London Field Trip

On Friday we went on an epic day-trip to London, to see some of the city's major concert venues: LSO St. Luke's, The Wigmore Hall, Kings Place Kings Cross and Royal Festival Hall. We were given guided tours around all these spaces, from a wide variety of people: from technical managers to marketing staff, from who we gleaned a great amout of useful information. We saw everything from the enormous public foyer areas and the crisp auditoriums to back of house rehearsal areas, green rooms, and servicing ducts! Some aspects were highly technical - studying the array of acoustic devices, lighting options, practicalties such as staging, storage and access, while others were more general; audience layout, comfort, ambience, spill-out spaces, and so on. Other places visited included Sadler's Wells and the BBC radio centre - to look at architectural precedents for glass extentions for foyer/entry spaces - and lastly, the Garden Museum: an example of a new insertion within an existing (grade 1) listed church. All in all, a very busy day...but a useful one!