The other Albert Hall

This weekend, a new museum opened in Leeds, or rather an old one in a new home. When we arrived we walked straight in but when we left there were large queues. (There are a few snapshots further down.)

The Leeds City Museum was originally the collection of the Leeds Philosophical and Literary Society, housed in the 1821 Philosophical Hall. This was bombed during the 2nd world war and the Museum lost much of its collection. It shared a home with the Central Library for a while but was evicted to make room for the expanded Art Gallery and mothballed.

Plans were afoot, however, for a new home- the Leeds Mechanics Institute. The Institute of Arts & Science was built in 1868 and its biggest feature is the huge circular lecture hall within. This was known as the Albert Hall and was more than 70′ diameter and 50′ high. It had a shallow serpentine balcony and was reputed to hold 1,500. It became the Civic Theatre in 1949 seating 500 (with an entirely out of keeping proscenium bisecting the hall) although a much improved remodelling was carried out in the early 1980s. (The Civic Theatre moved to a (partially) new building nearby in 2005 known as the Carriageworks, which seats 349).

We went to see a show in the Civic in the mid 90s BD (Before David) and whilst the building was impessive, it made a mediocre theatre and was looking very shabby. There is a history of it online, including plans of the building.

So, what is the museum like? Rather crowded and a bit cramped in the galleries, but that is to be expected on the opening weekend. In the basement, a large circular space underneath the hall above houses the natural history collection, life on earth. This is a visually striking room, particularly as it has the feel of a tramshed about it, with a large iron central column and a ring of smaller ones at the periphery. It has modern display cabinets and dramatic lighting, along with displays embedded in the floor for children to follow the arrows. There is the inevitable Cafe & toilets also in the Basement, along with rooms for conference use.

The Ground floor is dominated by the lobby, full of stairs both up and down. A gallery known as the Collectors cabinet adjoins the giftshop. Upstairs, the Leeds Story showcases life in the City from ancient times to modern. The attic space has been transformed into two galleries and the truncated hansard roof-like tower has been opened up internally, showing the timers. The permanent gallery features ancient worlds, including Nesyamun, the Civic Mummy. The temporary gallery had an exhibition about edible insects, called Eating Creepy-Crawlies. This rather disturbing exhibition features a 300x oversize animatronic cricket along with giant bee and dragonfly heads. There was also an extensive display of edible insect food, including lollies with bugs in. I had to laugh when I read the final display panel though, which had the following health warning:

Insects are not recommended for people with nut allergies.

The building is a pleasant mixture of old and new, featuring interesting detailing and plasterwork where it remains whilst having modern fireproof doors and accessibility, although the plastic light fittings in the foyer areas look a bit 70s Habitat! It was extremely hot in many of the galleries however and the ventilation needs working on as it was only 15 Celsius today in Leeds.

The Albert Hall space has been turned back into its original configuration and it looks magnificent. However, the use it has been put to struck me as a little odd, because there isn’t much in it. A map of the Leeds area covers most of the floor and the only other detailing at ground level is the provision of six touch screens on pedestals used for interactive use. I was expecting them to tie in to the map in some way but hey were featuring dance in Leeds and all appeared to be showing the same thing. At balcony level, five giant screens hang from the flat ceiling (which has an enormous sunburner fixture at the centre) and these show an audio visual display composed of several themed sections. I was talking to one of the attendants about it and he told me he was stunned to see himself in one piece of footage outside Leeds railway station, filmed several years ago.

So the room is striking, but rather spartan, whilst the other galleries are squeezed in with several pinch-points. Is it a good use of space? My own opinion is no, not really, but it will make a stunning function room for a banquet and the six podia have been designed to be removable for this purpose. It is known as The Leeds Arena which is going to cause a lot of confusion when a real 12,500 seat arena is eventually built (if it ever is).

There is a 360 degree photo of the room on the museum website and it is well worth a look, click on the + symbol in the corner of the picture to go full screen size and then click & drag to start looking around (java & flash needed). You can pivot in all directions, including down to the floor and up to the ceiling. I have to say, though, that the colours are not as intense and vibrant in real life as the photo suggests, twas ever thus!

There isn’t any obvious signage about photography in the building. One of the stewarts advised me that if I wanted to take photographs, I could get a permission form from reception. However, I read it and declined to sign, as it seemed rather repressive:

Photography permission form

I would like to apply for permission to take non-flash photographs for my own personal use in Leeds City Museum.

I understand that I am not permitted to reproduce these photographs either in print or on the web and that if I do, I may be liable to legal action.

Perhaps I’ll drop them a line, as I don’t see what “own personal use” is good for. I can understand them wanting to control copyright of the exhibits where professional photographers are going to sell the images for money but there is no pecuniary financial gain in putting them on my blog and the building is very much a public one owned by my own local authority.

On the basis that the grand opening was timed to coincide with heritage weekend, I therefore claim fair use for the following image of the Albert Hall taken by me today. 

Just outside the balcony area, the ceiling has been opened up and it could be seen that the black rectangles at high level inside the hall were actually painted out windows on the exterior. (The glints of light seen in two of the panels above the screens are presumed to be fire protection high level smoke extract fans.)

Outside the building on Millennium Square, there was some multi-culti stuff going on, including some ancient Romans. I was bemused to just Google World’s most expensive patio and see the Milennium Square Webcam as number one. (If you put it in inverted quotes, you can see why). Qiurkily, if you leave out the apostrophe, it is number three after the world’s most expensive and pound cake and house.

(The Yorkshire Post has a video of the opening which gives a glimpse of the exhibits within. You don’t see the crocodile on the ceiling though).