Introduction to the Hall for Cornwall

 I love the Hall for Cornwall.  Its a really great venue and looks amazing following it's recent refurbishment. It's a historic old building that was originally the city hall and included a market place and civic rooms.  Originally, it backed on to the river with boats mooring at the back but Lemon Quay and Back Quay were infilled in stages creating the Piazza.  In the 1920s, the market hall was remodelled as a performance space.  Although it was used for music events, it was also used for fatstock shows.

Following a period of deterioration it was renovated and reopened as a theatre in 1997.  I went to it during this period and it was very different to how it is now.  It was one long slope of seats to the back with a walkway across halfway up.  It felt like the building had been covered up and hidden inside

It closed again in 2018 for refurbishment before reopening in 2021.  The theatre now has seating on three floors so has considerably increased it's capacity.  It's been sympathetically refurbished in a way that shows off the original building.  The new bits are new, modern and comfortable but the old bits are stylish and celebrated.

From Lemon Quay you can enter the theatre through the cafe and its a modern space where you can grab a coffee to take in with you, as well as a cake.  They also serve during the interval and I think people forget this and when we come in with a brownie or piece of tiffin, we often get envious looks.  From here you can walk straight into the stalls and then go up some stairs within the theatre itself.  One set of stairs is very obvious but as you go in there is an additional staircase further to the left.  

In the Cafe, there is however a door to the far left that gives access to a lift and an additional staircase.  If we are sat in the circle or balcony, we often find it quicker to use this staircase than the internal ones.  Fewer people seem to think of it and it saves queuing and bypasses the some of the mass of people leaving the stalls at the end of the performance.

On the other side of the theatre you can come in via Boscawen Street.  This side has the box office and a larger space with a bar.  I love this room, with it's high ceiling and granite pillars.  You can again avoid going up the internal staircases by heading right to where there is another staircase and a lift.

Look out for the doors to the staircases at the backs of the circle as well as to the sides where they sell ice creams, they provide a really handy way out.

You can buy a membership to the Hall for Cornwall and depending on you membership level you get different benefits.  The very best memberships get the earliest booking times, biggest discounts and opportunities.  While most of us probably cannot imagine being a benefactor, the priority and priority plus memberships are much more affordable.  There are often a small number of much cheaper tickets that go quickly and  being a member increases your chance of buying these.  If you go frequently, it's something to consider.  We don't mind having reduced visibility for cheaper tickets, along with discounts to some performances.

Tickets are generally not released all at once however.  For some productions, there will be no tickets sold for the balcony for instance, or only the front half of the circle will be released initially.  So it's worth keeping an eye on any shows you didn't initially get tickets for, to catch later releases of tickets.  For some shows that are very popular they may release standing tickets.  On the sides of the circle and balcony, these tickets have a rester pad, so you can semi sit, but the view can be restricted.  The standing seats at the back of the circle have a great view, but no rester pad although you can lean on a wooden partition.

Obviously if you want close up, then the first few rows of the stalls are great.  For the stalls though, the slope of the seats is not so great so if you have someone taller in front, your view may be obstructed.  The slopes on the circle and balcony are much greater and are less likely to have your view obstructed by people.  At the very outer edges though, there is less leg room as the row curls slightly and your view may be obstructed a little as the balustrade is higher to prevent people having accidents coming down the stairs.

The side slips also lose a little of the view into the closest back corner.  The restricted view is generally of little concern though as you can see most of everything going on.  There are exceptions however, depending on the set.  Kinky Boots for instance had an amazing and complicated set with girder pillars on the stage and a set back area in the middle.  We had a great close up view as we were very close to the stage but in the circle on the sides.  We couldn't see all of the action as we couldn't see into the corners of the stage or the area set up in the middle, the girders also had a huge effect for us.  It was still an amazing show though!

Its such a great venue, just pick something you fancy and go!