timber plank doors inserted, these are followed to the west by four blind arches, a window inserted in the next and then another three with double-leaf timber plank doors. These serve as the main entrance into the concert hall. Except for one window the remaining recesses are blind.

The western elevation shows the very steep pitch of the roof with the extended slopes either side marking the foyer on the northern elevation and a corridor, offices and practice rooms on the south. A timber lucam protruding at first floor with an iron spiral staircase extending to the ground sits central to the elevation. Regularly spaced brick piers divide the elevation with tie-rod plates at mid height on each. The piers terminate at a stepped brick band which continues the width of the elevation and follow the roofline as it drops either side.

The southern elevation is mostly hidden behind later office and practice room extensions with glazing facing into the inner courtyard (former grain turning gallery) to the south.

Historic photographs show the eastern elevation to be of 12 bays each marked by brick piers reaching to the original roof height and with no windows. In 1967 when Arup Associates converted the former grain cleaning building into a café with performers' facilities beneath, openings were punctured through and in 1999 Penoyre and Prasad of Purcell Miller Triton raised the roof by 1.5 metres to create a new level and inserted a continuous window below the eaves and a glazed south gable with timber louvres. The building was also extended to the north. The original building is still legible in the current (2022) 16 bay three storey elevation with brick piers, and tie-rod plates at first floor height, marking the original bays. Segmental arched openings for all the windows replicates that used across the maltings complex, at ground floor level these are single-light multi-glazed windows with flood resistant locking mechanisms. On the first floor C20 sash windows have been used. An external stair provides access/escape to and from the cafe above. On the south gable large sliding, glazed timber doors, approached by two flights of steps, also provide access to the café.

Interior: the main entrance to the concert hall, on the north elevation, leads into the foyer added in 1996-7. The industrial aesthetic is maintained throughout with segmental arched recesses, storage areas and openings running the length of the inner wall and mirroring that on the external elevation. The pamment tiled floor also provides continuity with the older elements of the building. A shop has been included at the western end.

The internal foyer is entered through glazed timber doors and occupies space formerly used for the storage and dispatch of the malt (around 1894). Here the scale of the building is clearly apparent and gives an air of ‘occasion’. The raising of the original maltings walls by two feet and the addition of piers along the length of the wall for reinforcement, creates a series of segmental arches and a space of cathedral proportions. The use of undressed red brick and pamment tiles on the floor compliments the original structure and retains the industrial aesthetic. The exposed timber rafters again compliment the design of the building with the rake of the roof emphasising the angle required to span from the height of the concert hall down to what would originally have been the single storey height of the external elevation. At the eastern end of the foyer steps rise to the Café and at the western end to the upper tiers of the concert hall.

Entering the concert hall the heritage of the space is evident, the skeletal remains of the former maltings is visible in the form of a number of blocked openings in both the north and south walls and areas of staining indicating where walls have been removed or where industrial processes have left their mark. Narrow openings on the south wall through to a corridor and rear foyer contribute to the acoustics of the space. The stage is at the eastern end including an orchestral pit with Gurjan hardwood stripped floors nailed to concrete with no air gap to reduce loss of accoustic quality. The front section seating can be raised or lowered to provide extra stage or orchestra facilities as required. The rear seats in the auditorium are raised on a removable raking floor over plant and switch rooms. The original timber seating, designed by the architects based on those at Bayreuth, have cane seats which impact little on the acoustics of the space. A dense cork floor beneath the seating also aids the acoustics. Timber doors either side of the stage provide access to the auditorium from the respective foyers. At the west end of the auditorium the lighting control box sits behind a glazed screen, within a timber cabin, a recreation of a lucam as found elsewhere around the maltings complex.

The open, steel truss roof structure and exposed purlins rest on the four walls and is lined in Columbian pine boarding with four ventilators to house motorised dampers for the ventilation system.

On the south side of the concert hall a corridor and foyer with lime-washed brick walls and exposed timber roof provide access to both the upper floor and restaurant and to the performers' accommodation, dressing rooms and practice rooms at lower levels. The western end of the corridor also provides access to offices located along the south of the building and to others positioned in the former turning gallery which extends from the south west corner of the building.

The eastern end of the complex is marked by the former grain cleaning building, now developed as a café/restaurant. The ground floor offers a series of rooms functioning variously as dressing rooms for performers, a laundry and as a kitchen to serve the café above. The café is over two floors; the first floor is an open plan space, retaining the original wooden floor and with a bar along the western wall. The space is lit by a series of C20 timber sash windows regularly spaced along the length of the building. A large timber and glazed sliding door at the southern end leads to the external terrace, paths and the marshes. The second floor café, added in 1999 occupies the space created by Penoyre and Prasas when they raised the walls by 1.5 metres and added a continuous window below the eaves. The coloured and exposed steel roof trusses, infilled with perforated timber panels, provides a light and airy space. The roof trusses are supported on the walls of the mid-C19 building but also support the floor of the café. The floor ends around 50cm from the external wall leaving a clear view of the floor below, allowing the clerestory windows to shed light throughout the interior. The impression is of a floating floor supported periodically on brackets projecting from the roof trusses. The glazed south gable has external timber louvres to help maintain an ambient temperature internally.

Although described separately the interconnectivity and flow around the various components of the concert hall and restaurant building is seamless.

History

On the outbreak of the Second World War in 1939 the government ordered the suspension of commercial shipping on the Alde. After the Second World War the Snape maltings complex became increasingly antiquated. As the maltings business declined so did the profitability of the railway and by the 1950s all malt and barley leaving or entering the site was transported by road and in March 1960 the railway itself finally closed. Swonnell & Son went into voluntary liquidation in 1965 and the maltings site, Plough & Sail public house, 27 dwellings in the village, and 32 acres of land were put up for sale. The maltings site was purchased by George Gooderham, with the intention of using part of the complex for milling and the storage of animal feed.

The nearby Aldeburgh Festival of Music and Arts was founded in 1948 by the composer Benjamin Britten (1913-1976), singer Peter Pears (1910-1986) and opera librettist and theatrical director Eric Crozier (1914-1994). The Aldeburgh Festival had used a variety of locations for concerts, but the established and growing popularity of the event necessitated a move to a larger and permanent home. After the Snape maltings site was acquired by Gooderham, Britten and Stephen Reiss, the manager of the Aldeburgh Festival identified an opportunity to convert the largest of the former malthouses into a concert hall and recording studio and approached Ove Arup and Partners for a survey. Britten had lived in a converted windmill at Snape immediately before the war and the experience of adapting a building to his own needs gave him an understanding of the architectural process as well as a keen sense of space. The resultant conversion, designed by Derek Sugden of Arup Associates, was carried out between 1966 and 1967, and the venue was opened by Her Majesty the Queen in June 1967. In 1969 following the opening night of the festival, a fire reduced the Concert Hall to an open shell, but with the help of a fund-raising appeal, was restored and re-opened as a venue in June 1970. The site has since been developed as a cultural destination, and in 2003 the Arts Council of England designated Aldeburgh as one of three centres of excellence in music provision. The auditorium, acoustically is considered one of the finest in the world.

The initial brief was for a concert hall to seat between 700 and 800. It was to be provided with lighting facilities suitable for opera, an orchestra pit and a removable proscenium; there was also to be a restaurant for patrons. It was to be wired for the BBC for recording during the Festival and for the Decca Record Company for recording the rest of the year. Decca contributed to the cost of building the auditorium, and in return demanded an exacting standard of acoustic. Derek Sugden, Arup’s structural engineer in charge of the work, volunteered to do the acoustics. Sugden was a music lover, and taught himself acoustics. He recognised the importance to acoustics of a large volume relative to the size of audience, inspired by visiting Watford Town Hall (Listed Grade II) in his youth and the writings of the American acoustician Leo Beranek, who challenged conventional European thinking on designing concert halls. His important book Music, Acoustics and Architecture was published in 1962. Only the Queen Elizabeth Hall is similarly influenced.

Sugden calculated a need for 6 cubic feet of air per seat; as more seats were put in, the difficulties increased. Sugden aimed at a single space for the auditorium and stage, determined to reduce the distance between performer and audience. By demolishing one lateral and all the cross walls, raising the remaining walls by two feet and rebuilding the roof to a higher, central pitch, sufficient volume was created, with a foyer along one side, and an annex at the east end retained as dressing rooms on the ground floor with a first-floor restaurant that gave views across the marshes. The raising of the walls was hugely significant for the acoustic but also created greater headroom at the rear of the hall and in the access to the adjoining restaurant. The existing walls were stiffened by the addition of piers and were finished with a concrete ring beam to tie in the walls with the existing gables and to support the new roof. Steel ties further brace the old and new walls, the elegant and understated trusses, designed with all compression chambers members in timber and all tension members in steel provide tangible evidence of the design quality. The roof design was key to the whole building. The old brickwork was grit-blasted to bring out its soft red quality, and to break up sound in the highest frequencies. The smoke hoods that were such a feature of the old building were rebuilt to provide ventilation. Sugden went on to take other acoustic jobs, leading to the founding of Arup Acoustics.

To keep the atmosphere of an industrial building, finishings were kept to a minimum; the whole of the roof is in untreated timber; the floor and stage were finished with Gurjun hardwood strip with medium density cork underneath the fixed seating. The doors and door frames are in Columbian pine with a matt polish and all the steelwork was left in its original galvanised finish. Britten also wanted as large a foyer as possible, to create a sense of occasion, and to add a restaurant. The foyer floor and staircase were finished in 12" by 12" square pamments, a large local clay tile. The restaurant retained its original pine floor, but in 1999 was raised and an extra floor inserted by Penoyre and Presad. Additions have also been made to the foyer, but the same aesthetic has been retained throughout, and it is a building that has always been adaptable and extendable. The cane chairs, suggested by Richard Butt of the BBC and modelled on those at Bayreuth, are part of that simple aesthetic but also disturb the acoustic very little. A recording room was installed, and a system of conduits was designed with the BBC and Decca engineers to allow microphones to be set up where and when required. Heating and ventilation was designed to be as quiet and energy-efficient as possible, while the lighting control box was installed outside the space in a timber cabin copied from the lucams found elsewhere in the complex.

The Concert Hall foyer was extended by Purcell Miller Tritton and Partners in 1996-7 and further refurbishment and additions by Penoyre and Prasas in 1997-9 included the restaurant. It was extended to the north and the roof raised by 1.5 metres, with continuous windows below the eaves and a glazed south gable with timber louvres.

Reasons for Listing

The Snape Maltings Concert Hall and River View Café are listed at Grade II* for the following principal reasons:

Architectural Interest:

* as an inspirational adaptation of the C19 industrial maltings resulting in an exceptional engineering, acoustic and architectural composition which retains its original industrial aesthetic;

* for the design of the auditorium which acoustically is considered one of the finest in the world;

* as a major conversion by Arup Associates, a highly acclaimed architectural practice of the C20 but particularly Derek Sugden who went on to establish Arup Acoustics;

Historic Interest:

* for the direct association with Benjamin Britten a central and influential figure in C20 British music who understood the complexities of the site, the architectural process needed in the conversion and the need for a clear brief;

* for the contribution to the national and international success of Snape Maltings as a centre for music excellence and a cultural destination.

Group value:

* for its strong group value with other listed buildings on the Snape Maltings site, including the complex of former malting buildings fronting Snape Bridge Road, Snape Bridge House, former Granary and the Britten Pears building all listed at Grade II.

External Links

Historic England Listing

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