The Cork Opera House has a rich cultural and architectural heritage dating back to 1852 when it was built on Anglesea Street to house the National Exhibition. Sir John Benson’s masterpiece was dismantled brick by brick and rehoused on Emmet Place, formerly Nelson Place. The Cork Opera House was built in 1877 and was originally known as the Athenaeum. Today’s Cork Opera House, is only a 8 minute walk from the Maldron Hotel South Mall, making us the ideal place to stay if you’re on the lookout for a hotel near Cork Opera House.
A devastating fire in 1955 reduced the building to rubble. After a ten-year fundraising campaign, a modern theatre designed by Scott Tallon Walker was erected on the same site in 1965. Murray Laoire Architects developed a new front in 1993 for “a concept of the building which carries Cork City architecture into the 21st century”. The facility contained a main auditorium, two bars, corporate boxes, a foyer, a café, and a shop. New seats, a new café area, new acoustics, sightlines and of course state-of-the-art equipment have all been added in recent years by the management team, driven by the requirements of the people of Cork.
Today, Cork Opera House is the premier venue in southern Ireland for the best concerts, comedy, drama, dance, family entertainment, and, of course, opera. This is a cultural structure to be proud of, and it is 100% Cork.