About The Hall With Virtual Tour

Virtual Tour- Click on the link to take a virtual tour of all levels of St David's Hall

 http://www.stdavidshallcardiff.co.uk/English/Virtual-Tour/

Situated in the heart of Cardiff, the capital city of Wales, St David's Hall is the National Concert Hall and Conference Centre of Wales. With its wide range of live entertainment, free exhibitions, conferences, participation workshops, two bars and a range of places to eat, helpful staff and relaxing surroundings, St David's Hall is a building to be enjoyed by day and evening throughout the year.

Home to the annual Welsh Proms Cardiff, the world-class Orchestral Concert Series featuring the world's top orchestras, soloists and conductors and the famous bi-annual BBC Cardiff Singer of the World competition, St David's Hall presents a multitude of live entertainment, including pop, rock, folk, jazz, rhythm and blues, comedy, children's shows, lunchtime concerts, musicals, light entertainment, dance, world music, films and classical music.

However, St David's Hall is more than just a concert hall, with spacious foyers, lounge bars and a restaurant it is also a place to meet for coffee, lunch or a celebratory meal. Add in regular exhibitions and annual company conferences, and there really is something going on almost every day of the year.

St David’s Hall is owned, managed and funded
by Cardiff County Council with support from the Arts Council of Wales.

A Brief History

For architects Seymour Harris Partnership, designing St David’s Hall was an unusual, if not unique, commission for several reasons. The primary challenge was how to provide a major 2,000-seat concert hall in the cramped space available and to complicate this issue, the building had to be fitted into an existing planned, and partly built, shopping centre.

The result was that, in an incredible five years from conception to completion, an impressive 2,000-seat concert hall, with arguably the best acoustics in Europe was built directly over the St David’s Centre shopping mall. In addition, the building has offices, comprehensive dressing rooms, meeting rooms and conference facilities, two places to eat, exhibitions on three floors, and a spacious reception area.  

The autumn of 1982 saw exciting days at the new St David’s Hall. The special ‘open day’ on 30 August 1982 attracted 21,000 people; nine days later came the first public concert, a free open rehearsal by the Polyphonic Choir. By the time the Queen Mother performed the official opening in February 1983, St David’s Hall had already transformed the artistic life of the Capital city. As Her Majesty said, ‘This exciting development will add greatly to the quality of life for the city of Cardiff and the people of the Principality.’

Cardiff, the capital of Wales, provides entertainment, sport, places to eat, leisure facilities, places of interest to visit and major events on a regular basis, attracting thousands of visitors each year. St David’s Hall continues to be a leading venue in the cultural and continuing development of Cardiff into one of the most cosmopolitan cities in Europe.