Depot Cinema
Rescuing an atmospheric cinema for vibrant, community-led cultural life
Client: Lewis Community Screen
Status: Complete
Location: Lewes, UK
The Depot is a new community cinema for the town of Lewes in East Sussex, built on the site of the old Harvey’s Brewery depot. It shows feature and independent art-house films, as well as hosting events, exhibitions and festivals, and provides facilities for film education and community activities.
-
The Hall For Cornwall site was saved from public sale in the 1990s and converted into a 900 seat auditorium. The successful campaign founded the Hall For Cornwall and developed a significant audience across the county. However, the auditorium was difficult to play, the seating was tired, the bar and café were constricted and the seating capacity insufficient to attract the larger touring shows.
The project has stripped out the old arena style auditorium back to the bones. We inserted a new steel and timber frame across 3 levels, digging down for the stalls and popping up a roof extension. We installed a flexible proscenium and variable acoustic banners supporting a range of performance from orchestral to stand-up comedy.
Gentle ramps across the site, combined with lifts, have provided universal access into the theatre, and comfortable seating installed, including thirteen wheelchair spaces with a variety of positions within the auditorium. Improved dressing room facilities, and proper facilities for performers with disabilities, have been provided for the first time. The seats are covered in durable fabric with a specially woven pattern based on the colours within the granite harbour walls of Port Isaac.
The Boscawen Hall, the arcaded marketplace designed by Christopher Eales, has been restored and forms a new foyer and bar for the theatre. A casual café restaurant has been opened in the Back Quay building which is open throughout the day. The Back Quay spaces have been transformed to provide offices for Hall For Cornwall as well as lettable spaces for the creative community in Truro, a facility named Husa, meaning to dream in Cornish.
In revitalizing the Hall for Cornwall, Burrell Foley Fischer were asked to design a theatre that was representative of its location and culture: a space that was open to all, without barriers to attendance or participation. The finished building successfully connects the past and the present, the social with the artistic, and the community with heritage and place.
“The proposal responds to the historic significance and character of its context in both its architecture and landscape design to deliver a valuable cultural and community facility that will be an asset to Lewes. The type and range of uses and the quality and flexibility of internal and external spaces will add to the town’s vibrancy as a cultural destination. The proposal will serve as an exemplar to illustrate how good design can rise to the challenge of a National Park context and eloquently embody the statutory purposes and duty”
“The building forms a new landmark in the conservation area and begins to complete the setting of the adjacent railway station… This was a classic gap site between the core of the town and the station that needed to be stitched back into the urban fabric.
The Depot Cinema has reused and extended a redundant semi-derelict warehouse to create a new townscape and a community amenity performing functions far beyond the cinematic experience. This is an outstanding mixed-use cultural building and an exemplary piece of placemaking.”
“Like many English towns, Lewes never really acquired that convivial continental formula of a public space with cafés lining the periphery of a town square. There is a bit of a pedestrianised high street, but you could not describe it as an ‘urban living room’… at the Depot, the north and east wings are continued around on the west side with enough landscaped topography and the viaduct beyond to create a horseshoe-shaped courtyard…the whole space is wind protected from three sides of the compass and only open to the south where even winter sun angles can be enjoyed. It undoubtedly will bring cosmopolitan outdoor urban life to East Sussex.
Another enjoyable result of the project is the sense of well being the building affords to those who use it. It seems to be imbued inside and out with that rare architectural formula of making one feel good”
Project Team
Lead Consultant, Architect, Landscape & Principal Designer: BFF Architects
Theatre & Acoustic Consultants: Charcoalblue
Civils & Structural Engineer: engineers HRW
MEP Engineer: Max Fordham & Partners
Cost Consultant: Turner & Townsend
Heritage Consultant: Simpson & Brown Architects
Planning Consultant: North Planning and Development
Archaeology Consultant: ECUS Ltd
Access Consultant: Jane Simpson Access Ltd
Ecological Consultant: EcoNorth Ltd
Transport Consultant: Steer Group
Fire Consultant: Aura
Principal Designer BSA: Moxon Cole
Awards
National LABC building excellence awards 2018 - Best Public Service Building
Screen awards 2018 - shortlisted, cinema of the year (24 screens or under)
Civic voice design awards 2018 – shortlisted
South east LABC building excellence awards 2018: best public service building
South east LABC building excellence awards 2018: shortlisted - best change of use of an existing building or conversion, best public service building & best inclusive building
RIBA south east awards 2018: shortlisted
RTPI south east awards 2017 - regional winner; excellence in planning for heritage
RTPI awards 2018 - excellence in planning for culture & heritage
Civic trust awards 2018 - regional finalist
Civic trust awards 2018 - selwyn goldsmith award for universal design: commendation
Sussex heritage trust 2017 - public and community award; building crafts award