Shakespeare North
by Helm Architecture with executive architects Austin-Smith: Lord
Client Shakespeare North Playhouse
Award RIBA North West Award 2024, RIBA North West Project Architect of the Year 2024, RIBA North West Building of the Year 2024 (sponsored by EH Smith), and RIBA Client of the Year 2024.
Shakespeare North is a new theatre building focused on promoting learning, experimentation, and reinterpretation of the works of Shakespeare. Prescot is thought to have been the only English town outside of London to have had a freestanding, purpose-built indoor playhouse in the Elizabethan and Jacobean eras. Shakespeare is believed to have belonged to a troupe of actors who performed there. This backstory has led to a historically accurate re-creation of an Elizabethan theatre as the building’s kernel.
Around it, the architect has set a contemporary wrapping in the form of a concertina ‘screen’ of brick and glass, containing the foyer and bar areas to the front of house and rehearsal and admin spaces to the rear. The project aimed to inspire a community, transform opportunity, raise educational aspiration and attainment, and play a part in regenerating one of the most deprived boroughs in the UK.
Read the full citation from the RIBA Awards Jury on RIBA Journal.
Contractor Kier Group
Structural Engineer Mott MacDonald (Altrincham)
Theatre Consultant Arup (Winchester)
M&E Engineer (Design Intent) Aecom (Manchester)
Quantity Surveyor / Cost Consultant Aecom (Liverpool)
Sustainability Aecom (Liverpool)
Fire Consultant Aecom (Manchester)
Acoustic Engineer Aecom (St Albans)
Access Consultant E3 Cube (Liverpool)
M&E Engineer (Detailed Design) Foreman Roberts (Manchester)
Principal Designer Advisor Curtins (Birmingham)
Public Artist Simon Watkinson
Theatre Timber Frame Design and Construction McCurdy and Co
Stage Engineering Adlib
Stage Electrics PSVCL
Theatre Seating Auditoria
Specialist Joinery WJL
Gross internal area m² 4,030
