Brixton House
London, United Kingdom
Brixton House is the new building for Ovalhouse Theatre, bringing a new public arts venue to Brixton, which has long been without a theatre. Brixton House features two flexible theatres, seating 200 and 120 people, and seven flexible rehearsal studios.
Brixton House Exterior.
Image by Foster Wilson Size.
Dating back to the 1930s, Ovalhouse became a hub for experimental drama, including emerging gay and lesbian theatre in the 1970s and Black and Asian writing from the 1990s onwards - with an impressive list of alumni including Pierce Brosnan, David Hare, Tamsin Greig, Meera Syal and Steven Berkoff.
Brixton House interior.
Image by Foster Wilson Size.
Theatre One has accessible walkways overhead and a retractable seating system; Theatre Two has motorised truss grids overhead. Various seating layouts can be built in both theatres, using rostra and loose interlocking tip-up seats. Get-in is at street level directly to a wide backstage corridor. Both theatres have rigging channels integrated into the wall linings, to allow technical equipment to be rigged to the walls without drilling into the fabric of the building. A control room suite sits between the two theatres.
The studios are equipped with overhead rigging bars and drape tracks. The foyer also includes overhead rigging bars and wired infrastructure for lighting, sound and video.
Project Details
Client
London Borough of Lambeth
Architect
Foster Wilson Size
Cost
£18m
Completed
2022
Brixton House pink staircase.
Image by Foster Wilson Size
Supporting the industry internationally since 2004
