Usher Hall with Traverse Theatre (under Construction)

Category

Library Item

Item no

27567

Title

Usher Hall with Traverse Theatre (under construction)

Artist / maker

McGarry, Paul

Date

1991

Size

15.0 x 21.2 cm

Type

Photograph

Location

Edinburgh and Scottish Collection

In 1982, the Traverse Theatre started theatre hunting, when that year's Festival programme drew attention to the limited space available in the former Grassmarket building. In 1983 a proposal to move to the empty Argyle Brewery in the Cowgate was considered and abandoned. But a solution was not far away in Castle Terrace, in the guise of the notorious "hole in the ground", long seen as a site for Edinburgh's proposed opera house.
The opera house was never built, but in December 1987 Edinburgh District Council adopted the proposal by Metropolitan Property and Noble & Co. to build an office complex on the site, a new purpose built theatre being part of the design brief. This soon led to a submissions war between the Traverse and Royal Lyceum to become tenants of the new theatre, the Traverse eventually being given the honour in June 1988.
The Council contributed £3 million for equipping and fitting out the new space, and gave the Traverse removal expenses of £150,000. They were also to be given a lease of 150 years. In return the ownership of the Grassmarket building was transferred to the Council.
Design was entrusted to Nicholas Groves-Raines and Limma Hannesdottir. The new theatre had two performance spaces, both of which were very adaptable. Theatre one could seat 250, and Theatre two, a mirror to the Grassmarket venue, up to 100.
The new Traverse opened on 3 July 1992. It was the first theatre to be built in Britain specifically for the showing of new plays. That first new play was Michele Celeste's Columbus: Blooding the Ocean.

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