One of Britain’s most iconic music venues, Brighton Dome has housed some of music history’s most important moments, like ABBA’s legendary Eurovision win in the 70’s. The best part? Brighton Dome can add you to that historic list, with some top notch event facilities across the venue, including the stunning refurbished Corn Exchange, an event here is one you’ll never forget.
Built in 1806, Brighton Dome has recently undergone a major refurbishment of its Grade I and Grade II listed Corn Exchange and Studio Theatre, and now features an increased capacity, two new bars, and a restaurant. The refurbished Corn Exchange is stunning – the sensitive restoration has preserved the historic beauty of the building, with the new space filled with small modern touches that never intrude on the historic feel of this bright, massive, flexible event space.
Based up north, at the Delegate Wranglers, we’d never had the chance to visit Brighton Dome until now, despite being clued in to its vast reputation and iconic status within the country. Now that we’ve had the chance to visit, we can honestly say that this is one of those venues that you just can’t miss. Just an hour away from London, surrounded by so much vibrant life, in Brighton’s cultural quarter, the venue stands out as one of our favourites in recent memory!
Brighton Dome is one of the most visually impressive venues you’ll visit, inside and out. We were stunned by how beautiful and regal the exterior of this building is and weren’t surprised to know that it was designed originally for King George IV. Standing out against the traditional 18th century English style buildings, Brighton Dome offers an architectural style that incorporates the lavish detailing of Asian design in the period.
Inside, the excitement only increases, a sprawling, tardis-esque venue that somehow manages to have more and more incredible meeting spaces, the further you go on, Brighton Dome continued to impress us as we explored its storied corridors. The staff here were extremely friendly and their passion for this venue was infectious, they told us about some of the incredible historic gigs here, from David Bowie to Jimi Hendrix to Led Zepplin, Pink Floyd, Elton John and so many more - Wowed wouldn't do justice to how impressive the list was. When the team told us how easy, flexible and accessible it was to host your own event in such an iconic venue, we couldn’t wait to tour the spaces.
Brighton Dome is part of the Royal Pavilion Estate which combines Brighton Royal Pavilion and Regency garden meaning guests at your meetings have stunning surroundings to explore while thriving at your event. Brighton Dome is a one minute walk from the iconic Pavilion as well as Brighton Museum and Art Gallery within touching distance!
Venue Address: Church Street, Brighton
Venue Website: www.brightondome.org
Sales Contact Name: Donna Miller, Business Development Manager
Sales Contact Phone Number: +447986578435
Venue Email Address: donna.miller@brightondome.org
Distance from nearest airport: Gatwick, 38 mins drive, 28 Miles
Distance from nearest railway station: Brighton Train Station, 5 mins drive, 10 min walk, 0.6 miles
The meeting spaces and conferencing capabilities - which we will get onto in the meeting spaces section - aren’t all that Brighton Dome has to offer! The venue has three bars, most notably, the Foyer bar, which is a huge space capable of holding up to 1000 for a reception. The Foyer bar is located right next to the Concert Hall and the Studio Theatre (recently renovated) and also has direct access to a number of breakout rooms. There’s a clean, bright modern look to the space with high ceilings that accentuate the natural light in the day, and by night the space comes alive with intricate LED lighting systems that give the space a vibrant punch.
The two other bars are the Gallery Bar, which showcases one of the old king's favourite horses and the Festival Bar with a retro design, based all around the first ever Brighton Festival in 1967. The Corn Exchange can be hired for private dining up to 500 capacity for a one-of-a-kind space restored as part of the large-scale redevelopment project.
Brighton Dome are committed to sustainability. Their move to E Tickets saves an estimated 242,000 paper tickets and associated envelopes and postage every year. They also don’t use or sell any single-use plastic at the venue, saving 10,000 plastic bottles every year. The team also told us that the redevelopment process was done with sustainability in mind, they re-used 400 Tonnes of earth from the redevelopment of the Corn Exchange and Studio Theatre - we loved this!
Now onto the magic that this venue can provide, when it comes to hosting events that want to stand out, be different and go above and beyond what would be expected of any old event, this is the place to do it. Along with the refurbishment of the Corn Exchange, the Studio Theatre has also been upgraded with love, this space is now an intimate space for smaller events that combines innovative tech with the historic feel of times gone by.
There’s a dedicated team in house at Brighton Dome who are seriously skilled and clued up when it comes to covering every detail of your event. The team is a multi-skilled group of event technicians and producers who really know their stuff and have years of experience at the highest levels of event hosting between them.
Aside from three grand highlights, there’s smaller spaces like the Founders Room and the new Gallery Bar that can fit scaled down versions of the kinds of events you might otherwise host in the Studio Theatre or the Foyer, without losing any of the quality or stunning scenery. The new Gallery Bar makes for a brilliant receptions and networking area, this is one of the newest spaces in the complex, with double height ceilings, exposed brickwork and furnishings that ooze class, this is a space that would stun clients and take to so many different types of event.
For registration, the West Corridor, with original ornate tiles as the backdrop making even the registration makes for a brilliant spot. It’s a fun and quirky place to be that would make signing in and meeting and greets a much more exciting thing to do!
MEETING SPACE HIGHLIGHT: Concert Hall
This is the event space for those looking to make a lasting statement and impression on event goers to give them something they’ll never forget, product launches, talks and awards would look and come across supremely in this historic, one of a kind concert hall that guests will walk away wowed by. This space also has first class front of house facilities. The staff here are ‘on it’ like not many other places we’ve seen, attentive, respectful and knowledgeable, they helped us with every question we might have about hosting an event in this exquisite concert hall.
Location: Ground floor
Natural daylight: No
Theatre style layout: capacity 1700
AV equipment: Stage, sound and lighting equipment included. Screen and projectors are at an additional cost.
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MEETING SPACE HIGHLIGHT: Corn Exchange
This is the place to host an awards show or large conference. Wow. Just one look at the newly refurbished room gives you a sense of the history of this place, literally a spot of royal tier quality, not just fit for a king, but designed for one! The super high ceiling and a glorious space show off all of the different ways you could set this room up, and we can’t express how much we loved it. Architectural details in the Corn Exchange - from the restored beams of the ceiling’s vast 18 metre single span timber frame to the 34 recreated pilaster columns - reflect the original designs for the building from the early 1800s. Remodelling and renovating the historic space has given flexibility in terms of layout, seating, infrastructure and accessibility.
Location: Ground floor
Natural daylight: Yes
How big is the room in Sq.m: 760m2
Theatre style layout: capacity 500
Cabaret style layout: capacity 400
Dinner: capacity 500
Drinks reception: capacity 1200
AV equipment: Stage, sound and lighting including rig included
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MEETING SPACE HIGHLIGHT: Studio Theatre
This brilliant, sleek space has a designated reception area and bar to make guests at events here feel as comfortable as possible, the stairs to entrance are gorgeous, finished with wood and LED’s. This is perfect for smaller conferences or as a larger, quirky breakout space. The flexible theatre aspect to the room means you could also host some super fun team building in here, incorporating some of the fantastic shows that have played over the years!
Location: Ground
Natural daylight: Yes
Theatre style layout: capacity 250
Cabaret style layout: capacity 70
Dinner: capacity 90
Drinks reception: capacity 264
AV equipment: Stage, sound and lighting included