City Hall in Salisbury, Wiltshire is an entertainment and cultural venue where some of Britain’s best-known bands and music artists have performed.
Located in the heart of the city, the Town Hall benefits from good transport links and a variety of restaurants and pubs nearby. It opened in 1961 as a thriving multi-purpose entertainment venue and played host to almost all the biggest acts of the decade, including The Beatles, The Rolling Stones, Led Zepplin and David Bowie, to name a few. More recently the venue has hosted BBC Question Time, comedy performances from the likes of John Bishop, concerts from the likes of Morrissey, Seth Lakeman and From The Jam.
The modern Town Hall is one of the largest venues between Bristol and Bournemouth and remains a multi-purpose venue hosting private events, major conferences and exhibitions, awards ceremonies, rock and pop concerts and major comedy events.
Salisbury has a vibrant visitor and cultural sector and internationally renowned tourist attractions including Salisbury Cathedral and the Magna Carta. Salisbury offers easy access to the World Heritage Site of Stonehenge, which is just 9 miles away on the edge of the Salisbury Plain. The city is also home to Wiltshire Creative (which runs the Salisbury Playhouse, the Salisbury Arts Center and the Salisbury International Arts Festival), and the Salisbury and South Wiltshire Museum.
Wiltshire Council’s unitary authority was established in 2009. It provides local government services to 435,000 Wiltshire residents and is also the largest employer in Wiltshire, being responsible for a variety of services including the operation of Salisbury Town Hall.
At the direction of the government, the City Hall was closed until further notice on March 20, 2020 due to the COVID-19 pandemic. In October 2020, Wiltshire Council confirmed that the venue would remain mothballed until it was both financially viable and safe to reopen. In December 2020, the town hall was granted a permit by the NHS to be used as a vaccination centre.
Wiltshire Council is now exploring options to remobilize Salisbury Town Hall as an arts, entertainment, community and cultural venue and is seeking an external organization to manage and operate the building on behalf of the authority.
As part of this process, the municipality will carry out a Pre-announcement (PIN) from October 23 to November 30. It seeks to understand the potential interest among external organizations to manage and operate the Town Hall on behalf of the municipality as a multi-functional entertainment and cultural venue.
This will help inform the council of the best plan and approach to ensure the site has a long, successful and sustainable future, and to determine the best way forward for the site. Organizations must be registered on the Pro Contract portal to enter the PIN code.
To register/enter the PIN, go to South West Portal Delivery
Submission deadline before 5:00 PM, November 30, 2023.
In conjunction with the PIN process, Wiltshire Council will be holding a market engagement event at the Town Hall on 16 November 2023. This will be an opportunity for interested organizations to visit and tour the site, and to hear from Wiltshire Council officials about the future operation of Town Hall.
To register for this event please email the Arts and Funding Manager [email protected]
There are a maximum of three participants per organization. Organizations wishing to register for the event must provide the following information for each participant: Name; Job title; Organization and email address. After receiving your email, you will receive a confirmation containing the time slot of your organization.
For more information about the PIN process and the Market Engagement Event, visit https://www.wiltshire.gov.uk/city-hall-market-engagement.
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