Ludlow Assembly Rooms

 

Ludlow’s arts keeps up curiously with its big sister. It too has one central cinema, upstairs in the square, in a building which includes a covered market. This one is Hanoverian, very much in classical style, which is keeping with the general character of the town. It has pilasters and a niche and a triangular pediment – not features often discussed when describing a cinema.

It appears to be Georgian but was actually built in 1840 – at the start of Victoria’s reign.

Like other 18^th and 19^th century buildings in Ludlow, it is plastered and painted, but no longer in interesting pastel shades, picking out the pilasters and rusticated bottom. Today it is pale grey all over.

For some years, the venue has also been the tourist information centre, happily retained when so many others were closed. It is now shared with the box office – which aren’t always open at the same time. which can make for some odd interactions between staff.

On the ground floor is a cafe, entered via a matching glazed arch to the above.

An expensive (double what was originally quoted) two year transformation ended in 2021, whence the lost arch reappeared. Restoring the entrance on Castle Square was a long term goal of the venue, which had previously been entered from Mill Street.

It’s not just the external colour scheme that worsened since this covid-time revamp.

The auditorium doesn’t seem to be that of the place of dances and card playing it was built to be. Now painted a dark blue-ish grey, the ceiling’s features are lost in rigging, and even with the house lights up (they seem to keep the room quite dark, even either side of a performance) I couldn’t see the curvature of the ceiling or the roses on it.

The gallery is gone – I liked that quirk (as found at Bath, which this building recalls); now the blue, still theatre-ish seats, are more steeply raked towards the projectionist window. The columns and art deco decoration have been lost, but seem to have been compromised in a previous alteration.

The tall sash windows are understandably shuttered over during a performance – still with suitably genteel panelling, also found in the doors – but the walls are covered with something modern with regular vertical brown wooden slats.

Previously, the walls have been red, or bright blue with details outlined in red, and matching seats.

There’s an aisle across and along now, dividing the front row of seats off, which are rather too close to the screen and stage.

The space between the assembly room and what is now heralded as the farmer’s market is glazed in; I am not sure this is needed or enhancing. It tries to say: we’re trendy here, whatever you might assume about this town!

I wonder about a price increase – it certainly occurred in Norwich’s Cinema City after it too had an extended over budget refurb. Now it’s £10 for both matinee and evening films, but without an outstanding experience (the seats and auditorium are quite ordinary and old style). I couldn’t actually tell that the venue was recently done up by visiting – I discovered only by researching for this.

Bill’s Kitchen of Hereford now fills the space between the entrance and Mill Street. The bar stated that it is open until 8pm – which suited my plans – but then another sign, on the same doors, contradicted. It is only open until 4 – this was a summer visit, close to a town event. I didn’t get a great vibe as I had to make my way to a cafeteria counter at the back, with signs which didn’t endear me. Was I made to pay with a card? (The website doesn’t warn of that.). Usually I decline such venues, but I wanted to try it for this blog. I sat down with my numbered spoon, only to be informed that the pizza oven – the only thing I fancied on the menu (and not that which I could see on the counter) – was broken. Hence I got a refund and went elsewhere – and after seeing a matinee, I was unable to try them later as they were shut.

There seems to be lots of bits to the building: entrances; corridors; the stairs up to the main hall…. kind of secret but due to the darkness, a bit discomforting. Checking out the rooms for hire, I can see there are several spaces for the various classes offered here, but none appealed.

The farmer’s market bit was built as a museum; upstairs is a space called Oscars’ but has an Aertex ceiling and apparently no windows, being behind that empty recess.

I did find the programming on this visit, as well as previously, to be up to that of larger towns’ venues. I specifically looked at film, although Ludlow Assembly Rooms is an all-round arts centre.

It has foreign language films and is generally arty, although hearing box office staff be rude about the film currently showing didn’t feel very professional or helpful, since it was poorly attended.

They seem to get several films in during their 6 day week (they’re closed on Sundays), and had this recent French release before Shrewsbury’s Old Market Hall.

The matinee is rather early, especially in an early closing town: rather than 2pm, I’d suggest that 430 allows us to finish shopping, supping, visiting, or even a day’s work, and them to still have ample time to clean the room before the evening’s 730 showing.

I approved of the adverts (but not the trailers) being shown before the advertised time, which is the start of the film. However, I wonder if all visitors are prepared for that – especially those who calculate coming in late to miss the adverts. The dribbles of people as you’re settled, asking you to rise when the room’s already dark, is not conducive to a pleasant experience. I’d get annoyed with that in busy screenings. At least they say that latecomers will be shown to suitable seats at a suitable moment, and I didn’t have to pick a seat when booking.

I had meant to praise this place, but found that the local rags telling me how popular and successful it is – and will be even more now – actually made me feel the opposite. The refurb recalls the original building, paid for publicly and expensively. I am glad that it has long served the people of Ludlow and around; and that its transformation into the current arts centre in 1993 filled a shocking gap as other venues were closed, even demolished, in the 1980s. The Public Rooms (as it was first known), not quite ready for its bicentenary, has shown films for half that time, although not continuously; it has also been a night club. (I’m reading between the lines about that being taken over by the council to make this).

Comments on today’s incarnation include an amusing statement on its new ecofriendly capabilities but the photo of the masked manager posing in a room which I cannot call ‘state of the art’ didn’t convince me that the money had been spent well.

The last offputting thing is that staff are volunteers. After that augmented and vast public backing, LAR still aren’t able (or willing) to pay all who work for them, and that has left me feeling disappointed about a place that I was excited to visit and support.