A prominent city centre venue will close for a year to undergo a major revamp after it was discovered to be in serious need of urgent repairs.

The Halls, in St Andrews Street, is set to benefit from a £3.6m funding deal that will allow renovations to be carried out to transform the 700-year-old St Andrew’s Hall and neighbouring Blackfriars’ Hall.

Norwich City Council has announced that the work will include a major redesign to improve the flow and accessibility of the multi-use performance venue, as well as a revamp of the outside space and an improved cafe and bar.

To carry out the improvements, The Halls will not be available to hire from January 1, 2024.

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All of this year's bookings up to December 31 will go ahead as normal including the annual Norwich Beer Festival which traditionally uses The Halls as its venue.

It was previously revealed organisers were exploring "potential alternative venues" after a city council report had last month revealed that urgent repairs were needed within two years.

As such, essential structural work will also be completed alongside the refurbishment project.

This includes work to the roof, stained glass windows and secondary glazing in St Andrew’s Hall.

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A city council spokesperson said: "The Halls is a hugely important and unique heritage building that contributes so much to the fantastic cultural offer we have in Norwich.

"By carrying out these upgrades, we’re excited about the potential to create an iconic venue that will host community and cultural events for many years to come.

"We look forward to sharing our plans in more detail later in the year and will be keeping everyone that makes use of The Halls up to date as the project progresses."

The revamp comes after the city council secured £25m from the government's Town Deal in 2020, with The Halls being one of the eight projects set to benefit.