More seats to be installed at city's opera house

More seats are to be installed at a theatre in York, taking its capacity up to about 1,000 after plans were approved by the city council.

Fifteen seats will be installed at the back of the third tier at York's Grand Opera House in Cumberland Street - a move which the theatre hopes will allow it to reduce ticket prices.

It also plans to create better views for the audience, by lowering privacy screens and removing brass finish rails.

Council planning officers said the extra capacity would appeal to the promoters of large-scale touring shows. The plans were also backed by The Theatres Trust, a public body which promotes venues in the UK.

The Grand Opera House's application stated the works would allow them to bring a currently vacant void area into beneficial use.

Existing steps are set to be used to access the new seats which will be created by raising the floor above the space behind the current back row of the third tier.

Screens in front of the first row of the third tier are set to be lowered by 20cm to improve audience views.

False brass rails at the front of the second tier, which were installed during renovations in the 1980s, are also set to be removed.

The new seats will match those already in the threatre, the Local Democracy Reporting Service (LDRS) said.

A council report on the plans stated the alternations would have a negligible effect on the Grade II-listed building.

Planning officers said the alternations to the screens and the removal of rails would help improve customer experiences.

They said: "The rationale is to increase the capacity of seats to approximately 1,000 improve the function of the theatre sought by promoters of large-scale touring shows.

"This will also enable provisions for reduced seating prices.

"This is a public benefit to the continuing viability of the theatre would outweigh the acknowledged negligible harm to the listed building."

The Grand Opera House was originally built as a corn exchange in the 19th Century.

JP Briggs converted it into a music hall in 1902 and it was renamed as the SS Empire in 1958.

Renovations were done in the late 1980s when it reopened as the Grand Opera House.

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