The Church Piano Bar - Soft Opening: Notes

The Church Piano Bar, St Michael at Plea, Norwich

New Music Venue for Norwich City Centre in 15th Century Church

St Michael at Plea is listed as a Grade 1 historic building.  It was built in the early C15^th and has perfect acoustics.  There is a broad nave which easily accommodates seating 9 seats across and about 100 in total, with plenty of room for an aisle.  The new tenants have worked to ensure ease of access for wheelchair users and people with limited mobility.  A very beautiful piano has been lifted carefully into the building, ready to be wheeled on and off stage as necessary.  The performance space is positioned in front of a beautiful wooden screen, one of several architectural features adorning the church.  The host is affable, enthusiastic and working hard to bring this city centre located building back into regular use.

 

Things I hope can be addressed before any future event that demands dedicated listening are enclosure, or movement of the bar so that clanking of bottles, popping of corks and low-key banter between customers and bar staff, does not penetrate the performance space.  With such perfect acoustics, chinking of glasses, bottles colliding and all the normal bar space background noise should be somewhere else, if this venue is going to be serious about bringing more quality music to town.  This is a problem shared with the Maddermarket Theatre foyer, The Waterfront and Voodoo Daddy’s Showroom.  I understand beverages are an important element in the revenue mix for any music venue, but the best venues are structured around the quality of the music, separating drinks sales from performance space.  If The Church Piano Bar is going to be attractive to music lovers, either close the bar during performance, or move it out of the nave. 

 

Similarly, the hardboard ramp to the toilets acts like a drum as people try tiptoeing to the loo and back throughout the performance.  Only a little effort to dampen the echo is required, perhaps by stuffing some fire-resistant roof insulating material underneath the ramp.  It is unfortunate, but the lighting on the queue for the loo and the queuing punters impinge on the auditorium.  Some curtaining of that essential facility might be the answer, but maybe not, as curtain movement and subsequent light beams may be distracting to performances.  Finally, there is an urgent need to stop the harsh noise of the hand dryer.  I laughed when it first happened, but by the end of the evening was close to tears of frustration at its imposition on the music.

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Spencer Ide

26th May 2026