The Great Hall had a lot going for it but a lot going against it as well. The scale was magnificent: the huge vaulted ceiling, the enormous windows at either end, the pillars all would fit into our plans. But the long shiny ticket booth, the information kiosk with its clock and pixelboard and the rows of stores and concessions were definitely intrusive.

We had to be aware that we would have one hour to set up for each performance and at the end of each night, we would have to put everything back out of the way so the daytime use of the Station could continue unimpeded. So began the task of negotiations, designs and budgeting.

In the end, costs, bureaucracy and logistics forced us to abandon the underground entrance. This left the lower arrivals area and the Great Hall. We had some good ideas using the arrivals level but, again, it was a cost consideration that forced us to limit opurselves to the Great Hall itself. But I think now looking back that this was the smart move for a lot of reasons. We were looking at a huge setup and strike and the amount of masking required and the time required to put it in place would be enormous. The Great Hall was enough of a challenge in terms of masking. But once we got ourselves focussed on the one location and solved some of the more difficult problems of audience sightlines, storage for the seats during the day etc. we were able to make it work well.

One of the biggest problems was the acoustics of the Hall. We discussed adding sails, baffles etc. but all those would have been far too costly with no guarantee that it would be effective.