Our Heritage

Malt Cross is one of the most beautiful, historical, and celebrated venues in Nottingham, with a deliciously chequered past.

Built as a Victorian music hall in 1877, the venue was named after the Malt Cross Monument, a trading site for malt that also served as a speakers’ corner, standing at the bottom of St James’ Street in the late 15th century. The building was commissioned by a Nottingham plumber turned entrepreneur called Charles Weldon, who recruited the services of architect Edwin Hill to bring his dream to life, building the venue on borrowed money. Hill’s plans included an expansive, glazed roof, arching over a two-tier performance space – a feature that draws many visitors to this day.

The Music Hall

The music hall opened on October 2nd, 1877, in time for the Goose Fair, providing hot food and treating its punters to the popular strains of the Alhambra Band. Publicised as the ‘largest lounging vault in the United Kingdom’ in 1882, Malt Cross was a Victorian music hall that offered variety acts, live music, food, ale, and according to one of its managers, William Hulse, ‘curiosities and specimens too numerous to mention’.

A popular act of the day was Sam Torr, a singer and dancer from Beeston who drove the crowds wild. Fred Karno of Karno’s Army, who was credited with inventing the classic ‘custard pie in face’ gag and had worked with both Charlie Chaplin and Stan Laurel, was a major draw, performing his comic acrobatic routine.

Just before the outbreak of World War 1, Malt Cross’s reputation as “a haunt for felons and whores” resulted in the loss of its licence. The site was sold in 1914 and became a storage warehouse for over 40 years. While other Nottingham music halls were demolished, H.G. Chapman & Watson’s company didn’t destroy or dismantle the Malt Cross’s original features.

They didn’t exactly look after them either, but by leaving pillars and structural elements in place, they accidentally preserved much of the old music hall. When the famous Berni Brothers bought the site in 1967, they too left the original features untouched, using the lower floors as a glamorous Italian restaurant called Trattoria Conti.

In 1981, the Malt Cross was bought by Purdy and Klein, who wanted the venue to relive its music hall days. They re-opened the ground and first floors as a live music venue in 1983, breathing life into the building’s quiescent bones.

In 1989 the lease was purchased by the Potter’s House Trust, a Christian charity who used the site as a coffee shop where people in need could find counselling and support. The Trust applied for a host of funding and in 1997 they secured 1.8 million for a further restoration project. The site was re-opened in 1998 as a variety venue with live music, comedy, and theatre.

In 2003, a group of city centre churches set the Malt Cross up as a charitable trust, hoping to preserve the building and help the community with outreach work. Nottingham’s Street Pastors, who can be seen helping inebriated and vulnerable people in Nottingham on a Friday or Saturday night, are based at the Malt Cross. The Heritage Lottery grant was followed up by a further sum of 1.38 million in 2014, awarded for the redevelopment of the lower floors of the music hall so that the upper and lower areas of the site could be reunited for the first time since 1967. The music hall’s doors were closed for four months to undergo a massive restoration.

The Heritage Lottery Grant

The Heritage Lottery grant was followed up by a further sum of 1.38 million in 2014, awarded for the redevelopment of the lower floors of the music hall so that the upper and lower areas of the site could be reunited for the first time since 1967. The music hall’s doors were closed for four months to undergo a massive restoration. The restoration grants have enabled the Malt Cross to renovate the underground floors, a process which has unearthed all manner of buried treasures and secrets, including an original Victorian glazed archway, a Victorian safe, traditional barrel holders, a hidden room behind a fake fireplace, and caves that date back to the Carmelite monastery that once stood on the same site, forty feet below street level. The renovations also unveiled secret passageways in the basement levels – likely escape routes for when police raided the premises to break up cock fights during the proprietorship of William Hulse, a man described as “a fine sportsman, fond of fighting, ratting, and cock fighting.”

The result of all that work is that the public can now see the entire building. The basement levels feature a new, sound-proof recording studio, a meeting room, a workshop, and a gallery.

The Malt Cross today

In 2018, the Malt Cross hit hard times and had to close. It was a difficult, uncertain time, until YMCA Robin Hood Group stepped in to save the venue and charity. YMCA pledged to keep the soul and legacy of the historical venue alive by featuring all the services the award-winning venue delivered, including the bar and café. The Malt Cross Trust remains a separate registered charity but works closely with YMCA, whose senior leaders serve on the Malt Cross Board.

The Malt Cross is alive and well, providing live musical entertainment and great food and drink, as it did on opening in 1877, while working hand in hand with the UK’s oldest youth charity. The venue is lively, the food delicious, and the atmosphere thrums with the history and artistry of the largest saloon style music hall outside of London.

Book for Sunday Dinner

Join us for our famous Sunday lunches and end the weekend in style, as our kitchen team serve up a veritable feast of tapas dishes and Sunday roasts with seasonal accompaniments followed by a selection of proper puddings and desserts.