LSO St Luke’s to shut for a year
OrchestrasI attended the former church last night for a concert by the ‘radical’ Manchester Collective, a string quartet playing works by contemporary British composers.
Nothing to frighten the horses, though I was much taken with a piece describing London at 3am, the work of Jocelyn Campbell, and another called Five Postcards by newly installed royal composer Erollyn Wallen.
What did alarm me was how dark and dangerous the churchyard felt at dusk, and how uncared for.
The LSO have slipped out a press release, letting it be known that LSO St Lukes is to shut for ‘transformation’. Reopening: Autumn 2025.
Islington shouldn’t be that dangerous. Maybe the transformation could include exterior lighting.
St Luke’s and the surrounding area isn’t dangerous at all. I was there last Thursday for a rather good Franck piano quintet at around the same time and didn’t feel threatened in the slightest. Mind you, if you spend most of your life swanning around in W1 and NW3, even Islington feels like the hood, I’d guess.
Yes indeed! Elizabeth Brauss playing the Franck with the Arod quartet was a memorable one.
I love this venue and will really miss the wonderful concerts there. They really should build a decent cafe and bar at the same time.
Much needed, the facilities there need an upgrade – quite apart from the landscaping.
As regular user of this hall both lunchtimes and at night I have never felt the hall or its setting at all unsafe – Old Street is attractively un-bourgeois but it is not the front line! – I hope comments like this arent used as an excuse to put in bright lights everywhere (as bright lighting creates dark spots and is especially dazzling and unpleasant for those who wear spectacles or have less than 20:20 vision).
It seems incredible that it is 25 years since this wonderful hall opened after re-imagining by Levitt Bernstein architects – its my favourite small venue in London so I hope they dont change the main auditorium at all beyond renewing the technical kit.
But given that rain is not unknown in edgy Old Street it could do with an audience cloakroom – so we dont have to steam the place up after a downpour.
Dark and dangerous? I am frequently loitering in the grounds before first light waiting for Ironmonger Row Baths to deign to open. The surrounding local authority housing is very well kept, and there are now all manner of shops etc in the area. Granted, the heaps of discarded Lime bikes are a danger to life and limb.