The new music and performance venue has been cancelled

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The new music and performance venue to replace the Assembly Rooms is now not going ahead.

The Assembly Rooms before it shut down due to fire

Now the Council is run by the Conservatives, they have decided that the better option is to refurbish the existing building. Going to cost about £20 million.

What a farce. Over 3 years since the Assembly Rooms was closed due to the fire and now it appears we are back to square one.

By all accounts the Assembly Rooms was given a wide berth by promoters who thought the sound and acoustics was poor, the venue capacity neither big or small and the layout not great for putting on a commercial show. Are all of these concerns going to be addressed in any refurbishment work?
I have to admit there are some aspects to the architecture of the building that I like but ultimately the building fails in two key respects.

Firstly, as a venue for performance acts, it is just crap, for the reasons mentioned earlier. And secondly, it fails enclose the Market Place in a way that give life to the Market Place; and offers nothing in terms of street scene to Full Street nor the Council House, (old) Magistrates Court junction.

This is the ‘centre’ of Derby yet is hardly inspiring. For a key cultural building, that is a big fail.

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