Conway Hall was a bust. :-(
It's a lovely building, with a slightly anachronistic feel to it which seems appropriate. There are a variety of sized rooms, including a concert hall seating 450 if I recall correctly, and a stage which would house six or so theremins with necessary spacing. (This estimate based on my visit with Bruce Woolley - his studio was about the same size, six of us fitted comfortably with good control-zone spacing.) We would require it for the whole conference - the other rooms really wouldn't take 30 or more of us with however many instruments.
I stopped adding up the costs when they tipped 3000 pounds.
In theory the cost is sustainable, 35 delegates at 100 pounds each would probably cover it but that would not include catering costs, or accommodation - and the choice there is to either pay Central London prices or to travel in by tube in from the outskirts, which would be pretty nightmarish and kill any evening activities stone dead.
One of the suggestions that came out of my visit with Bruce, Hypnotique etc. was that the costs could be partly covered by a paying audience for a concert. This would require a well known celebrity to put bums on seats. John Otway was suggested. My feeling is that people who came to see him would be rather disappointed and/or bemused by all the non-Otway aspects of the evening.
And they would require a 50% deposit by the end of this month. That was the deal killer. They were not ready to cut any slack on this. Understandably so, as they have not had previous dealings with us.
So I have ploughed straight into plan B.
[b]Plan B[/b] is the Royal Masonic School for Girls (http://www.royalmasonic.herts.sch.uk/pages/about.asp) in Rickmansworth.
Click on the link above. That is an aerial view. Here (http://www.royalmasonic.herts.sch.uk/pages/gallery.asp?id=7) and here (http://www.royalmasonic.herts.sch.uk/pages/gallery.asp?id=18) are views of the main hall in their site gallery.
This is what a quick phone call established...
There is no availability for the summer holidays next year. There is availability for the Easter holidays, from Thursday March 29th to Monday April 16th. Easter Sunday is on April 8th, so this suggests either Friday March 30th to Sunday April 1st (!) or Friday April 13th (!) to Monday April 15th. I think the earlier option is preferable.
There is accommodation on site. This is a boarding school, so don't expect en suite bathrooms and the like. We would take over one or more "houses" which come in various sizes from 15 to 50 rooms, mostly for two persons. Current cost is 27 pounds per person per night, including breakfast, lunch and dinner. Prices for next year have not been determined, but 30 pounds is a reasonable estimate. Rooms for the symposium would be free, and the size determined by the number of people staying.
My feelings are that this is an excellent deal, costing less than we had hoped for. The setting is simply beautiful - I have visited the school several times to show Masonic friends visiting from abroad around. I have not seen the output from the kitchens, but have been near the dining hall on a school day lunchtime and it smelled better than the school dinners I recall. And the local town, Rickmansworth has a good selection of cafes and restaurants to suit most budgets if you want to dine out. Equally, at the costs suggested, it would not be unreasonable to pay double and have a room to yourself and seconds at dinner! From an access point of view Rickmansworth is well served by the M25, between the M4 and the M1, there is a tube station quite close by and the nearest British Rail station is Watford Junction. So just as easy to get to as London, without the pain of going into Central London. Heathrow is half an hour away, Gatwick a little further, but still not unreasonable.
I have arranged to visit and discuss shortly after school term starts.
Tho
