Horsham's theatre and cinema reopens with panto on 29 November. The first plan was worth £10.7m before a contractor's price rise forced a rethink.
The Capitol in Horsham reopens on Sunday 29 November, with the pantomime Dick Whittington as its first show back. The theatre and cinema closed on 4 January 2026 for its first major refurbishment since 2002, and Horsham District Council says the building work is on schedule to finish in early November (Horsham District Council, 25 August 2026).
That leaves a few weeks between the builders leaving and the curtain going up. The venue’s own listings show nothing on sale before the panto, which runs from 29 November (The Capitol, what’s on).
What the money bought
The venue puts the approved budget at £10.2m. The council’s August release describes it as a £10 million project (The Capitol refurb FAQs).
By the venue’s own account, the work already done includes:
- a full repair and redecoration of the theatre auditorium, with a new house lights system
- new theatre seating from Kirwin & Simpson, taking capacity to around 420
- new seating in both cinema screens, with cupholders
- reconfigured ground floor toilets, including a Changing Places facility
- a redesigned bar and a refreshed box office counter
- end-of-life boilers removed and a replacement heating and cooling system installed
- repairs to the building’s several roofs
Still to come before reopening: the cinema seating installation, the final decorative work in the toilets and bar, furniture deliveries for the foyer, new external signage and a refurbished outside seating area.
The capacity increase is modest and comes from layout rather than squeezing. The venue says seat width and legroom stay broadly the same, and that the extra seats come from improved design, layout and raking, because the previous seating was not bespoke to the room. The new total includes more spaces for wheelchair users and people with limited mobility, positioned so they can sit with the people they came with.
The version Horsham did not get
The scheme approved in February 2024 was bigger. Councillors backed a budget of up to £10.7m and a plan that would have closed the venue from April 2025 until November 2026, covering increased seating capacity, new boilers, extra toilets, a refurbished glass foyer and a reconfiguration of the internal spaces.
That fell apart in autumn 2024. The council said a key contractor had raised its cost estimate for the project by more than 25%, and it decided to rescope the work at a reduced cost. Its Director of Communities, Paul Anderson, said at the time that the council was disappointed to “downscale the project and original ambition”, and that “the financial risk was too great” (Horsham District Council, 21 October 2024).
The revised plan, announced in February 2025, kept the venue open through 2025 and pushed the full closure to January 2026 (Horsham District Council, 20 February 2025). The building shut after the final performance of Robin Hood on 4 January (Horsham District Council, 15 December 2025).
The council’s December 2025 account of why the work was needed is blunter than most council prose: leaking roofs, failing plumbing, damaged ceilings, stained carpets, and interval queues for the women’s toilets. The venue’s own FAQ adds that its heating and cooling system had been repeatedly failing over the previous year and that most of its plant and engineering components were at the end of their life.
The social value figure
The council’s August release leads on something else: an estimated £270,000 in Social Return on Investment generated by the contractor, Willmott Dixon Interiors. It lists work experience for 12 local students through the West Sussex Careers Hub, a “Routes into Construction” programme, health checks for staff and supply chain partners, and 75 volunteer hours donated to renovate the garden at Horsham Youth Centre with the charity 4 The Youth.
Social Return on Investment is a modelled estimate, not money spent, and the council has not published the calculation behind the £270,000.
What it means for you
If you have tickets for anything at The Capitol, nothing before 29 November is affected, because nothing is scheduled before then. The box office is still operating from Unit 43 in Swan Walk, Tuesday to Friday 9.30am to 4.30pm, and phone lines run 10am to 3pm Tuesday to Friday on 01403 750220.
Booking is already open for the panto and for the spring 2027 season, which includes Motionhouse on 16 January, Crooners on 23 January and The Illegal Eagles on 30 January. Dick Whittington has a 16-plus version from 9 December, and two other festive shows are on sale: Twas The Night Before Christmas from 1 December and Great Expectations from 11 December.
If you use a wheelchair or need step-free facilities, the reopened building should be a meaningfully different experience: the Changing Places facility is new, and the accessible seating has been repositioned rather than just re-covered. If it is not, the venue’s contact address is contact@thecapitolhorsham.com.
For everything else happening in town this autumn, see our things to do in Horsham page.
Sources
- Horsham District Council: £10 million Capitol refurbishment delivers lasting benefits for local community, 25 August 2026
- Horsham District Council: future refurbishment plans for Horsham’s Capitol theatre to be reappraised, 21 October 2024
- Horsham District Council: Horsham’s Capitol to now remain open in 2025, 20 February 2025
- Horsham District Council: curtains up on major refresh, 15 December 2025
- The Capitol: the refurb project and FAQs and what’s on, both checked 30 August 2026
Checked against the sources above on 30 August 2026. One thing we could not confirm: the council has not published the calculation behind the £270,000 social value estimate, and we have not seen a committee paper reconciling the £10.7m approved in February 2024 with the £10.2m the venue now gives as the approved budget.
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