Barbican leads wave of London closures
NewsThe Barbican Centre has announced it will shut at 5pm today ‘due to the current impact of Covid-19.’
It hopes to reopen on December 27, depending on possible further measures.
We hear that one other large London hall intends to shut for the month of January.
Watch this space.
UPDATE: Andrew Lloyd Webber hs suspended Cinderella until February to ‘protect the quality of the show’ amid Covid-19 rules. The Youbg Vic theatre has folloed suit, as have several museums.
Call me caustic if you want to but it’s a shame that place didn’t shut down permanently in 1982
The Barbican is not the new Gewandhaus you are right.
I knew I did the right thing in taking up my credits with the Royal Festival Hall from the first lockdown by early December and not booking any concerts for the first three months of 2022, sad though I am to say it.
I enjoyed Kiril Karabits concert with the LSO on 9th December at the Barbican, which included Bartok’s Concerto for Orchestra. He was a great stand in for Sir Simon Rattle and hope he gets another gig with the LSO. I wondered if it would go ahead and I am grateful it did.
I suspect one of the main reasons for these closures, aside from the obvious health and safety issues, is that bookings have collapsed. Even prior to omicron, the Barbican was having to heavily paper concerts that under normal circumstances should have sold well. It sounds like the Gubbay-esque Christmas spectaculars have been a bust this year too. We’ll just have to see once the pandemic is finally over whether this loss of audience is temporary or permanent. Frankly I’m not optimistic.
The Youbg Vic theatre has folloed suit, as have several museums.
Covid restrictions are clearly getting to us all.