A new documentary podcast tells the story of Walthamstow Assembly Hall. The concert venue was built during the Blitz and went on to become one of Britain's most significant recording spaces.
WAR HALL: A Theatre of the Mind explores how "a community under fire chose to invest in culture, hope and the future." It uses immersive sound design, archival storytelling and music recorded inside the Hall itself.
Building work on the Hall began in 1939, but air raids interrupted it. The unfinished site was used for civil defence coordination until the Hall officially opened in 1943, shortly before V1 flying bombs and V2 rockets began to arrive.
The production team found wartime concert brochures wrapped with a note that read: "Bombs were falling all around but the music was divine." They now want to find out who wrote it, and to trace the woman who may have kept the programmes.
The podcast is co-hosted by Angela Allen MBE, 96, and historian Professor John Thomas. Allen is a renowned script supervisor whose 80-year career includes films such as The Third Man and The Misfits. Thomas is the author of The Kalamazoo Gals. The series features original music by Simon Mills of Bent.
It has been shortlisted for Best Music Podcast and Best Arts and Culture Podcast at the Independent Podcast Awards, held on 4 November. It has also been longlisted for Best History Podcast at the British Podcast Awards, where it is the only independent production among entries dominated by the BBC.
The second season of WAR HALL launches on 17 December on all major podcast platforms.
