The 1871 organ
Two manuals and twenty-two stops, built three years after the chapel. The Friends raised £186,000 to restore it in 2014; you hear it at Sunday at Four every few weeks.
The building
Saved by the city
Built by the wharf workers in 1868, closed in 1979, nearly flats in 1985. A trust of neighbours bought it for one pound and ten years of work.
The chapel
Paid for in pennies
In 1867 the salt, malt and coal men of Saltmarket Street wanted a chapel of their own, nearer than the cathedral and plainer. 1,140 of them signed a subscription book; the lime-washed Nave and its brick arches were finished the next autumn, with a gallery for the families and a vestry onto the river.
The wharves closed one by one after the war, and so did the chapel, in 1979. For seven years it stood empty, then in 1985 a developer asked to turn it into eleven flats. The neighbours, a choir and the folk club that had been meeting in the Vestry formed a trust and bought it from the Methodist circuit for one pound, on the promise to restore it.
- seats in the Nave, nineteen rows and the gallery
- 380
- nights of music, theatre and talks last year
- 210
- volunteers on the doors, the bar and the archive
- 160
- paid for the building in 1986, and a promise
- £1
What we look after
The organ, the trust, the walls
The trust
Saltmarket Hall Trust is a charity with nine trustees, a staff of eleven and 160 volunteers. Ticket sales, the bar and the weddings pay for three quarters of the year; the Friends and grants pay for the rest.
The walls
Lime plaster, not gypsum; brick cleaned by hand; the gallery made safe and the river door made step-free in 2019. Every repair is in the archive, with the name of whoever did it.
In order
From chapel to hall
The chapel opens on Saltmarket Street, paid for by 1,140 subscribers.
The organ is built and played at the first Harvest service.
The last service. The building stands empty for seven years.
The Saltmarket Hall Trust buys it for one pound.
The Nave reopens with a concert by the city’s choirs.
The organ restored, with money raised by the Friends.
The Yard opens and the river door becomes step-free.
The people
Who runs it
Eleven staff, nine trustees and the volunteers you meet on the door. These four are the ones you will write to.
Ruth Adeyemi
Director
Ran a touring orchestra for twelve years before she came home to Norwich in 2017.
Tom Hollis
Programmer
Books the concerts and the theatre, and introduces most of them from the stage.
Megan Price
Hire and weddings
Shows you round on a Tuesday and is there on the day, from the first chair to the last taxi.
Sam Perera
Technical manager
Lights, sound, the stage and the organ’s moods. Came as a volunteer in 2019 and stayed.
Keep the lights on
Friends pay £40 a year and get £3 off every ticket, first choice of seats and free Vestry talks. 1,900 people are Friends now; the organ was their idea.
“Every Friend is a brick. We need about two thousand of them to keep the roof up and the tickets under twenty pounds.”
