Set in historic Regency gardens and adjoining the famous Royal Pavilion, Brighton’s Grade I-listed Corn Exchange and Grade II-listed Studio Theatre has been refurbished for a 21st century audience. The ingenious work that went into the project, and the stunning end results, deservedly won it the Wood Awards Gold in 2024.
Brighton Dome is the South Coast’s leading arts venue. It has undergone a major redesign, with its whole complex being completely overhauled. New gallery, café, circulation and facilities spaces have been created. But the most impressive aspects of the project are the restoration and refurbishment of the Corn Exchange and Studio Theatre – grand events spaces that have been restored to their former glory.
Restoring a former riding school
The Corn Exchange was originally the indoor riding house to Brighton Pavilion. Among the significant works carried out to it was the installation of a new basement with subfloor storage and a new balcony structure. But the star of the show is he stunning restoration of the timber roof. Emily Duncombe, Associate at Arup, is a structural engineer who first began working on this hugely ambitious project back in 2015.
“The existing building is well over 200 years old – built in the Regency era,” Emily informs us. “One of the key things that we wanted to do was get rid of the freestanding lighting gantry. Because the space is used for events as well as a theatre venue, it was constantly being put up and taken down.”
“Every aspect of design has been considered within the interior of this building. The historic roof, stripped bare, sits atop a newly restored interior that recalls the earlier use of the building as a riding school.” Jim Greaves, lead judge, Wood Awards.
The existing roof was in need of repair. The design from the architects, Feilden Clegg Bradley Studios, sought to strip the roof, put new roof
finishes on, including adding insulation. This would add quite a lot of weight.
Repair and restoration
The team only had very limited access to the roof structure.
“Before we started work, we could go into the roof void and inspect the timbers, but we couldn’t inspect anything that was painted. As soon as the paint was stripped off, we found a load of defects.”
There were three main signs of distress:
- Pronounced outward lean of walls buttressing the arches;
- Cracks in three arches at quarter-span near splice joints leaving only a single 75x300mm laminate to carry the load;
- Rotation and opening of many of the splice joints
“The existing roof structure was constructed using three pieces of timber bolted together, forming a limited shallow timber arch. Over 200 years since construction, they have started to pull apart and the joints had opened and rotated. We strengthened and repaired the existing timber arch with new bolts.”
The laminated arch is a traditional method, common in France in the early 1800s, but far more unusual in the UK. Staggered members are bolted together without the need to bend use steam to create the curved arch.
Adding load to a heritage asset
A LiDAR point scan was made of the roof structure and a Revit model created. It is an 18-metre flat arch structure which is quite unusual, with a 2.2 metre rise in the middle. “It’s really flat, but it behaves as an arch,” explains Emily. “The computer model showed us how the building has moved over time: we created an analysis model that could mirror how it was behaving in its current state, and assess how we could add extra load to it.”
“We also had to account for snow load, which of course was not considered over 200 years ago. Then we had to factor in two and a half tons of new theatre rigging equipment. Our solution was to add a pair of strengthening tie rods every three arches.”
“We consulted with Heritage England and researched the building’s history,” Emily recalls. “Most of the original bolts remain, though these have been reinforced with new fixings.”
Some timber was too rotten to repair, and was replaced with European Redwood (also known as Scots Pine or Baltic Pine). The finished, repaired roof is truly impressive. The strengthening tie rods are barely visible: they can just about be spotted above the lighting rig.
“You couldn’t tell that we’ve been in there and carried out all that work,” Emily enthuses. “That’s the beauty of properly executed Grade I work. You have to be sensitive to the heritage.”
Cladding, flooring and other joinery
Other timber elements used in the Corn Exchange include the cladding. The existing wall cladding was stripped off and replaced with oak, which hides the structure in the vertical plane. The Corn Exchange’s timber-framed windows were also beautifully refurbished.
All timber used was European Oak, felled in Croatia and milled in Italy before shipment to UK. Approximately 65m3 of oak was used for the Corn Exchange timber cladding along with door portals and frames.
The detailing and colour of the new wood sits harmoniously alongside the original roof timber. In particular, the detailing of the wall paneling to interpret the form of the original riding school – angled lower sidewalls and decorative columns and cornices – is very effective
and well executed.
Its flooring is timber, supplied by Weitzer Parkett, who worked very closely on the specification with Feilden Clegg Bradley Studios over several years: a total of 1765m2 of their bespoke WP Imperial Plank was used, in their Oak Pure and Oak Black Pepper finishes.
There was a bespoke sprung under-construction for two areas within the Corn Exchange Building, and specific point loadings had to be accommodated for the bleacher seating area. The flooring was installed by Hutchison Flooring.
A totally revamped Studio Theatre
Next to the Corn Exchange is the Studio Theatre. It is housed in a Grade II-listed former dining room from the 1930s, which hosts 225 seats for performances, spoken word and rehearsals.
The theatre has been renovated to improve capacity in a more flexible arrangement, with the addition of side balconies. A new lift and escape stair enable the Theatre to have its own accessible foyer space with views through the windows of the Corn Exchange.
It was completely gutted right back to its structure. The Studio previously had a load-bearing masonry structure with steel beams and columns.
“A new gallery level was to be installed to provide extra seating, for which a new steel frame with timber joists was decided upon,” Emily explains. “The new columns extended down to the basement level and required new foundations. All the timber joists were sized to suit the fire-rating, because they’re all semi-exposed.”
Sympathetic restoration for a long life
Across all stages of the project, the team worked closely with theatre experts and skilled craftspeople. Remodelling the Dome’s buildings has given it much-needed flexibility in terms of layout, seating and infrastructure – allowing a wider range of artists and performers to come to Brighton.
This article appears in Designing Timber issue 9 – July/August 2025
