Hobart City Hall, Concert venue in Hobart, Australia.
Hobart City Hall is a public auditorium and concert venue in Hobart, Tasmania, one of the city's two main public venues alongside the Derwent Entertainment Centre. It was designed by Raymond "Rusty" N Butler with Flack Ricards and Frank Heyward, completed in 1915 and opened formally in July that year, and was reported to seat 5,000 people at its opening.
Hobart City Hall was designed by Raymond "Rusty" N Butler with Flack Ricards and Frank Heyward and built for £27,000 on land previously reserved for city markets. It was completed in 1915 and formally opened in July, seating 5,000 at the time. In 1940 the army commandeered it for six months as storage, which ended plans to turn it into an indoor ice rink.
The hall's name causes confusion with Hobart Town Hall, the actual seat of city government. Its programme has ranged from boxing matches and the 1949 Australian Basketball Championships to silent film screenings, a ball for Queen Elizabeth and the Duke of Edinburgh, and the Miss Tasmania and Miss Australia grand finals. It is now one of the venues of the Festival of Voices.
The hall stands in central Hobart and, with the Derwent Entertainment Centre, is one of the city's two main public venues, so large crowds should be expected at big events. It also serves as an emergency centre during disasters such as the 2013 Tasmanian bushfires. Note that it is not the City of Hobart's seat of government, which is Hobart Town Hall.
Before this building was constructed, the site was home to the city's main market where residents shopped. The shift from a working marketplace to an event venue reflects how cities changed in the early 1900s.
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