Fairfield Halls facts for kids
Quick facts for kids Fairfield Halls |
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Fairfield Halls as seen from Queen's Gardens
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| General information | |
| Type | Concert hall |
| Architectural style | Modernist |
| Address | Park Lane, Croydon CR9 1DG |
| Country | United Kingdom |
| Coordinates | 51°22′20″N 0°5′45″W / 51.37222°N 0.09583°W |
| Inaugurated | 2 November 1962 |
| Client | County Borough of Croydon |
| Design and construction | |
| Architect | Robert Atkinson and Partners |
Fairfield Halls is an arts, entertainment and conference centre located in Croydon, London. It opened on 2 November 1962 and contains a theatre and gallery, and the large concert hall has been regularly used for BBC television, radio and orchestral recordings. Fairfield Halls closed for a £30 million redevelopment on 15 July 2016, and reopened on 16 September 2019. As part of the building's re-opening it was also announced that Talawa Theatre Company would relocate to the building, taking up a 200-seat theatre space and offices.
Although the venue has been a major venue for professional music, plays, musicals, stand-up comedy and classical music, a significant proportion of Fairfield's programme has been for community events. It was frequently used by local schools as the venue for their annual choral concerts, as well as being regularly used by local music, opera, amateur dramatic and religious organisations. The Concert Hall features a cinema with Croydon's largest cinema screen.
Since 14 January 2021, Fairfield Halls is being used as a mass vaccination centre as part of the COVID-19 vaccination in the United Kingdom.
History
The halls are built on the site of Croydon's historic "Fair Field", which hosted a well-known fair up until around 1860, and above disused railway cuttings which used to link the main London to Brighton railway to Croydon Central Station in what is now Queen's Gardens. Between 1930 and 1962 the land was home to both a car park and air raid shelters during the war.
The venue was 50 years old in 2012 and an anniversary concert by the London Mozart Players was attended by the Earl of Wessex. A website was also launched to celebrate both the venue's history and to act as an ongoing archive, containing 2,000 digitised images accessed via text and keyword searches. This makes it one of the largest digitised venue archives in Europe.
In the summer of 2014 the council paid for the refurbishment of the Arnhem Gallery, the conversion of the former Green Room into the New Studio and the installation of modern digital projection equipment with Dolby Surround 7.1 in the Concert Hall.
Fairfield was run from 1993 to 2016 by a self-financing charity with a board of trustees. The charity was in receipt of an operating grant from Croydon Council; it was placed into administration in July 2016.
As a venue
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The building's concert hall has 1,801 seats (counting the choir stalls), the Ashcroft Theatre has 755, and the Arnhem Gallery is used for standing concerts of up to 400.
Many famous acts have performed at the Fairfield Halls, including David Bowie, Kraftwerk, Camel, Elton John, the Beatles, Pink Floyd, Stevie Wonder, the Who, Queen, Sister Sledge, Morrissey, Status Quo, Chuck Berry, The Dubliners, Kenny Rogers, Canned Heat, Taste, Free, Genesis, Petula Clark, The Stranglers and Shane Filan of Westlife. Delaney & Bonnie & Friends recorded their live album On Tour with Eric Clapton in the halls, with a band that also featured George Harrison. The Nice recorded most of their album Five Bridges live at the concert hall on 17 February 1969, with King Crimson as their opening act for the concert. Free recorded part of their album Free Live! at the venue on 13 September 1970. Rat Scabies and Captain Sensible of the Damned both worked as toilet cleaners at Fairfield Halls, Captain Sensible remarking that he was inspired to take music more seriously after witnessing a T. Rex concert there. Morecambe and Wise's appearance at the halls in 1973 was filmed, the only time that their live stage act was recorded.
Fairfield Halls was also used for British professional wrestling for many years, with various cards having been featured on ITV's World of Sport in the 1970s and 1980s. Fairfield has featured as a location in many films, TV productions and commercials. It was featured in the opening titles of the much loved BBC sitcom Terry and June.
Fairfield Halls is also notable for being the location of a Tangerine Dream concert on 31 October 1982, only a week before the recording of their live album, Logos Live. It was also the venue for Part 2 of their 1975 live/studio album Ricochet.
In cinema
Fairfield's concert hall appeared briefly in the film The Da Vinci Code as the location of Robert Langdon's speech to students. The venue also featured in the films Made in Dagenham and Cuban Fury.
