New music and performance venue to replace the Assembly Rooms

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Concept plans have been revealed showing a new music and performance venue to replace the Assembly Rooms.


Although not a full planning application yet, the Council looks serious in putting a plan together and have already got £8.6 million of funding from the D2N2 to help pay for it.

The entire project will likely cost over £44 million and will see the existing Assembly Rooms and car park demolished with the new venue to have the capability to host music concerts, sports events, comedy, theatrical performances, conferences and exhibitions and be available for use by both amateur and professional groups.

The Council are looking to find an operator to run the new venue so they can have input into the design of the new venue.

The proposals come 3 years after the venue closed following a fire.


While I am up for Derby getting a new venue, and the Assembly Rooms venue seems particularly unloved, I have my doubts at the location and the constraints of the site.

For me, North Riverside would be the place for it, ideally on the Darwin Place car park, and featuring an amphitheatre design with decked access over the ring road loop. Something with 3-4,000 seats, good acoustics, and the ability to host concerts, comedians and theatre productions.

I’m not convinced the Market Place site would give us the venue we deserve.

The French ‘Zenith’ arena in Limoges – build something similar on the Darwin Place car park?



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