Acoustics at Downing Place URC - any concert-goers comment?

Post by Michael Kilpatrick
Hello all,
The Emmanuel URC on Trumpington St closed as a church a couple of years
ago (bought by Pembroke college, I believe) and so the URC was
amalgamated with the Downing Place URC which was remodelled and
refurbished. Downing Place URC is available for concerts and such-like,
so I really wondered if anyone had attended any events there and can
comment on the acoustics?
I'm looking for venues in town for my jazz orchestra. A couple of times
now I have used St Andrew's Street baptist church which is an amenable,
friendly venue which works reasonably well although it lacks a decent
grand or baby grand piano.
Emmanuel URC used to be used frequently for concerts although I never
went there myself. It was reported to be not ideal - it's a church,
after all. St Andrew's, a typical baptist, has plenty of woodwork and a
carpet, which improves it no end. And the hire charges for the main
church are most reasonable.
Anyone have any experience of Downing Place URC since it reopened?
I've also performed in Gt St Mary's but that was jolly expensive in
comparison and has ridiculously tall pews.

URC is a new TLA for me. United Rugby Championship?

--
Roland Perry

Alan

2022-05-11 14:33:16 UTC

URC is a new TLA for me. United Rugby Championship?

United Reform Church?

--
Alan

Using Opera's mail client: http://www.opera.com/mail/

Roland Perry

2022-05-11 14:44:47 UTC

Post by Michael Kilpatrick
Hello all,
The Emmanuel URC on Trumpington St closed as a church a couple of
years ago (bought by Pembroke college, I believe) and so the URC
was amalgamated with the Downing Place URC which was remodelled and
refurbished. Downing Place URC is available for concerts and
such-like, so I really wondered if anyone had attended any events
there and can comment on the acoustics?
I'm looking for venues in town for my jazz orchestra. A couple of
times now I have used St Andrew's Street baptist church which is an
amenable, friendly venue which works reasonably well although it
lacks a decent grand or baby grand piano.
Emmanuel URC used to be used frequently for concerts although I
never went there myself. It was reported to be not ideal - it's a
church, after all. St Andrew's, a typical baptist, has plenty of
woodwork and a carpet, which improves it no end. And the hire
charges for the main church are most reasonable.
Anyone have any experience of Downing Place URC since it reopened?
I've also performed in Gt St Mary's but that was jolly expensive in
comparison and has ridiculously tall pews.

URC is a new TLA for me. United Rugby Championship?

United Reform Church?

Plausible, but I've no idea what that is. Who or what are the trying to
reform?

--
Roland Perry

The Natural Philosopher

2022-05-11 15:00:54 UTC

Post by Michael Kilpatrick
Hello all,
The Emmanuel URC on Trumpington St closed as a church a couple of
years   ago (bought by Pembroke college, I believe) and so the URC
was   amalgamated with the Downing Place URC which was remodelled
and refurbished. Downing Place URC is available for concerts and
such-like,   so I really wondered if anyone had attended any events
there and can   comment on the acoustics?
I'm looking for venues in town for my jazz orchestra. A couple of
times   now I have used St Andrew's Street baptist church which is
an amenable,   friendly venue which works reasonably well although
it lacks a decent   grand or baby grand piano.
Emmanuel URC used to be used frequently for concerts although I
never   went there myself. It was reported to be not ideal - it's a
church,   after all. St Andrew's, a typical baptist, has plenty of
woodwork and a   carpet, which improves it no end. And the hire
charges for the main   church are most reasonable.
Anyone have any experience of Downing Place URC since it reopened?
I've also performed in Gt St Mary's but that was jolly expensive in
comparison and has ridiculously tall pews.

URC is a new TLA for me. United Rugby Championship?

United Reform Church?

Plausible, but I've no idea what that is. Who or what are the trying to
reform?

A-prostates, presumably :-)

--
“I know that most men, including those at ease with problems of the
greatest complexity, can seldom accept even the simplest and most
obvious truth if it be such as would oblige them to admit the falsity of
conclusions which they have delighted in explaining to colleagues, which
they have proudly taught to others, and which they have woven, thread by
thread, into the fabric of their lives.”

― Leo Tolstoy

Mark Goodge

2022-05-11 16:23:53 UTC

Post by Michael Kilpatrick
Anyone have any experience of Downing Place URC since it reopened?
I've also performed in Gt St Mary's but that was jolly expensive in
comparison and has ridiculously tall pews.

URC is a new TLA for me. United Rugby Championship?

United Reform Church?

Plausible, but I've no idea what that is. Who or what are the trying to
reform?

The United Reformed Church (URC) is one of the smaller Christian
denominations, but I'm a little surprised that someone on cam.misc has
never encountered the name before because, as Michael says, Emmanuel URC
on Trumpington St used to have a parallel, non-religious life as a
popular concert venue. And I presume from his post that Downing Place
URC is now trying to fill that role.

If you want to know more about the organisation, rather than the venue,
then their website is readily Googlable: https://urc.org.uk/

Mark

Roland Perry

2022-05-11 16:34:56 UTC

Post by Mark Goodge

URC is a new TLA for me. United Rugby Championship?

United Reform Church?

Plausible, but I've no idea what that is. Who or what are the trying to
reform?

The United Reformed Church (URC) is one of the smaller Christian
denominations, but I'm a little surprised that someone on cam.misc has
never encountered the name before because, as Michael says, Emmanuel URC
on Trumpington St used to have a parallel, non-religious life as a
popular concert venue. And I presume from his post that Downing Place
URC is now trying to fill that role.
If you want to know more about the organisation, rather than the venue,
then their website is readily Googlable: https://urc.org.uk/

Why do they apparently have so many buildings in central Cambridge?

--
Roland Perry

Mark Goodge

2022-05-11 18:56:52 UTC

Post by Mark Goodge
The United Reformed Church (URC) is one of the smaller Christian
denominations, but I'm a little surprised that someone on cam.misc has
never encountered the name before because, as Michael says, Emmanuel URC
on Trumpington St used to have a parallel, non-religious life as a
popular concert venue. And I presume from his post that Downing Place
URC is now trying to fill that role.
If you want to know more about the organisation, rather than the venue,
then their website is readily Googlable: https://urc.org.uk/

Why do they apparently have so many buildings in central Cambridge?

They don't have "so many", at least not compared to other churches.
According to Wikipedia, there are 58 churches in Cambridge (not
including college chapels), of which 26 are CofE, 5 are Catholic, 6 are
Baptist, 4 are Methodist and the rest are assorted other denominations.
There is now only one URC church in Cambridge (the aforementioned
Downing Place URC), although they also share one church with the CofE.
Previously, they had three (plus the church share), of which one was the
equally aforementioned Emmanual URC.

Mark

Al Grant

2022-05-13 21:06:31 UTC

Post by Mark Goodge
There is now only one URC church in Cambridge (the aforementioned
Downing Place URC), although they also share one church with the CofE.

If you mean St Luke's, then strictly speaking they're not sharing
the church with CofE, it's a combined congregation, i.e. a local
ecumenical partnership between URC and CofE.

A shared church is when a building is used by separate congregations
at different times, like St Giles is shared between CofE and
Romanian Orthodox.

URC also have Westminster College, which has its own chapel.

Mark Goodge

2022-05-13 22:01:14 UTC

On Fri, 13 May 2022 14:06:31 -0700 (PDT), Al Grant

Post by Al Grant

Post by Mark Goodge
There is now only one URC church in Cambridge (the aforementioned
Downing Place URC), although they also share one church with the CofE.

If you mean St Luke's, then strictly speaking they're not sharing
the church with CofE, it's a combined congregation, i.e. a local
ecumenical partnership between URC and CofE.

I did mean St Luke's, but it's been a long time since I lived anywhere
near Cambridge so the minutiae of ecclesiastical activities is well
outside my current knowledgebase.

Post by Al Grant
A shared church is when a building is used by separate congregations
at different times, like St Giles is shared between CofE and
Romanian Orthodox.

Yes, I do understand the difference. But I don't have sufficient
personal knowledge of the situation on the ground any more, and
Wikipedia isn't particularly informative.

Post by Al Grant
URC also have Westminster College, which has its own chapel.

Yes, although I explicitly excluded college chapels from my previous
post.

Mark

Michael Kilpatrick

2022-05-11 21:57:51 UTC

Post by Mark Goodge

Post by Alan
United Reform Church?

Plausible, but I've no idea what that is. Who or what are the trying to
reform?

Indeed, although it so happens I have never been to a performance there
myself and only rely on hearsay as to its suitability.

I emailed Pembroke College this afternoon out of curiosity and I have
already had an interesting reply from the Bursar about their plans for
the former Emmanuel URC. It so happens the Bursar is a PhD in acoustics!

Post by Mark Goodge
And I presume from his post that Downing Place
URC is now trying to fill that role.

I don't know if it is, but it has certainly had a substantial refit.
There is a lot of stuff on their website including some camera
walk-arounds during the work.

What concerns me the most is the video of an opening event (?) in which
the vicar is talking (to the architects/builders?) and praising the
result, and there is the most awful echo to his voice. That sort of
resonance is a killer for a 15-piece jazz orchestra with such a
prevalence of percussive brass and saxophones, and a drum kit.

However, that could have been an amplification system causing that echo.
I'd have to visit and check it out.

The photos on their website suggest they may have lined the vaulting
with something:
Loading Image...

but there are no soft surfaces. Compare that with St John's Arts &
Recreation Centre in Old Harlow, a former church but which has a set of
full-height heavy drapes over all the windows such that when they are
all drawn closed it makes a *massive* difference, and we've played there
four or five times.

St Andrew's St Baptist Church is reasonably good but has no grand piano,
sadly. The typical Victorian baptist woodwork and balcony provides a
better, deader acoustic, especially coupled with carpet.

West Road Concert Hall would, I think, cost me £1400 to hire for a
concert. Yeah, right....

Michael

Theo

2022-05-11 15:44:02 UTC

Post by Michael Kilpatrick
Emmanuel URC used to be used frequently for concerts although I never
went there myself. It was reported to be not ideal - it's a church,
after all. St Andrew's, a typical baptist, has plenty of woodwork and a
carpet, which improves it no end. And the hire charges for the main
church are most reasonable.
Anyone have any experience of Downing Place URC since it reopened?

I can't say I have... might have been in there for blood donation a long
time ago (pre refurb) but I don't remember much about it.

Emmanuel URC had a sprung wood floor and moveable chairs which makes it good
for dancing, but I imagine such an expanse of wood and stone isn't so good
for the acoustics. I thought Pembroke wanted to use it as a performance
space so maybe they have improved that.

Wesley Methodist has plenty of soft furnishings (stage, carpet, lots of
padded moveable chairs) so maybe the acoustics are softer? No idea what the
hire rates are though.

Theo

Andrew Haylett

2022-05-15 22:51:23 UTC

I went to a concert at Downing Place URC last November. Not jazz - it was Brook Street Band (Bach, Handel and Telemann) - but the acoustics sounded fine to me, not that I am an expert.

Tom Yates

2022-06-29 06:57:13 UTC