Wednesday 14 November 2012

Smithfield Market - A New Vision

SAVE Britain’s Heritage are today revealing an alternative plans for the redevelopment of London’s Smithfield Market, designed by Burrell Foley Fischer.  The scheme proposes the restoration of the existing 19th Century Buildings to form a new cultural and retail hub, to complement the already burgeoning “Smithfield Quarter’.  It will also complement the new travel hub, which will provide rail access to six airports.   
The impressive roofs of Smithfield General Market would be retained as a fantastic canopy and creating a beautiful light-filled interior.  The scheme makes available large areas, at multiple levels, without the addition of intrusive blocks.  The very extensive basement areas are brought into use as spaces for exhibition galleries, fashion shows and lecture halls. 

Marcus Binney, the President of Save Britain’s Heritage, says “The Smithfield quarter, like Covent Garden before it, has come to life thanks to natural regeneration as small businesses have colonised every vacated premise in the streets around the market buildings.  This is creating one of central London’s liveliest districts, full of both traditional character and new life.  Wake up City planners and Alderman!  Smithfield Market ranks as one of London’s chief public spaces that could be serving the city and its visitors, as the capital’s newest hub.”


See the full details of the SAVE/BFF scheme here
 

Friday 9 November 2012

10 x 10 Drawing the City London


A John Burrell drawing is featured in a new exhibition that is currently running at the Somerset House.  ‘10x10 Drawing the City London’ brings together 100 of the world’s best artists, architects and designers in the most famous city in the world, London.

The project focuses on a different area of the city each year, with a grid of 100 squares laid over the chosen area. The resulting squares are then allocated to the participants who create an original artwork based on the buildings and public space within it. These pieces of artwork form a collective snapshot of London from one-hundred personal view points, forming a unique showcase of British architectural heritage.
The resulting works highlight some of the most beautiful aspects of the city as well as the hidden and forgotten details that are regularly overlooked. This project is a unique concept, with the designers of the City collaborating during the summer, turning their gaze back to the built environment they helped to create as well as providing a commentary and critique on the constantly changing landscape of central London. The drawing project is followed by the public exhibition of the pieces of work which is currently runing at Somerset House until 13 November.  They will then be auctioned by Sotheby’s at an exclusive closing event, with all proceeds of the sale going to Article 25, the charity that builds solutions to global problems.
The Mayor of London, Boris Johnson has endorsed the event, saying: “Article 25′s work to design and build shelter for people affected by natural disasters is a very welcome initiative. This latest project is a fascinating idea with some of the biggest names in architecture creating a unique snapshot of London’s landscape. I hope its focus on … London will encourage those working there to dig deep to raise as much money as possible in support of hard hit communities around the world.”

Visit the 10 x 10 Website  
 
‘Hinterland’ Telecom tower is glimpsed at every turn of street, mews, and alleyway. Reminiscent of the way ancient Duomos’ oversee all proceedings. …. The north south routes between Soho and Fitzrovia are working streets with businesses, pristine white galleries, muscular Edwardian facades, corner pubs, and a once manic 'rag trade'  with ‘Gown Vans’ belching smoke jamming the roads. But nowadays on sunny muted weekends there is a sense of ‘hinterland’. Only voices and shadows animate the deserted streets, as they gorge on the midday sun. Contrasting razor sharp shadows reveal dark ancient passages that cut their way like fissures through buildings, scarred with the patina of the ad-hoc, the wear and tear of here and now, and centuries past. A reminder of the everyday soiled places of Dickens and the legendary White Woman of Berners Street whose ghost will readily tap you on the shoulder if you linger here long enough………

Thursday 25 October 2012

The Crucible nominated for People's Choice Design Award

The Crucible Theatre in Sheffield, refurbished by Burrell Foley Fischer, has been nominated in the Sheffield Civic Trust and RIBA Yorkshire 2012 Sheffield Design Awards for the People's Choice Award.  The people of Sheffield are invited to vote for their choice of the best new building in the city.  The results will be announced at a ceremony on 27 November.

Visit the Sheffield Design Awards Website here




Monday 22 October 2012

SAVE Britain's Heritage Campaigns to save Smithfield General Market

SAVE Britain's Heritage have spoken out against a scheme that they say will destroy Smithfield General Market, part of what SAVE president Marcus Binney describes as "the grandest parade of market buildings in Europe".  Burrell Foley Fischer are currently working with SAVE to develop an alternative proposal.



Learn more about the SAVE campaign here



Read the Guardian's view on the proposals here


Thursday 18 October 2012

Prince Philip opens the new Forum for the Royal Academy of Engineering

Stefanie Fischer and Martyn Clark were amongst the guests for a "Celebration of Engineering" and the naming of Prince Philip House on Tuesday.  Prince Philip, the Senior Fellow of the Academy, performed the ceremony and unveiled a new triptych portrait of himself, painted by Paul Brason, which will hang in the refurbished building.  


The Duke was then invited to survey the rooms containing displays of great engineering feats including a Rolls-Royce fan blade, spray-on clothing and robotic sea creatures.

Read the report on the event in Conference News

Tuesday 16 October 2012

Prince Philip House


The Royal Academy of Engineering has announced that its newly renovated 'Forum for Engineering' is to be named Prince Philip House, in honour of its Senior Fellow HRH The Prince Philip, Duke of Edinburgh, who will formally open the building today.
Sir John Parker GBE FREng, President of the Royal Academy of Engineering, says: "As our Senior Fellow, The Duke of Edinburgh has worked tirelessly to support the Academy right from its inception as the Fellowship of Engineering, which he was instrumental in creating in 1976. We are now a fully-fledged national Academy of some 1,500 Fellows, working in partnership with government, business, the engineering profession and our universities to promote the engineering and technological welfare of the UK
Prince Philip House will be a great asset for our country, providing a national platform for engineering - where we can all come together and address the issues that matter. Global issues including sustainability, skills, equality and diversity, health, water and energy supplies and, crucially, economic growth."

The refurbishment of Nos 3 and 4 Carlton house Terrace by Burrell Foley Fischer LLP, has removed unsympathetic 20th Century alterations and reinstated the scale and integrity of the principal rooms at the ground and first floors.  The approach to detailing has not been of restoration but of developing a design palette that is appropriate to the scale of the interior spaces, the historic significance of the terrace and its occupation by the Royal Academy of Engineering. 

Friday 14 September 2012

John Burrell takes part in Article 25's 10x10 2012 Drawing event in London

John Burrell will be participating in the charity, ‘Article 25’s’ ‘10 x10’ drawing weekend in the streets of London in the West End of London on Saturday and Sunday, 15th and 16th September. He will be drawing the area around Berners Street which amongst many other associations is known for sightings of the ghost of the 'White Woman of Berners Street'.

A 100 invited architects and designers will be drawing and painting their response and impressions of a piece of the city defined by a 100m x 100m ‘square’ allocated to each participant.  Framed artwork will be auctioned on 14th November at Somerset House and all proceeds will go to the Article 25 Charity who are the built environment’s charity for disaster relief and international development.

John's work entitled ‘Something in the City’ sold in last year’s first 10 x 10 event was successfully auctioned as part of the total of £70,000 raised by the Charity for their work.

Visit the 10x10 Website for more details of this year's event


John is now a member of the Society of Architectural Illustration and he will continue to undertake bespoke commissions for illustration ranging from major projects through to concept sketches diagrams and fine art work.


Wednesday 12 September 2012

Visit BFF Projects as part of Open House London 2012

Once again it will be possible to visit a number of BFF's projects in London as part of Open House London.  There is a chance to visit the magnificent Grade I listed headquarters of the Royal Society in Carlton House Terrace, two of our cinemas Stratford Picturehouse and the Cine Lumiere in Kensington, and the Almeida Theatre in Islington. Open House takes place on 22 and 23 September.  Please visit their website for further details using the links below.

Stratford Picturehouse



BFF designed this purpose built four-screen cinema with exhibition, cafe bar and restaurant facilities.

Details of Open House - Stratford Picturehouse

The Royal Society




BFF were responsible for the refurbishment and remodeling of the Grade I Listed Nash building in Carlton House Terrace. 

Details of Open House - The Royal Society

The Almeida



BFF have been the theatre's architects since 1982, shortly after its inception, and have been responsible for the refurbishment and remodeling of the building, Listed Grade II, including a new extension.


Details of Open House - The Almeida

Cine Lumiere

BFF were responsible for the refurbishment of the Listed Grade II Art Deco cinema at the Institut Francais in South Kensington.


Details of Open House - Cine Lumiere

Monday 3 September 2012

BFF 30th Anniversary - New Theatre Royal Portsmouth


The New Theatre Royal, Portsmouth is a Listed Grade II* Theatre, originally designed by Charles Phipps as a Variety Theatre and subsequently remodelled by Frank Matcham as an Opera House.


Burrell Foley Fischer’s restoration comprised the refurbishment of the historic, predominately cast iron, front elevation and remodelling of the auditorium, to include a thrust stage, stalls seating and bringing into use the grand circle and upper circle levels. It received the  “Best Restoration Award – 2005” by the Portsmouth Society.



Tuesday 28 August 2012

BFF 30th Anniversary - Academy of Medical Sciences

Burrell Foley Fischer’s refurbishment and remodelling of 41 Portland Place created new headquarters for the Academy of Medical Sciences.  The building is a significant example of a townhouse designed by John Adams and forms part of a Nash’s proposal to create a processional route linking Regent’s Park to former Carlton House, now Carlton House Terrace. 


The building provides a platform for Academy activities.  This includes Academy workspace, meeting rooms, a dedicated room for Fellows, space for small public exhibitions and function rooms with the capacity to host outreach events, receptions, dinners and public engagement activities, and a room suitable for holding press conferences.


In addition to housing the activities of the Academy, the building is used to provide a forum for scientific exchange and networking for medical scientists, clinicians and health professionals from across the world, a centre for lively interaction with press and media, and a welcoming space for members of the public. 


Monday 20 August 2012

BFF 30th Anniversary - Mary Rose, The Final Voyage

Competition entry for a world-leading museum on the Tudor Navy, based upon the re-uniting of the hull of Henry VIII's flagship, which sunk in the Solent in 1545, with the thousands of conserved objects salvaged from the wreck when it was raised in 1982.


Burrell Foley Fischer’s scheme was designed to protect the Mary Rose in an iconic new home, with a new enclosure to see it, and HMS Victory, all year round.  The site would be restored to a harbourside, with the heritage enhanced and providing a stunning new setting for historic ships.
The structure minimised the final volume requiring critical environmental control and allowed for progressive enclosure, using off site prefabrication.


Thursday 26 July 2012

Broadway Nottingham featured in Guardian Cine-files

Broadway, Nottingham's Media Centre, is the latest of Burrell Foley Fischer's cinema projects to receive the Guardian Cine-files stamp of approval.  The cinema is described as having "an environment that is unique yet comfortable without trying too hard".


"I'm biased, having spent my entire life in Nottingham, but Broadway is probably the best cinema in the UK".

Read the full Guardian feature here

Monday 23 July 2012

BFF 30th Anniversary - The Menuhin Hall



The Yehudi Menuhin School provides highly specialised tuition in piano and stringed instruments for about sixty boys and girls aged between 8 and 18 years.  The Menuhin Hall is a new purpose-built, 316 seat concert hall designed with a "supportive acoustic" for the highly gifted, young musicians of the School as well as professional performances and recordings.  It was completed on time and budget and received many awards.




"If I were asked what has been the school's greatest moment over the last twenty one years, I would have to answer - the opening of The Menuhin Hall with Slava Rostropovich conducting the school orchestra.  At last the school has a performing space worthy of an institution with an international reputation, and what a change this has brought to levels of performance."  Nicolas Chisholm Headmaster



Monday 16 July 2012

BFF 30th Anniversary - New Pym House, Angell Town

Burrell Foley Fischer LLP was appointed in 1999 to design the first new housing at Angell Town, based on our new Masterplan for the Estate.  The 127 new dwellings establish an urban-block layout which integrates the new streets, mews, open spaces, squares and already existing mature landscaping and outdoor sports area, with the existing street pattern and offer routes across the site to connect areas that were formally isolated.



"Could easily be taken for a smart, modern upmarket private development... the generous, intelligent planning of the dwellings themselves should ensure that these do indeed become 'lifetime homes', in every sense of the word".  Housing Design Awards 2000


"The architecture of this community housing for London Borough of Lambeth is exemplary in many ways, but especially in the delightful quality of environment that is created for the users".  RIBA Award for Architecture 2002  

Wednesday 11 July 2012

10,000 sq ft Office fit out for Charitable Trust completed


We have completed the fit out of new offices for a major Charitable Trust.  They have moved to the Peak building, close to Victoria Station in Central London.  Our Clients have leased an entire floor of 1,000 sq m (10,800 sq ft).
We carried out space planning, design of the reception and partitioning to form meeting rooms and private offices.  We also advised on the selection of new furniture and the re-use of their existing furniture where appropriate.  The project was completed to programme and within budget.



Monday 9 July 2012

BFF 30th Anniversary - The Almeida Theatre, Islington

Burrell Foley Fischer LLP have been the Almeida’s architects from 1982, shortly after its inception as a theatre in 1980, working with successive generations of Directors.  The Theatre has been developed into a venue of exceptional quality for the performance of drama, opera and music, and for other related arts activities.


Despite its modest size, the space works equally well for performances on an epic scale as for intimate productions.  The audience occupies the same space as the performers and neither is further than twelve metres from the other.


Development works have included extending the backstage accommodation, the building of completely new foyer, bar and technical areas, new services installations and seating, and improved disabled access and acoustics.  The new foyer continues the theme of the former open-air yard where, because of limited site access, the single entrance is used as the foyer for the theatre-goers and as the space for the technical get-ins.


The extensive overhaul of the auditorium, seating capacity 321, has preserved the special ‘found’ quality of the Theatre.  It was awarded a Civic Trust Award 2004.

Robin Fischer the lighting technician at the Almeida has created this short film showing the development of the theatre.

Tuesday 3 July 2012

BFF shortlisted for AJ Retrofit Award

We are pleased to announce that our refurbishment and remodeling of 3-4 Carlton House Terrace, London to form the New Forum for the Royal Academy of Engineering has been shortlisted for an AJ Retrofit Award in the Listed Building / Structures category.  The awards, run by the Architects Journal, are now in their third year and champion the best in the creative re-use of buildings and construction.  Paul Finch, editorial director of The Architects' Journal, said: "It was encouraging to see more entries again this year.  This huge market is one where architects should be taking a strong design and technical lead.'

The Academy set high sustainability standards for the refurbishment.  These are not always easy to achieve when working with a Listed building, although opting for refurbishment, rather than new build, has a much lower carbon impact.  Energy efficient features include: rooms designed to allow for natural ventilation when external conditions are appropriate, with heat recovery provided on the mechanical ventilation system, sash window beads brush sealed to reduce heat loss where possible, the use of a mix of LED and CFL low energy lighting, and a BMS which allows flexible room control to match daily building usage and minimise energy demand.  In order to minimise cooling loads the Academy accepted a wider range of internal temperatures than standard, which reduces reliance on terminal cooling units.  Each of the principle rooms is controlled based on occupancy, temperature and CO2 levels, which balances the drive for reduced energy consumption with the importance of indoor air quality and occupant wellbeing.  In addition provision has been made to allow for future improvements, including planning permission for a roof mounted solar thermal system to be implemented when existing boilers are replaced.

Philip Greenish, Chief Executive of the Royal Academy of Engineering commented: "Our severely damaged and poorly configured Grade 1 listed building has been brought back to life in a spectacularly effective refurbishment.  Its modern but sympathetic style is perfect for us as a forward-looking national academy and the configuration of light, airy and flexible spaces is stunningly effective.  A brilliant stainless steel bridge provides an elegant, step free, new entry through a small garden for visitors. With a finish of high quality in a project delivered on time and within budget, this client is truly delighted!"


Monday 2 July 2012

BFF 30th Anniversary - The Royal Society

Since 1999 BFF have worked with the Royal Society on the refurbishment and remodeling of its headquarters at 6-9 Carlton House Terrace, London.


In 1999 to 2003, we undertook a major refurbishment of this Listed Grade 1 Nash Building to provide a coherent, high profile, architectural setting for the society’s activities. The completed development provided additional facilities for exhibitions, scientific meetings, seminars, media events and video conferencing.


A key intervention was the creation of a new atrium in a former light well on the upper levels as a focus to the new offices and providing space to display an engineering model of the Ariel 1 Satellite.


In 2008 the Practice was responsible for the refurbishment of the Welcome Trust Lecture Theatre which now provides modern lecture facilities, with accommodation for an audience of 300 and of the Dining Room which has a seating capacity of 100 but is also a flexible space that can itself be used for smaller lectures or as an overflow space for the main lecture theatre.



Most recently, in 2009, we were architects for the Royal Society Centre for the History of Science which was created following the refurbishment of the space previously occupied by its library in Carlton House Terrace.  The refurbishment provides study, exhibition and meeting facilities, in an atmosphere that reflects the Society’s commitment to excellence and inspiration whilst equally providing for the safe-keeping of the collections.

Saturday 23 June 2012

Harbour Lights, Southampton - The Art of the Process

John will this afternoon be conducting a tour of the Harbour Lights cinema in Southampton.  A landmark building, constructed in 1995, located in the former P&O docks.  The building was featured in 'The Art of the Process' exhibition at the Royal Institute of British Architects in 1993.  Colin Davies wrote the following commentary for the accompanying publication.


"On the face of it, a quayside in Southampton Docks is not the obvious place to put a cinema. Seaside buildings are traditionally outward-looking, with big windows from which to scan the distant horizon. But a cinema is essentially a windowless box. Cinema auditoriums are often embedded in the densly packed buildings of a city centre. Only the main entrance and foyer are visible to the passers-by in the street. Burrell Foley Fischer therefore faced two main problems right from the start: how to relate the spaces within the building to the surroundings, and how to give an isolated, windowless box a suitably elegant and eye-catching image.


The key to the solution of the first problem was the foyer. It might be impossible to relate the internal spaces of the auditoriums to their surroundings, but at least the foyer could benefit from the view of the sea, sky and boats. The practice therefore decided to place it on the side of the buildings facing the water. But is went further than that. In the absence of a well-defined public space such as a high street, the architect provided its own public space in the form of a raised platform sloping down from the foyer to the dockside. This could be used for street theatre performances and outside film screenings on summer evenings. In this way, the building would make the most of the positive qualities of the site and give something back for the public's benefit. Site and building would combine to make a new, special place.


The second problem - how to make a windowless box into a public building of public character - demanded a different kind of solution. What were the options? The budget for the building was too small to allow for any great complexity in the form of the building, and in any case the unusual ground conditions, which would require expensive piled foundations, suggested a simple, compact form with a small footprint. Perhaps this was just as well. Ocean Village, despite its romantic name, was a rather disappointingly low-key environment - a scattering of rather nondescript buildings surrounded by car parks. What is needed was a landmark. The regional film theatre might provide it, but it would have to be more than simply a plain box. The answer lay close at hand, in the boats moored in the adjacent marina, and in the memory of the big ships that once loomed massively over this quayside.


'If we have to accommodate the whole foyer under the rake of the auditoriums,' said a design team member, 'the ceiling could reflect the sensuous lines of a boat hull.' Immediately it became apparent that this was not only possible, but was doubly appropriate. The auditoriums were already boat-like in form. It was necessary only to emphasize this quality by exposing their undersides and allowing their forms to 'read' on the exterior. The result would look something like a boat that had been lifted out of the water on to the dockside. It would not be a literal copy of a boat, like an exhibit in a theme park; the boat image was merely a starting-point and an inspiration. But it solved the problem in a satisfying way. It felt right, and the details of the design team began to fall into place."


Friday 22 June 2012

Exeter Picturehouse - Building in Context

Stefanie will this afternoon be conducting a tour of Exeter Picturehouse.  The building was featured in the joint CABE and English Heritage report ‘Building in Context – New development in historic areas’.  The article on the cinema ‘Enhancing a varied historic context through confident modern design’ is reproduced below.

"The Project

This scheme, designed by Burrell Foley Fischer, involved the creation of a two-screen cinema in the city centre of Exeter by adapting and extending a former 1930's bus garage that had been in use as a furniture warehouse.

The Site

The site of the cinema is on Bartholomew Street West, just inside the line of the Roman and Medieval wall of the city of Exeter. Its immediate neighbours include 1970s flats, a Victorian terrace of houses and modern sheltered housing but within a very slightly wider context lie good 18th and 19th century houses, a fine late Georgian chapel and a public open space. Not only is the site prominent by virtue of being on a ridge, it is also within an area that has been developed continuously from Roman times, where recent architecture shows some of the draw-backs of adopting a 'fitting in' approach, drawing attention to itself by its poverty of detailing rather than blending unobtrusively into the historic fabric.


The Problems

The problems involved finding an open and welcoming form for a building containing two blind boxes. The building needed to create a suitable presence on the corner of Bartholomew Street and Fore Street. It needed to accommodate the slope up from the front to the rear of the site. In terms of architectural expression, the building needed to find a language which embodied the client's aspiration for stylish modern architecture without disrupting the historic setting. Where different kinds of planning consideration were concerned, it was also necessary to assuage the worries of neighbouring residents about the possible noise nuisance. The physical constraints of adapting the building that already stood on the site also had to be coped with.

The Solutions

The architects decided to use the existing building to house the two cinemas called for by the brief, one seating about 170 people and one seating just over 200. They sit back to back with a shared projection room at first floor level.

To the south west of the cinema halls, the extension houses the foyer, lavatories, bar/restaurant and gallery space. The main entrance on Bartholomew Street gives access to a two-storey space, with a staircase leading up to the gallery and bar space clearly visible on the first floor. This can also be entered directly from a door at the back of the building, where the car park is situated. This gives a suitable sense of presence and drama to arrival at the cinema, within what is quite a modest extension to the original building. The entrances at two levels mean that disabled people can reach all parts of the building without special arrangements being needed.

In townscape terms, these spaces are made visible externally by large areas of glazing within a simple white-rendered form. The main entrance, which is slightly recessed from the line of the building, has the appearance of a proscenium arch over a stage and is topped by the name of the cinema in neon lights. This gives a particularly welcoming impression at night, when the cinema is at its busiest.

The long western elevation of the building, diminishing in height towards the back of the site, has windows which reveal the activities going on behind them and relate in size to the scale of those spaces and activities. A glazed slit from top to bottom of this wall adds to the impression of the main entrance as a proscenium arch.

This combination of modest theatrical gestures and straightforward simple details means that the cinema has a strong presence which is suitable to its function without intruding aggressively into its surroundings.

The design was considered in some quarters to be too modern in style, but careful negotiations with the planning authority led to approval and also resolved the concerns of the neighbours about potential nuisance. There have been no problems or complaints about noise since the cinema opened.


The Lessons

The commercial success of the cinema since it opened has vindicated the cinema operator's belief in the contribution which architecture can make to commercial success. In the words of Lyn Goleby of City Screen 'The bricks and mortar are as important as the celluloid'.

Architecturally, the cinema demonstrates that it is possible to be theatrical and modern and restrained all at the same time. It illustrates that a difficult site can provide the solutions to design problems if it is approached imaginatively. It also shows that a use which is initially seen as threatening can come to be regarded as a socially highly desirable facility."


Thursday 21 June 2012

The History of Cinema City, Norwich

This afternoon Stefanie will be conducting a tour of Cinema City in Norwich as part of the RIBA Love Architecture Festival.  The conversion to a three-screen cinema in a Listed Grade I building, Suckling House and Stuart Hall was completed in 2007.

The earliest known activity on the site of Suckling House and Stuart Hall is a ditch, discovered during archaeological excavations, below what is now the courtyard. This was cut before the Norman conquest in 1066 and probably represents a boundary ditch at the western edge of the Anglo-Scandinavian town, which was centred on a market place at Tombland.

Properties were recorded on the site as early as the 13th century but it is believed that the oldest surviving parts of the building date from the 14th Century. This was a period of great prosperity for Norwich as Queen Philippa, wife of Edward III, had established a colony of her fellow countrymen, Flemish weavers, in the city. Its role as the chief centre of the wool weaving industry led to Norwich being the second city of the kingdom for much of the medieval period.

c. 1926
In the mid 16th Century the property was purchased by Robert Suckling, Mayor, Sheriff and Burgess in Parliament. He made substantial alterations to the buildings and renamed it after himself. The centre of the house was, as it remains today, the Great Hall, with its scissor brace and crown post roof. Here apprentices would have lived with their masters, owners of the house, and eaten meals with the family in the hall. However such a building was as much for ostentatious display as for private living and provided almost a salon environment for the interaction of the principal members of the Suckling family with their Norwich peers. Music, dining and conversation were all possible, precursors of similar, but more democratic, 21st Century functions.

In the 18th Century there were further substantial alterations to the building, with the conversion of the St Andrew's Hill elevation to a six bay Georgian House, five of these bays survive today. Throughout this period the main house remained in use as a private residence.

Cinema City as a single screen
By the early part of the 20th Century, Suckling House had fallen into disrepair and was sold to Ethel Mary and Helen Caroline Colman. Under the guidance of the architect Edward Boardman, they restored the house and built Stuart Hall on the waste ground beside it. The combined properties were opened by the Duke of York (the future George VI) in 1925 and then bequeathed to the "Mayor, Alderman and Citizens of the City of Norwich" with the desire "that the place should be used for the advancement of education in its widest and most comprehensive sense".

In 1977 the building became a single-screen cinema and the Regional Film Theatre for Norfolk and Norwich.  The conversion to a three-screen cinema in 2007, under the direction of Burrell Foley Fischer secures it future.  It was presented with the 'Sir Bernard Feilden Award' for "excellence in alterations and restoration of a historical building" by the Norwich Society.  

Following redevelopment to a 3 screen cinema