Trowbridge Town Hall to become £8.5m music venue

Trowbridge Town Hall will be turned into a music venue

A Wiltshire town hall is set to close to allow for an £8.5 million upgrade to turn it into a major music venue.

Trowbridge Town Hall will shut from July 2023 until at least 2025 for the interior refurbishments and redesign.

The cash has come from a £16m investment into the town by the Future High Streets Fund - a government scheme to renew town centres.

Alan Wright, town hall director, said it would also offer a space to utilise and develop talent.

Speaking to BBC Radio Wiltshire, he said full details of the plans would go on public display at the hall from 14:00 BST on Thursday.

"We will be able to share them with the general public and explain exactly what we are doing," he added.

Big acts

Mr Wright said he and several others in the town convinced Wiltshire County Council the hall was a "really important community asset" around 2012.

"In the following 10 years we have really turned it into a centre doing all kinds of things," he said.

Wiltshire councillors backed the scheme - which will give the trust a 125-year lease after the work is completed - in September.

The aim is for the works - which will take around 18 months - to convert the Grade II listed building into a major music venue with a capacity of about 500 people which can attract big acts, he explained.

Prison cells originally built to hold defendants before trial underneath the hall will be turned into recording studios, he added.

The space would also give emerging local artists space to produce music, podcasts and digital videos at a subsidised rate, he explained.

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"We hope it's going to be a springboard to develop the latent talent that I passionately believe is in every individual," he said.

The works will also see the foyer area extended in a cafe and a sprung floor installed in another room to allow dance groups to rehearse.

While the works are carried out, the trust is helping people and groups who use the hall find alternatives, although Mr Wright admitted they could not guarantee they would be at the same "competitive" prices they offered.