WAR HALL: A Theatre of the Mind is the first documentary to focus on the extraordinary story behind Walthamstow Assembly Hall, one of the only buildings constructed in London during the Blitz, writes Alison Williams
A new documentary podcast uncovers the extraordinary story behind Walthamstow Assembly Hall – a concert venue built in the middle of the Blitz that went on to become one of Britain’s most significant recording spaces.
Through immersive sound design, archival storytelling and music recorded in the Hall itself, WAR HALL: A Theatre of the Mind, explores how “a community under fire chose to invest in culture, hope and the future”.
The podcast has been shortlisted for Best Music Podcast and Best Arts and Culture Podcast at the Independent Podcast Awards, taking place today (4th November).
It was also longlisted for Best History Podcast at the British Podcast Awards, the only independent alongside a field dominated by BBC productions.
Construction of the Assembly Hall began in 1939, but as air raids intensified, the site was occupied before completion and pressed into use for civil defence and coordination. The Assembly Hall would not officially open until 1943, almost four years into the war and shortly before the arrival of the V1 flying bombs and V2 rockets.
At a time when the government is once again encouraging households to prepare for emergencies, WAR HALL looks back to a period when the people of Walthamstow faced the reality of war on their doorstep.
The podcast reveals how a community organised itself for civil defence while, extraordinarily, a concert hall continued to take shape amid the destruction in what the podcast makers call a “testament to the importance of music, culture and hope in even the darkest times”.
Among the archives, the production team discovered a bundle of wartime concert brochures wrapped in a note reading: “Bombs were falling all around but the music was divine.” These programmes form a haunting thread through the series, capturing the extraordinary contrast between the destruction outside and the music being performed within the Hall.
The producers are now hoping to discover who wrote the note and how the brochures came to be preserved. They would particularly love to trace the woman who may have written the words and handed in the collection, or anyone who might recognise the story behind them.
As work begins on the second season , the team is appealing to local residents, former performers and anyone with memories, photographs, programmes or relevant stories connected to Walthamstow Assembly Hall to get in touch, saying that “even the smallest recollection could help uncover another chapter of the Hall’s remarkable history”.
WAR HALL features an original sonic world by Simon Mills, acclaimed producer, composer and one half of the pioneering electronic duo Bent. His score blends with historic recordings and new performances made in the Hall, renowned for its exceptional acoustics and for hosting some of Britain’s first stereo and early surround-sound orchestral recordings.
The podcast is co-hosted by Angela Allen MBE, 96, one of Britain’s most respected script supervisors, whose 80-year career includes extensive work with John Huston and iconic productions from The Third Man to The Misfits and The Dirty Dozen.
A Londoner who lived through the bombing raids, she has spent nearly a century immersed in storytelling, from wartime cinema to working alongside Hollywood legends including Humphrey Bogart and Marilyn Monroe.
She is joined by historian Professor John Thomas, author of The Kalamazoo Gals, a groundbreaking book uncovering the hidden role of the women who built Gibson guitars during the Second World War. His work situates the Hall within wider political, cultural and architectural histories.
The team has also created a meticulous map plotting exactly when and where bombs fell in Walthamstow, set against the concerts performed at the Hall on those same nights. This powerful historical overlay will be explored fully in the upcoming second season, as the story moves into the Hall’s extraordinary musical life and the performers who passed through its doors: refugees, radicals, trailblazers and inventors.
WAR HALL: A Theatre of the Mind‘s second season launches on Thursday, 17th December on all major podcast platforms, with new episodes released weekly
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