Southampton Guildhall

In 1937 Southampton's famous Guildhall opened, complete with a large dual purpose pipe organ. This unique instrument was designed for a variety of music and featured two 4 manual consoles - one a fully specified classical console and one a large theatre organ console. The organ was used for municipal events, dances, broadcasts and concerts and was in regular use throughout the rest of the 20th century. By the turn of the millennium however its condition was getting poor and by 2007 the instrument was almost unplayable. The budget to have it totally refurbished was not available, but limited funds were allocated and our company were contracted to do whatever we could to make the instrument usable again.

Four months of hard work to undertake extensive catchup maintenance, cleaning, electrical works, pipe repairs and sundry other items, including refurbishing of both consoles, followed and a re-launch concert event was hosted in 2008, featuring International organ stars Richard Hills and the late Carlo Curley.

Further work has been done since and tuning & general maintenance undertaken by us with regular organ events being presented. In 2012 we presided over a momentous new recording of the organ by Richard Hills, which gained International acclaim.