Hire
The premier entertainment venue in the iconic, seaside town of Southwold; presenting a year-round programme of events including music, theatre, film, lectures, educational talks and workshops. Southwold Arts Centre has a number of flexible spaces available for hire which are also suitable for wedding receptions, celebrations and live events.
The Venue plays host to Southwold Arts Festival (June), a summer repertory theatre season which has been an annual event for over 80 years (July - September), Ways With Words literary festival (November) and Southwold and Reydon Pantomime Group (January), to name but a few.
A wide selection of local societies use the facilities for talks and demonstrations; Jazz Appreciation Society, Suffolk Wildlife Trust and Southwold Arts Society to name but a few: meaning you are guaranteed to find something of interest. Plans are currently in the pipeline to establish both a Youth theatre and amateur dramatics group.
The box office sells tickets for many local events; acting as a ticket agent for Latitude, Circus Hassani, Southwold Arts Festival and Southwold Summer Theatre.
There are a number of rooms available to hire for live events, meetings, family celebrations and exhibition space.
The Centre is operated by Sole Bay Arts C.I.O., a charity which aims to enhance the arts, cultural and heritage experience of the local community, and to provide facilities in the interests of social welfare for recreation and leisure time.
Our facilities
Our theatre hall is a flexible multi-purpose entertainment space offering:
- Cinema style cushioned raked seating for 100 and a further 120 flat seating area towards the stage.
- Large performance stage which is 5 metres wide and 5 metres deep and benefits from centrally rigged lighting and high-quality acoustics and sound systems.
- A professional high lumens daylight projector and .... wide retractable screen which provides an incredible presentation and cinematic experience.
- A flexible ‘floor space’ which can be configured with circular group tables, rectangular tables or simply additional rows of seating.
- 3 changing rooms and performer toilets
- A fully-equipped catering kitchen with serving hatch
- A café / refreshment area
- A bar stocked with local produce
- A compact outdoor seating area.
NB: Depending on your requirements there is the option to install full raked seating in the theatre and also to have the existing seats removed entirely. We are also able to set tables and chairs for up to 150 places.
The foyer
Our foyer area includes 2 rooms each fitted with a bar and comfortable seating. They are an ideal area for craft displays, informal spaces for coffee mornings, book groups and small social gatherings.
The Doris Hatfield Room
A recently renovated classroom space which is used regularly by the Geography Fieldwork Academy to deliver educational courses. The classroom, which seats 20, is generally available in the evenings from 6pm and at weekends for hire. It is an appropriate meeting room space and also benefits from a small but well-equipped hatch kitchen.
