The property, designed by architect Thomas Cundy III and built in 1868, is six storeys high with a large basement, and has been largely unaltered; the servants’ stair and significant amounts of the original decorative plasterwork still exists – there is a stunning drawing room on the first floor which we will carefully restore.
Works are due to commence at the beginning of next year, ready for completion in the second half of 2011.

Hall viewed from stage

This bulging bag of brilliance includes a 450person nightclub, a 1000person live music hall, a 12m climbing wall passing up through an internal/external cafe with its own lamposts!, a training kitchen, IT/education zone, Dance Studio, listed conference suites, a health clinic, a youth theatre with recording studios and green rooms and a building-wide wifi information system.

OPEN’s ambitious aim is to expand its services to provide a positive environment for the young people of Norwich, with exciting activities, gigs, learning opportunities guidance and information, until it is literally OPEN 24/7.

Working alongside hudson architects the directors of RCKa have been involved from start to finish, including administering the building contract on site with John Youngs, who have also been great, and OPEN who are simply an unparallelled force for good in East Anglia.

RCKa would like to thank all of the OPEN team, especially Russ Dacre for his amazing fundraising and Les Brown for his tireless championing and project management. It has been a real pleasure and inspiration.

Climbing wall

Designer WCs!