The Everyman Theatre, 9-11 Hope Street, Merseyside: Building Investigation and Watching Brief Report

The Everyman Theatre, Liverpool, and part of the adjacent building, 11 Hope Street (NGR SJ 35657 90012) are to be demolished as part of a wholesale redevelopment of the site in advance of the construction of a new purpose-built theatre. OA North were commissioned to undertake a building survey of 9-11 Hope Street as mitigation for the loss of the buildings. Following this, OA North were commissioned to provide an ongoing watching brief as the building was dismantled. This was done in order to further inform the original building survey by identifying previously obscured features which relate to the structures, principally that of Hope Hall. This report sets out the results of the investigation relating to the Everyman Theatre and 11 Hope Street in the form of a short document with accompanying photographs and plans.
Currently, the Everyman Theatre Company operates within the heavily modified structure of a former Non-Conformist chapel known as Hope Hall. The building, originally constructed in 1834, was only used as a Non-Conformist chapel for seven years before being adopted as a place of worship for the Church of England in 1841. From 1853 onwards the building was used as a public meeting hall and was the site of numerous politically significant events, until, in 1910, the structure was adapted for use as a cinema. It was modified again in 1964 when it was turned into the Everyman Theatre, with the most significant modification being made to the frontage in 1977, when the Neo-classical front was clad in a 1970s modernist-inspired concrete shell which remains as the frontage today.