Lincoln Drill Hall: Arts venue to shut as funding stopped

The community-based centre will close at the end of the month, the trustees said

An arts venue will shut as a result of the pandemic and loss of funding, with the loss of 19 jobs.

Lincoln Drill Hall, which hosted concerts, comedy shows and community events, closed its doors in March due to lockdown.

In August, the city council voted unanimously to end the £187,000 yearly grant to the venue.

Phil Hamlyn Williams, chair of trustees, said he was "desperately sad".

"We've got 19 lovely people who've worked together for a long time, and are now facing a bleak future," he said.

"I'm afraid it is the virus - so many arts venues across the country have closed.

"We were kept sort of alive by the furlough scheme but with it coming to an end at the end of October that was curtains."

Mr Hamlyn Williams said the city council, which refurbished the building in the early-2000s, was also in an impossible position when it decided to withdraw funding.

"They knew back then it could only survive with public subsidy, and as local government finances have been squeezed, it just doesn't work any more," he said.

However, he added he was hopeful a new use for the building, which first opened in 1890, could be found that would include arts and culture.

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