I have finally visited Kings Place, the new arts venue in King's Cross with a newspaper office attached (ours – we move in shortly before Christmas).
Last night there was a celebratory do just before the opening festival kicks off next Wednesday. That will showcase the new concert halls – about which Jonathan Glancey, John Fordham and Tom Service have written here, here and here.
I've been asking a lot of people in the music world about their immediate impressions of the spaces: the larger, a 420-seat recital hall comparable to Wigmore Hall, the smaller, a more flexible box for smaller-scale work.
What is clear is that both are beautiful spaces. Hall One is a joy in its simple, oak-lined, modernist clarity. What has yet fully to emerge is a clear sense of how good the acoustics are – but the early feedback is that Hall One is sounding terrific. In fact, I've not heard even a whisper of scepticism.
The question is – can London, which, after all, is not short of concert halls, actually sustain a further two spaces? Especially when Kings Place's Hall One is so similar in size to the Wigmore? Are there the audiences, or even the performers, to go round? Some people have also questioned the halls' lack of artistic coherence – it has no director dictating the programming, but will rely on week-long events curated by a variety of artists.
It's easy for me to be enthusiastic: I live near, and will be working in, Kings Place, so I'm going to be only too pleased to have fantastic chamber music on my doorstep. But will enough others agree to sustain the venue in the years ahead?
My view is that the halls will stand or fall on their acoustic quality. If the acoustic quality is good, musicians will want to play here. If great musicians want to play here, an audience will come. Next week, you'll have the chance to find out for yourself what the spaces are like. Meanwhile, I'll be on leave, and back in this slot on or around Monday October 6.
