London’s non-stop, audience requested live music venue The Piano Works West End, is moving to Covent Garden this month.
Re-opening at a brand-new location within the Gillian Lynne Theatre on the corner of Drury Lane and Parker Street, The Piano Works will take up residency within a Nightcap venue in Covent Garden. All of the Piano Works West End employees will join the new site, which boasts a capacity of 600 and a unique island stage in the middle of the venue.
Earlier this year, The Piano Works West End applied to Westminster Council to increase their licensed capacity at their current Leicester Square venue from 400 to 700 people. This was rejected, despite support from statutory bodies and being one of the few remaining London grassroots live music venues. This made operating within Westminster untenable due to external cost pressures, leading to the venue searching for a new premises where the larger capacity was possible.
Alan Lorrimer, owner of The Piano Works, formerly owned and operated the Gillian Lynne Theatre site under highly successful Brazilian concept Guanabara from 2004 to 2012 and is looking forward to returning to his former home. Alan comments: ‘Returning to the Gillian Lynne Theatre location has always been a dream of mine and I have always felt it would be the perfect spot for a Piano Works location. When our West End capacity license request was rejected, I approached the team at Nightcap and was delighted that they agreed to this exciting opportunity to partner with us in such a collaborative way.’
Sarah Willingham, CEO of Nightcap plc comments: ‘I’m so looking forward to working with Alan and his talented team at The Piano Works, to bring another fantastic concept into a Nightcap venue. Our customers will love it and our teams will work together to make sure that they have the best night out over this busy Christmas period and into the new year.’
