Watford Colosseum refurbishment enters final act following practical completion
A multi-million-pound refurbishment at Watford Colosseum has achieved practical completion and the building has been handed over to operator AEG Presents UK. Watford Borough Council led the project and appointed Morgan Sindall Construction’s Northern Home Counties business to preserve, modernise and upgrade the historic live entertainment venue.
Originally built in 1938, Watford Colosseum is a Grade II listed building renowned worldwide for its exceptional acoustics. The refurbishment, which is a key part of the Town Hall Quarter regeneration, has restored and modernised key features of the Colosseum, bringing the pre-war site up to a modern standard.
The project has included creating a brand-new stage and lighting rigs to enable a wider range of acts to perform as well as reopening the original grand entrance. A complete bar refurbishment, accessibility improvements, upgraded wayfinding, and extensive interior renovations across all areas have also been undertaken. In addition, the tier one contractor installed an external ventilation duct, roof plant, and refurbished the existing canopy at the front of the building.
Ensuring the venue retains its historic charm while meeting modern environmental standards was a central aspect of the project. To align the Colosseum with the council’s sustainability goals, the refurbishment minimised the amount of material sent to landfill and made the venue significantly more energy efficient. This was achieved by installing modern insulation materials, upgrading the MEP systems, and adding PV panels to the roof.
Morgan Sindall leveraged its Intelligent Solutions approach to meet one-of-a-kind challenges during the project. This included factoring the venue’s renowned acoustics into every stage of the planning, design, and refurbishment. Morgan Sindall also devised innovative solutions to bring the venue up to a modern benchmark for functionality and sustainability while respecting its historic fabric, such as the timber panelling and Art Deco façade.
With the building now complete, AEG will begin the next phase: fitting out the iconic venue with state-of-the-art equipment, lighting, and furnishings, ahead of its much-anticipated reopening in autumn 2025. Over the coming months, the venue will be transformed into a first-class cultural destination ready to welcome world-renowned artists and local audiences alike.
Handing the venue over to AEG marks a significant milestone in Watford’s Town Hall Quarter regeneration, an ambitious 10-year programme which includes eight interlinked projects designed to bring investment, culture, and opportunity to the heart of Watford.
Elected Mayor of Watford, Peter Taylor, said:
This is a major step forward in bringing first-class, live entertainment to Watford. With AEG Presents officially on board and the building work completed, we’re now counting down to an exciting opening season in the brilliantly refurbished Colosseum. This has been a key priority for us, and I’m delighted to see the venue ready for its next chapter.”
Emma Curtis, Area Director at Morgan Sindall Construction in the Northern Home Counties, said:
It’s been a privilege to collaborate with Watford Borough Council and breath fresh life into this valuable, much-loved part of the community’s heritage. This project has not just been about protecting the past but also investing in the future and creating a multi-generational legacy by reinforcing the Colosseum’s longevity and positioning it as a cultural and sustainable hub.
Watford Borough Council’s forward-thinking vision for the heart of the town is an ambitiously green one, and we’ve worked closely with them to make this iconic venue as sustainable as possible. This will help to significantly decarbonise the council’s estate, achieve its net zero goals and ensure that this mid-20th century building is in all ways fit for the future.”
Steve Homer, CEO of AEG Presents UK, said:
We’re thrilled to take this next step with Watford Colosseum. The council’s investment has created a brilliant venue that blends heritage with modern capability, and we’re excited to begin the fit-out process. This venue has huge potential, and we’re confident it will attract incredible talent and become a much-loved home for live entertainment in the region.”
AEG Presents has already announced some of the first acts to take the stage in autumn 2025, including Ocean Colour Scene with P.P. Arnold, Jake Bugg, The Stranglers, and David Essex, with more to be revealed. The revived venue will offer an exciting mix of top-tier national talent and local community use, positioning the Colosseum as one of the region’s premier entertainment destinations.
The Colosseum project follows Morgan Sindall’s ongoing refurbishment at the adjoining, also Grade II listed, Watford Town Hall. The combined projects will preserve both buildings and make use of reduced civic office space to create areas that nurture a sense of belonging and identity.
Morgan Sindall has already completed upgrades at the Town Hall to improve its sustainability and energy efficiency properties. To ensure this work accounted for the building’s heritage and much-loved aesthetic, Morgan Sindall and Watford Borough Council discussed a variety of building components, materials and design aspects.
During the course of the Town Hall work completed to date, Morgan Sindall and the council devised multiple innovative solutions to solve complex technical, procurement, and design challenges. This included engaging an artisan contractor to install windows that retained the subframes while being equivalent to triple glazed units, preserving the building’s aesthetics and significantly improving its energy efficiency properties.
In addition, it was recognised that water ingress could be an issue in the future due to the roof’s age. A cold roof was therefore created to avoid insulation hiding leaks, an approach which also sped up the project and reduced wastage. Other examples included installing the cavity wall insulation in a novel manner to avoid damaging the listed timber panels and façade as well as devising novel solutions for filling roof voids, retrofitting light fixtures to LEDs, fabric repairs to the roof to install PV panels, adding glass reinforced plastic to the iconic dome and much more besides.
The result of this activity is a building with sustainability performance levels far beyond those typical of civic buildings constructed in the 1930s, as proven by a recent EPC C rating. This includes a 40% saving on gas bills and a 166-tonne annual saving in carbon emissions. The refurbishment has also led to U-value improvements, with the rate of energy loss from the walls reduced by a factor of six, and from the flat roofs by a factor of 17.
ENDS