Settle victoria Hall 170th birthday
Settle Victoria Hall celebrate it's 170th birthday this year and have an exciting programme of events lined up.
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00:00 So my name's Anne Harding and I'm the Chief Executive Officer of Settle Victoria Hall
00:04 Limited which is the charity that runs this amazing venue here in Settle in the middle
00:10 of the Yorkshire Dales and we have got the most exciting year coming up this year because
00:16 it's our 170th birthday.
00:19 And my colleague Josie who basically runs everything else knows quite a lot about the
00:24 history so you can maybe just tell us a little bit about that history Josie can you?
00:28 Yep so as you say we're 170 years old this October we opened on the 11th October 1853
00:35 we've still got the original programme from the opening night and we've never closed our
00:41 doors since we've never stopped being a music hall in all that time we've just kept our
00:46 doors open and it's still here and it's absolutely at the heart of Settle and it's culture and
00:51 it's community and we really want to celebrate that this year and just celebrate everything
00:55 that Victoria Hall has been to the community and will be going forward for the next 170
01:01 years.
01:02 Settle Victoria Hall doesn't actually get any funding from any external body which is
01:07 incredible because we do this amazing programme of events we do about 170 events a year everything
01:15 from cinema to jazz to world music and in order to make ourselves some money to keep
01:22 going so we can keep bringing people because all the people who come here of course spend
01:26 money in Settle and underpin our rural economy we've got an incredible garden outside so
01:32 we've got Miss Victoria's refreshment gardens which has got a cafe that's open from Monday
01:37 to Friday staffed by a mixture of volunteers and people working here it's got beautiful
01:42 homemade cakes all the other things that go with it we've also got a few stages out there
01:46 so we have live music we've had things like a punk concert we've got oh just this week
01:53 actually we've got Merry Wives of Windsor and Shakespeare and we had children's activities
01:58 as well during the week so we've got so much stuff happening but we need to raise money
02:04 we need to keep this place open and it's very important that we do because it's an absolute
02:10 jewel in the crown of Yorkshire we are the world's oldest music hall and we really need
02:16 some help to keep us going what do you think Josie?
02:19 Yeah it's just such an important place and it means so much to so many people everyone
02:23 who comes through the doors they just find it magical and it is such an important thing
02:28 just to keep going and such a beautiful building that we need to not lose.
02:33 We sell around 15,000 tickets a year to events which is unbelievable because Settle's only
02:41 got four and a half thousand people and that just shows you how many people we are bringing
02:46 in to Settle who all come and spend money in the local cafes the pubs they spend money
02:52 in the shops as well as coming here so it's important not just for us not just to keep
02:57 alive this incredible building and what it means to the local people and what it means
03:02 to the people of Settle who may well have got married here who may well have been christened
03:07 here we've even had humanist funerals here cradle to the grave is what we do so it's
03:12 not only important to them but it is so important to our economy especially in these straitened
03:18 times when everybody needs that little bit of extra help.
03:23 We've also got a shop in town called Miss Victoria's Emporium.
03:27 Miss Victoria's Emporium and Miss Victoria's Refreshment Gardens were both started as our
03:31 response to Covid actually we had a little joke we said that Miss Victoria had to turn
03:37 her hand to trade to keep going after she'd tread the boards for 168 years now 170 years
03:45 and we genuinely are the oldest music hall in the world which is incredible in little
03:52 Settle who wouldn't believe it.
03:55 So over the years since we opened on the 11th of October 1853 we've had the most amazing
04:02 performers come to Settle Victoria Hall everybody from General Tom Thumb from Barnum Circus
04:09 right through to people like Benjamin Waugh the founder of the NSPCC and also General
04:16 Booth the founder of the Salvation Army so there's always been this incredible social
04:21 enterprise before it was called a social enterprise that kept Victoria Hall going and we are continuing
04:28 that today we have got an incredible program coming up for the next season can you see
04:33 that?
04:34 We've got everybody from the three degrees and yes that is the real three degrees still
04:40 in operation right through to the south the beautiful south through to people like Seth
04:45 Lakeman Fairport Convention everybody and anybody you can think of wants to come to
04:50 Settle Victoria Hall because we are the venue of choice that's what we say anyway and I'm
04:56 sure that tickets for all these are available on our website which is www.settlevictoriahall.org.uk
05:06 and on that website you can also join our 500 club which for five pounds a month you
05:12 can help support us and you might win a prize as well but really what we want people to
05:16 do is buy tickets come along to Settle come along and enjoy this fabulous building and
05:20 come and see some of the amazing acts we've got coming to see us this year.