Building new extensions to beloved historical structures is always a touchy business. Bristol’s Old Vic
theatre building is a neoclassical set-piece featuring a Palladian facade of good proportions and a cultural
place in the community that is long established. In a slot of space to its left, before another handsome,
industrial masonry building, is Haworth Tompkins’ new infill structure. No one will mistake it for a
historicist copycat.
The site was occupied already, by an unattractive, 1970s, Brutalist block demonstrating faint efforts at
contextualism and faced in mundane brown-grey brickwork. Few will lament the passing of this facade,
which complemented neither side neighbour in the least (other than to make them look much superior
to it). Worth noting: the Bristol Old Vic is the oldest theatre in the English-speaking world to be in
continuous operation. That longevity demands constant relevance, which is why it needed an updated
communal space, front-of-house facilities and something of a new image.
The scheme cleverly posits an enclosed building that works a lot like an open public space, such as a
city courtyard or small square. In a way, the project does a whole lot by doing fairly little. The principal
new space is an expansive, high-roofed hall that makes suggestive features of the revealed walls of all
the adjacent buildings. It is daylighted via skylights and clerestories, and large, framed openings towards
Photography by Fred Howarth