Alnwick's Playhouse theatre to reopen in November after revamp

A revamped former playhouse that has been turned into a community hub is to reopen in November.

Alnwick Playhouse shut 12 months ago for a £3.3m refurbishment and was due to reopen in May.

However, Northumberland County Council said the work had taken longer than expected and the hub, which now boasts a library, would reopen in the autumn.

A spokesman for the council said a 50-year lease had been granted to the Alnwick District Playhouse Trust.

The trust will continue to operate the main auditorium, the ground-floor studio theatre, the bar and an expanded cafe facility.

The council said it would use the rest of the ground floor for the library, tourist information and customer services.

The Playhouse Trust said the auditorium had been refurbished giving visitors more generous legroom, the Local Democracy Reporting Service said.

The council spokesman added: "Work is now progressing well. At this stage we are anticipating contract completion in early November.

"We had been targeting end of September for construction work to finish, but had contingency built into the programme, as we anticipated that there are always unforeseen challenges in major refurbishment projects, so an early November completion is still within our programme tolerance."