Salisbury City Hall: Everything we know about its future

The 61-year-old venue, in Malthouse Lane, closed as a vaccination centre on Saturday, January 28, and the NHS will formally vacate the building by mid-February

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Wiltshire Council is now looking for a "suitable" third-party organisation to bring a new lease of life into the former live entertainment venue.

Councillor Richard Clewer, leader of Wiltshire Council, told the Journal that invitations to tender will be open "imminently".

Councillor Richard Clewer (Image: Wiltshire Council)

Once the tender process is underway, suppliers interested in running City Hall will be able to submit applications to the council.

A recent bid for the Government’s Levelling Up Funding submitted to help with improvements to Salisbury’s cultural offer was unsuccessful but this will not stop City Hall from reopening as an entertainment, community and cultural venue.

At Salisbury Area Board in December Wiltshire Council's assistant director for leisure, culture and communities, David Redfern, said the building has structural issues with the roof that would need fixing before it opens to the public again.

See more: ​'Urgent works' needed to Salisbury City Hall before it can reopen

Cllr Clewer said: "There's still some work that needs to be done before it opens.

"There is an opportunity to see if we can do it ourselves but the funding really is a challenge.

"We were hoping for the levelling up bid but that did not come through."

'Salisbury has a high-brow culture'

Prior to Covid, when City Hall was offering entertainment, it was a popular venue for tribute acts.

Cllr Clewer said he would like to see more "original artists" performing when it reopens, adding: "It got a bit stale. I personally think we need a balance.

"Salisbury has a high-brow culture and we need some more pop culture in the mix as well."

The venue may not be back up and running until January 2024, the council confirmed in December.

New figures released by the Journal revealed that the NHS paid Wiltshire Council £291k to use the City Hall as a Covid-19 vaccination centre from December 2, 2020, to March 31, 2022.

This sum includes utilities. In 2019-20, the last year in which Salisbury City Hall was operational as an arts venue, it made an operating loss of £265,799.

During 2020-21 and 2021- 22 it was hired by the NHS as a vaccination centre, but Wiltshire Council says “significant refunds were paid back to customers”, leading to an overall operating loss of £458,931 for 2020/21.

City Hall continued to be hired by the NHS throughout 2021-22 generating an income of £98,392 after costs.