Empire back in business

Magic circles: the theatre has regained its glamour

It has taken more than two years to complete, needed £15 million of hard-won donations to fund - and the whole project was thrown into jeopardy at the last minute.


Now, however, the Hackney Empire's epic restoration is finally complete and a starstudded audience will attend its gala reopening at the end of this month.

As these first pictures show, the iconic east London venue has been transformed from a rundown auditorium into a space to rival anything in the West End.

Artistic Director Roland Muldoon has masterminded the enormous project while comedian Griff Rhys-Jones was the driving force behind the Empire's fundraising campaign.

Apart from £5 million from Arts Council England, the largest single donation came from Amstrad tycoon Alan Sugar, who gave more than £1.3 million. Other supporters included Hackney-born playwright Harold Pinter and actor Ian McKellen.

Mr Muldoon told the Standard: "Art restorers, builders, engineers, carpenters, joiners, light and sound engineers, acousticians... we've had hundreds of people working on the place, and it shows."

The 1901 Grade II listed building, created by theatre architect Frank Matcham, was once a thriving variety hall with the likes of Charlie Chaplin and Stan Laurel just a few of the stars who graced its stage.

After a successful life as a TV studio in the 1950s it was used as a bingo hall but returned to its original use in 1986.

Mr Muldoon said: "The Empire is, once again, among the best of its kind in London."

The restored Hackney Empire boasts an enlarged 60-seat orchestra pit, hitech backstage facilities and, said Mr Muldoon, "as many ladies' toilets as men's - and lots of them".

However, the restoration has not come without setbacks. The most urgent occurred last autumn when the building company behind much of the work fell into financial chaos, leading to delays that added more than £1 million to the final bill.

When the Hackney Empire throws open its doors on 28 January for a performance of Slava Polunin's acclaimed Snow Show, it will still be missing one vital element - its bar.

The Rendezvous bar was to be built on the site of an old pub next door to the Empire, along with an education centre named after music-hall queen Marie Lloyd. However, it will take an extra £1.1 million in donations before work can go ahead. "It is really important to the economy of the whole thing," said Mr Muldoon, "but we thought it was better to open as soon as possible rather than delay any further."

In the coming months, the Empire will play host to opera, jazz, classical music, comedy, circus, puppetry, rock music and even a turn from Chas 'n' Dave.

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