15 Jun 2016

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For the first time in over five years, Christchurch residents will be able to explore and enjoy The Arts Centre's Great Hall.

The Great Hall will be open to the public this Saturday and Sunday from 10am until 4pm as the community is welcomed back inside one of the city's favourite venues for the first time since the Canterbury earthquakes in 2010 and 2011.

The historic building, designed by Victorian Gothic Revival architect B W Mountfort in 1882, has been extensively strengthened, repaired and restored after it was badly damaged in the quakes.

To mark its re-opening there will be free family activities, live music, competitions and displays - including a selection of artefacts unearthed during work on the site - this weekend. There's also the opportunity to admire the hall's beautiful heritage features, including the huge stained glass Memorial Window (made up of about 4000 individual pieces of glass), cream limestone walls and vaulted timber ceiling.

While history has been preserved, modern technology used in the repair work will make the building safer and stronger than before and underfloor heating has been installed to make it more comfortable.

The Great Hall is back to its former glory.

The Arts Centre chief executive Andre Lovatt said the Great Hall was the most significant civic space in Christchurch and it was wonderful to have it available for the community again.

"It is in many ways the heart of The Arts Centre in the way that so many different things have occurred in that space in the past 130 years and so many people have a memory of it.

"For four years I've been imagining what it would be like to see the look on people's faces when they walk into the building, and it's just as amazing as I thought it would be."

The Great Hall has just won the supreme award and a seismic award in this year's Canterbury Heritage Awards with judges praising the attention to detail that ensured modern additions were discreetly installed leaving the historic features to shine.

Restoration work at the Great Hall taken May 2013. Photo courtesy The Arts Centre

It is one of several spaces that will open at The Arts Centre this year. An extensive seven-year $290 million restoration programme has been underway to bring the heritage complex back to its former glory with about $37 million budgeted for repairing the Clock Tower Building, Rutherford's Den and the Great Hall.

The refurbished Rutherford's Den is re-opening soon and a new café called Bunsen will open in Spring in the ground floor Clock Tower Space, formerly occupied by the iconic Le Cafe.