New Look for Mayflower. Theatre

Southampton’s Mayflower Theatre has re-opened its doors after a £7.5 million refurbishment which began back in June and has continued through the summer.

It is reckoned to be the largest regional theatre in the country, and re-opened with a gala concert and attracts more than 500,000 visitors to its stage shows a year.

City experts suggest that adds up to around £75 million for the coffers of Southampton’s economy every year.

Yet when I first came to Southampton it was known as the Gaumont cinema, and used mostly as a cinema, though with the facility for occasional stage shows, yearly pantomimes, and big name concerts. But the building itself, dating from the late 1920s when it initially opened as a theatre, is one the city’s most striking and today is a listed building.

The latest renovations have been extensive and have included repainting the entire auditorium in a red and gold colour theme, renovating plasterwork, replacement of more than 1,600 seats in the stalls and circle, re-upholstering all the seating in the balcony, installation of new lighting and improving access for the disabled, while the orchestra pit has been moved to beneath the stage.