A restoration levy is an additional charge incorporated in your ticket price which is ringfenced for maintenance and investment in the physical building.

The Coro is nearly 110 years old now and it’s beginning to show – in our electrics, our pipework, our heating; everywhere. Various public-facing parts of the building have had the occasional superficial facelift, but behind the scenes in particular it’s all getting a bit creaky…

Our basic annual repair and maintenance costs – before dealing with any emergencies like a boiler breakdown or leaking roof – are £25,000 per year. The Coro is a lovely historic building, but it’s also a gas-guzzling, energy inefficient juggernaut of a building! It costs approximately £345 a day just to open the doors, turn the lights on, and make sure the basic facilities are available for users of the hall. That’s £126,000 a year.

For a long time we’ve been in the small minority of venues that have resisted implementing any additional charges. But as costs have shot up, as our resources have become ever more thinly stretched, and as time has caught up with the building, we need to be able to invest more to ensure The Coro is still here in another 110 years’ time.

We all know a night out at the theatre isn’t cheap. But you probably don’t know that for every £10 you spent on a ticket last year, The Coro would usually retain less than £1.60 of that once artists, tax, royalties, PRS, and various other charges were all paid. Often it was under £1.

With a restoration levy, if we sell 20,000 tickets a year, that’s £20,000 we don’t currently have that is ringfenced for protecting the venue you know and love. Short-term, these funds will help make vital repairs to The Coro’s existing infrastructure. Long-term, they will help us make future-proof improvements, develop the building, and become a more environmentally friendly and sustainable venue. And we’ll make sure you can find out exactly how this money is spent with 100% transparency in an annual update on our website.

So thank you in advance. It’s easy to write this off as another annoying ticket charge. But hopefully you’ll agree it’s worth investing in us so we can continue investing in you.

*we will not be charging the restoration levy on tickets to amateur shows by local groups such as Ulverston Outsiders, local hirers such as Ulverston Victoria High School, or Bridget Christie/Ministry of Science which went on sale earlier in 2023.

If this insight into the challenges we face makes you feel inclined to donate, please do! The Coro is a registered charity and your donations are 10 times more valuable to us than any equivalent value ticket sale.

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