By James Clarke BBC News

George Bernard Shaw was among those who praised the building

The De La Warr Pavilion in Bexhill has been closed since 2003, but is to re-open on Friday night.

The pavilion was one of the UK's first modernist public buildings, designed by architects Eric Mendelsohn and Serge Chermayeff, and first opened in 1935.

It will be aiming to establish itself as one of the South East's major contemporary arts venues.

Among those performing in the opening few weeks are opera star Kiri Te Kanawa, saxophonist Courtney Pine and the Ukelele Orchestra of Great Britain.

Revolutionary design

The De La Warr Pavilion was commissioned in 1933 by the 9th Earl De La Warr - the town's mayor - and 230 architects entered a competition to design it at a maximum cost of �80,000.

The choice of Mendelsohn and Chermayeff's design generated some controversy, partly because they were foreign.

Chermayeff was Russian and Mendelsohn had fled Nazi Germany just a few months earlier, where he had been considered one of the country's finest architects.

It also attracted praise, with many architectural experts hailing its revolutionary welded steel structure and George Bernard Shaw remarking: "Delighted to hear that Bexhill has emerged from barbarism at last."

Before renovation work started the pavilion looked shabby in places

The building was opened on 12 December 1935 by the Duke and Duchess of York, later to become King George VI and Queen Elizabeth.

The neighbouring Metropole Hotel had to be demolished after bomb damage during World War II, but the De La Warr survived and thrived in the 1950s and 1960s as a successful entertainment venue.

But its seafront location took its toll over the years as decades of salty sea air damaged its steel frame.

In recent years the pavilion had become a bit tatty and its future had been in some doubt.

It was even suggested that it be turned into a pub, with Wetherspoons reportedly interested in taking over.

'Enormous hole'

The prospect of the De La Warr becoming a pub attracted a torrent of local criticism and the idea was abandoned.

Now after its �8m redevelopment, helped by lottery funding, it is due to re-open - albeit later than originally planned.

Alan Haydon, the De La Warr Pavilion's director, said: "I think we're delivering its original vision, and though it's very much about today I think that's what we're trying to respect.

The finishing touches were being applied to the building this week

"I think the vision has lived on for 70 years.

"It will be a very significant art gallery for contemporary art, I think the whole building is focused around contemporary art and all that has to do with visual culture.

"A building like this with such a great design deserves a world class programme to match its world class status as a building."

John Dowling, who has worked for the Bexhill Observer since 1961 and is now the newspaper's deputy editor, said the town had missed the pavilion while it was closed.

He said: "I've known the De La Warr Pavilion since, as a young child, I went to my first pantomime.

"I've covered the protracted negotiations which resulted in the pavilion trust obtaining their National Lottery grant, but I couldn't imagine when the pavilion closed what an enormous hole it would leave in the community life in the town.

"I've just been on a conducted tour of the nearly-completed building and I'm eagerly awaiting Friday night's re-opening."