Hackney Empire, Hackney, London, England, 2005.
Architects: Tim Ronalds Architects. Photographer: Helene Binet.
Material: Terracotta, concrete, steel.
This building is part of the Hackney Empire, a variety theater designed by Frank Matcham in 1901. On the inside the building provides new public facilities. On the outside the theater has a newly renovated “showbiz” facade that reorients the building to face the adjoining town square. The giant letters (the largest of which is 3.6 meters high and weighs 3.5 tons and in typographic terms is over 10,000 point) appear to hang in space. The facade and its typography have become the graphic identity for
the theater. The typographer and design historian Richard Hollis helped refine the lettering, and ensured that the letters were made of exactly the same materials as the decorative elements of the historic building and were truly massive. Made of precast concrete clad with terracotta, the letters were hoisted into place and supported on the slenderest of steel brackets.
