www.focusonuk.co.uk

Faringdon has a good reputation for its arts and crafts/ festivals and to aid their growth we are looking to build an performance venue.

Faringdon has a growing population yet there is no venue for the arts within the town or surrounding villages.  This lack of facilities was emphasised by the public response to the Healthcheck and the schools surveys.  Faringdon has no cinema, theatre or museum, and despite having successful outdoor festivals, it has few indoor facilities for live music.

This Flagship Building will (subject to the necessary permissions) be sited on the westerly side of Park Road close to the A420.

Geological sketch map of the southern part of Faringdon.
Location of quarries: (A) Wicklesham Q., (B) Extension to Faringdon Q., (C) works referred to as Faringdon Quarry in literature, (D) Coxwell Q.   Based on British Geological Survey, Abingdon Sheet (235)

The building will be able to accommodate up to 1,000 people when set up as a conference venue. The main hall will be designed so that it might be split into several smaller conference halls and adaptable so that it can be used for indoor sports competitions, musical events and the like.

The front of the building will incorporate a museum and a display centre to accommodate both the Town’s History and to enable local artists to display their work.

The building is a short walk from Faringdon Community College and will be made available to the college for major events – and less major events when a sizeable space is required. The college plans to be able to incorporate the design and construction of the building into various projects within the schools successful engineering faculty.

It is hoped that the museum section will be able to incorporate access to and displays of the fossil beds on the site. The plans to build a foot/cycle path under the A420 as an integral part of the development may enable the creation of a sub-ground fossil viewing area.

An outline plan for a Performance Venue is laid out in a letter from Focus on Faringdon to the Vale of White Horse District Council.