Public consultation meeting: 4 th December, 2014 from 5:00pm, Prescot Parish Church, St Mary s Your chance to give feedback Tell us what you think of the plans for Shakespeare North and sign up to receive updates on developments. Go to Latest News on: www.shakespearenorth.org or scan the QR code
What was Prescot like in Elizabethan times and the early Jacobean period? Whatever else, it was a place with a very active and social community: it had a large number of pubs a famous cockpit visited from near and far but most important: the first purpose built indoor theatre. This was on the edge of the Town Moss, the common land at the boundary of the Derby estate.
To celebrate and commemorate a unique theatre and cockpit in 1590 s Prescot - and the connection of the earls of Derby to Shakespeare - we are planning to build a new university college with an historic reproduction theatre at the heart of it - a public and education building.
As we know little about the actual theatre in Prescot we have, after much research, chosen a most famous cockpit conversion; a cockpit that Inigo Jones made into a theatre for James 1 st. It is the same period as the church we are in. It was the first Theatre Royal and made especially for Shakespeare s troupe. It was indoor and smaller than the Globe.
The site for the theatre has been defined by Knowsley Council is ideal - it is across the open space that includes this church with the small island of buildings, grass and trees in the middle. Here is a view taken from the tower of this building.
The centre of Prescot has been the subject of much consideration with the Townscape Heritage Initiative, but we have begun to look at aspects of planning that will need to be considered with the coming of the Shakespeare North building. We have begun to consider how routes from the surrounding countryside and schools can be threaded through our new central space : a cultural piazza.
The idea being that with a student, public and education building people would like to move through the town and surrounds without always resorting to vehicles
the site, the building itself and surrounds will be held by the routes and experienced in a peripatetic way.
We started considering the context of site as shapes and buildings as well as sketches and this is the 3D physical model we made with the site indicated by a star.
The building moved from a sketch to a plan on the site ; this layout emerged from a complex brief, a part of this was to house all the activities. But the proposed building had to be of a size that would meet a budget and fit the site.
But a step backwards... after exploring several design options we moved to a proposal that we believed captured the essence of the brief and responded to the formal context; but in addition was an evocative format both classic, and contemporary. Here is the emerging physical interpretation
At the heart of the building is the historic reproduction theatre that will be a link with the Globe and Sam Wanamaker Theatres in London and the Stratford group. We began to make models of this important core heart as well.
The two models were brought together and a single building began to emerge.
architecture, structure and attire The building took on a style that evoked many metaphors - and a structure: here is a roof view of the model.
Water was part of the earlier sketch it helps separate the auditorium from the surround building. This helps the acoustics (as does the water itself) - architecturally it makes Prospero s island and offers the secured part of the site another dimension for outdoor performance,contemplation (and reflection)
The front lends itself to elegant lighting solutions and also signage as a display case for the images of performers and performance.
The floor plans indicate how the building works : here is the ground floor entrance and access are key here.
Access must be considered in the context of large groups of people and servicing via the outside public spaces is a necessary important consideration.
The basement level provides a key route into the theatre and a range of other active spaces
The first floor...
The second floor...
A cross section through the island of buildings indicates the scale of the building in relation to these and the church...
Moving from physical models we have placed the building on the site in a computer generated 3D model...
Public consultation meeting: 4 th December, 2014 from 5:00pm, Prescot Parish Church, St Mary s Your chance to give feedback Tell us what you think of the plans for Shakespeare North and sign up to receive updates on developments. Go to Latest News on: www.shakespearenorth.org or scan the QR code