Snape Maltings in 2009. The "Creative Campus" at Snape Maltings has four performance venues (from 70 to 830 capacity) and over 20 rehearsal and public spaces. Snape Maltings Concert Hall, Concert Hall Gallery, Oyster Bar and Restaurant Built by Newson Garrett in the mid-19th century, the 832-seat Concert Hall began life as a malthouse. Officially opened in 1967 by HM Queen Elizabeth II, the Hall suffered serious fire damage two years later, re-opening in time for the Aldeburgh Festival the following year. The conversion of the building was undertaken by Arup Associates, with the acoustics supervised by Derek Sugden. Britten Studio, Jerwood
John Culshaw commissioned Britten's opera "Owen Wingrave," written expressly for television. He also persuaded Britten to conduct television productions of "Peter Grimes" and Mozart's "Idomeneo", and to accompany Pears in Schubert's "Winterreise". Britten and Pears invited him to Snape, not far from their base at Aldeburgh in Suffolk and he encouraged them to transform the Snape Maltings into a concert-hall. He later initiated the Benson and Hedges music festival at Snape and was planning the fourth season at the time of his death. Some of his BBC programmes have been preserved on DVD, including films of the Amadeus Quartet playing works by