Following the Government’s announcement that venues in tier 2 can stage events with physically distanced audiences of up to 1,000 from 2 December, the operator of the Clapham Grand has announced a busy December schedule of shows, including concerts by acts such as The Hoosiers, The Feeling and Sophie Ellis-Bextor.

In September, the venue’s socially-distanced event capacity was increased from 280 to 400 with the opening of its newly refurbished top tier balcony for the first time in 15 years.

The following month, the venue received £300,000 from the Arts Council England-administered Culture Recovery Fund. Prior to that, in-house initiatives had raised more than £50,000 for the venue.

A former Victorian theatre cum music hall, The Grand was acquired in 1989 by Vince Power’s Mean Fiddler Group, who ran it as a music venue until 1997. It has been independently owned by Howard Spooner since 1998.

All proceeds from The Feeling show on 21 December will go to the Music Venues Trust’s #saveourvenues campaign.

Clapham Grand manager Ally Wolf said, “It is with immense pride, and relief, to be able to re-open The Clapham Grand for Christmas. All our shows will be Covid-compliant, and we’ll be serving up a festive treat of food too.”