Nick Thompson & Clare Ferraby Interview: Critical Reactions from Local Press
Title
Nick Thompson & Clare Ferraby Interview: Critical Reactions from Local Press
Date
18 May 2018
Description
Oral history interview with Nick Thompson and Clare Ferraby, architect and designer of the refurbished Theatre Royal in 1977.
What's the story?
Clare Ferraby started as a freelance designer in London in 1963 when she was 25, and married Nicholas Thompson, a young architect, who went on to become a leading light of the theatre architects’ practice RHWL three years later.
RHWL were commissioned to oversee the rebuilding of the Theatre Royal in the 1970s, following the success of projects at Sheffield Crucible and Warwick Arts Centre.
In a recent interview for The Stage Clare spoke of her craft:
“I’ve always looked at the history of the theatres I’ve worked on. It is important for me to have a feeling for the soul of the building before I develop new ideas. Every theatre has its own distinctive soul. With the older buildings, I look at the detail to understand the original designer’s intention.
The great Victorian theatre architects Matcham, Sprague and Phipps wanted to get everything right and I understand that. You want everything to fall into place and fit together, like a painting.”
As part of the Theatre Royal’s heritage work Nick Thompson & Clare Ferraby have kindly loaned us items from their private collection revealing their work on the Theatre Royal, which can be found elsewhere on this site.
In this interview Nick and Clare describe the hostile reactions from the local press in regard to their proposed plans for the Theatre Royal
Nick: There’d been big articles in the paper from Emrys Bryson in particular saying “What these people have in mind is a disaster for Nottingham. They’re going to change the building, they’re going to reduce the capacity”. They were talking about 3,000 people. You look at the figures, actually, 1,000 were standing, alone. And the Gallery had three times the content of what it does now. So you can imagine it was a hellhole. We were unpopular for that, we were unpopular about our ideas of colour, we were unpopular for taking down the hotel. Always in the local papers. And so that was our starting point. We were in trouble. People were saying we were doing the whole thing wrong. So we went and did what we thought was right.
RHWL were commissioned to oversee the rebuilding of the Theatre Royal in the 1970s, following the success of projects at Sheffield Crucible and Warwick Arts Centre.
In a recent interview for The Stage Clare spoke of her craft:
“I’ve always looked at the history of the theatres I’ve worked on. It is important for me to have a feeling for the soul of the building before I develop new ideas. Every theatre has its own distinctive soul. With the older buildings, I look at the detail to understand the original designer’s intention.
The great Victorian theatre architects Matcham, Sprague and Phipps wanted to get everything right and I understand that. You want everything to fall into place and fit together, like a painting.”
As part of the Theatre Royal’s heritage work Nick Thompson & Clare Ferraby have kindly loaned us items from their private collection revealing their work on the Theatre Royal, which can be found elsewhere on this site.
In this interview Nick and Clare describe the hostile reactions from the local press in regard to their proposed plans for the Theatre Royal
Nick: There’d been big articles in the paper from Emrys Bryson in particular saying “What these people have in mind is a disaster for Nottingham. They’re going to change the building, they’re going to reduce the capacity”. They were talking about 3,000 people. You look at the figures, actually, 1,000 were standing, alone. And the Gallery had three times the content of what it does now. So you can imagine it was a hellhole. We were unpopular for that, we were unpopular about our ideas of colour, we were unpopular for taking down the hotel. Always in the local papers. And so that was our starting point. We were in trouble. People were saying we were doing the whole thing wrong. So we went and did what we thought was right.
Type
Oral interview
Location of item
Theatre Royal & Royal Concert Hall Nottingham
Rights
Theatre Royal & Royal Concert Hall Nottingham
Contributor
Interviewers: Stephen Bray & Liz Mackenzie
Transcriber: David Chilton
Transcriber: David Chilton
