De Montfort Hall - History

History

The Hall was built by the Corporation of Leicester in the early 20th century, and was finished in 1913 costing £21,000. The architect was Shirley Harrison (1876–1961) son of Stockdale Harrison, architect of Vaughan College.

Its indoor auditorium seating capacity is approximately 2000, and the hall contains a recently restored pipe organ believed to be the only surviving example of a large concert organ constructed by the Leicester organ builders, Stephen Taylor & Son Ltd. The organ is a particularly fine example, attracting many distinguished organists to play recitals.

The hall features in Grey Owl (film) in a real life reenactment of director Richard Attenborough and his brother David Attenborough's boyhood attendance of a wildlife lecture.

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