I spent the early part of the morning being shown behind-the-scenes at the Royal Opera House, which I have never seen before, apart from Jeremy Isaacs’s office on the other side of Floral Street. Stanton Williams have been commissioned to ‘Open Up’ the opera house (shades of the Venice Biennale) by creating much more publicly usable, daytime space between the corner entrance to the Piazza and the street frontage to Bow Street. It looks very successful, creating an extra public space beneath the Floral Hall, opening up the balcony overlooking the Piazza to greater public use, and completely refitting the Linbury Theatre with dark American walnut.
I wasn’t allowed to take photographs, so am posting one of the Floral Hall and one of the view down to the Piazza:-
This prohibition of photographs seems to be becoming more widespread. Who is it for? It’s understandable when an image is going to breach an opening (like the Chipperfield Auditorium), but I can’t understand it in relation to a building whose facade is open to public view.
Same thing. A new project opening in September. I understand the rationale. Charles
A pleasant coincidence. We’ve been in London for a few days before heading back to Tasmania tonight and went to see Bryn Terfel in Falstaff on Monday night and I took some similar photos. I’ve always thought the Floral Hall is a very appropriate addition to the Opera House. I would have loved to see behind the scenes as you did.
Yes, it was apparently re-erected on Wanstead Flats before moving back to Covent Garden. Charles