Snape Maltings and electro-acoustic installations. The Studio retains the double-height roof and much of the existing fabric of the original kiln structure. Peter Pears Recital Room, Holst Library, rehearsal rooms. A former barley store, the Britten–Pears Building was officially opened in 1979 by HM Queen Elizabeth The Queen Mother. The Holst Library is connected to the Maltings. Many of the original contents were donated by Imogen Holst, who was a close friend of Benjamin Britten and an artistic director of the Aldeburgh Festival from 1956 to 1977, and it was named the Gustav Holst Library as a memorial to her father. According
Snape, Suffolk Course on the banks of the Alde was the site of a race meeting held every year for nearly 150 years. This led to the building of a new road (now the A1094) by the Aldeburgh Turnpike Company, which made Snape easy to get to, and which continued to be the main route to the village even after the coming of the railways (which reached Snape in 1888, though only for goods traffic to the Maltings). As a result of fertiliser, sugar beet, and malted barley, Snape had become a very busy inland port by the end of the 19th