Cambridge’s latest theatre has been officially opened at Downing College. The opening ceremony at the Howard Theatre, which happened last Wednesday 3. March, was attended by guest of honour, award-winning theatre director and Downing alumnus Sir Trevor Nunn.

The Howard Theatre, an £8 million project, comprises a 160 seat drama, conference and function area. The building boasts the latest in environmentally sustainable features, with solar panels fitted to the roof, efficient ground source heating, and rain water harvesting for flushing the theatre’s toilets. It is also made from Ketton Stone, a thermally efficient material also used in the newest extension to the University Library.  

The theatre is the most recent contribution from Dr Alan Howard, Downing alumnus and creator of the Howard Foundation in 1982, who has been a major benefactor of the college for decades.   

Professor Barry Everitt, Master of Downing College, told Varsity that Dr Howard “had expressed a desire to see a theatre built in the College many years earlier and so when we discussed this gift ... it was with the specific intention of building a theatre to complete the Howard Court in the College.”

The ceiling of the theatre is covered in trompe l‘oeil artwork, and a Grecian street scene decorates the front-of-house curtain. Poltrona Frau – an Italian firm who have supplied leather to Ferrari and BMW, and seats to the New York Metropolitan Opera – provided the leather seating for the theatre.

In December a production of ‘The Relapse’ was put on by students, and a conference on ‘Biology of the Skin’ has already been held. The theatre, Everitt added, “has been received with enormous enthusiasm by the students, by the Fellowship, by the guests who came to 'The Relapse' and, not unimportant, by the Howard family, too.”

While student theatre will be a major part of the theatre’s function, the college has already started taking conference bookings for the area, which can cater 80 guests at a formal dinner, or 180 at a drinks reception. Professor Everitt said, “The revenues from our business operations feed directly into the education of and provision for our students.”

Serita Rana, Deputy Development Director at Downing, said: “We are excited and deeply proud of this magnificent building. This event is an opportunity to acknowledge Alan Howard's outstanding generosity to the College and to celebrate the thriving talent within the Downing community.”

Downing is the first Cambridge College to achieve the Carbon Trust Standard.