This project included the refurbishment of the entire front of house design, new stage and seating facilities, dressing rooms, bars, and restaurants. The work completed ensuring that the theatre can host a wider variety of shows and productions, enhancing its status as a premier cultural venue. The Theatre Royal Drury Lane closed its doors for 20 months to allow a renovation project that has restored this historic theatre back to its former 1812 glory.
Theatre Royal Drury Lane is Grade 1 listed and one of the most important theatres in the country. The contract awarded to Playfords was to replace the whole of the electrical and mechanical services throughout the theatre, which would allow the theatre to host a wider variety of shows and productions whilst introducing and incorporating the latest technology in terms of sound and lighting systems.
The client and project team expended lots of time scrutinising our bid and reviewing our works regarding previous and similar type projects, a detailed 3D design model of the building being produced so that a fully coordinated building services installation could be created which included some very complex and challenging containment and cable runs throughout the existing theatre and its many iconic features all of which were to be maintained and preserved throughout the project.
To further enhance the new Electrical and Mechanical services installations Playfords where awarded the data cabling and security system upgrades, installing a Cat6A infrastructure throughout the building for the main IT network and Cat6 and OM4 fibre optic cabling installation to facilitate the new stage lighting installations.
New CCTV and door access systems were installed to bring the theatres security systems up to date with customer experience in mind. Stage lighting power and data cabling saw installation routing across to the theatres designated control and dimmer rooms where terminations were completed allowing specialist lighting control at the touch of a button. This saw the theatre stage lighting functionality and customer experience capabilities sit alongside some of the very best within the theatre world. During the project duration the Covid-19 pandemic hit progression, our on-site team ceased works and our project management team worked diligently alongside client team members to ensure that as restrictions were lifted by the UK Government our works recommenced on site to see the project continue and the new building services installations completed, commissioned and handed over to the theatre’s operations team with the fully refurbished theatre re-opened to the public in all its glory. Theatre Royal re-opened to the public shortly after project completion with the first UK performances of the now infamous ‘Frozen’ production.
