The Spa, Bridlington

Bridlington Spa stands on the South Bay waterfront in Bridlington, East Yorkshire. The complex includes a large Art Deco ballroom, an Edwardian theatre, an art gallery and several meeting rooms, all arranged around a sweeping curve of plate-glass windows that look straight across the bay. The site began as a seaside pavilion and theatre opened in 1896, and the present theatre is the 1907 replacement that still forms part of the building. After fires in 1906 and 1932 the council rebuilt everything except the theatre, creating the streamlined Royal Hall in 1932 and adding the Art Deco interiors in the 1920s. The venue is owned and run by East Riding of Yorkshire Council and has been a fixture on the British concert circuit for more than thirty years. The Spa has a maximum standing capacity of 3,800 and has hosted acts such as Madness, Kasabian and Oasis, who played their final indoor show there in 2009. The Spa Theatre seats 675 and presents plays, dance and music in an Edwardian auditorium with Italian Renaissance detailing and a saucer dome in the ceiling. The Royal Hall, rebuilt in fifty-two days after the 1932 fire, remains a flagship space for major rock concerts and televised sports. Between 2006 and 2008 the whole site was refurbished for £20.5 million, and in 2016 the theatre gained a centre aisle and curved seating to improve sight lines. Visitors enter through the main doors on South Marine Drive into a café bar with huge windows over the bay. The Spa Theatre foyer sits at circle level with a smaller entrance on the Esplanade at stalls level, and the Harbour Suite offers sea views and a bar in two adjoining rooms. The art gallery in the Gallery Suite shows work by local artists each week, while the Promenade Bar and Bay View Lounge provide panoramic sea views. The Board Room seats twenty-two around a large table, and lunchtime pianists play in the café bar. The building’s sweeping curves and tall windows frame the South Bay at every turn.