The Braid Arts Centre

I thought Neil Delamere was magnificent though the start of the evening was ruined by staff saying I was using tickets that had been refunded. The tickets that I did have refunded were for an October show for Mr Delamere which had been cancelled. It stated quite clearly on my printed tickets it was for the show 1st April and the sum of £47.00 was paid from my debit account on 30/1/2022. I was asked if I had proof of date and I thought it actually was their job to find out when the tickets were purchased when it was them accusing me. I didn’t think I had to prove anything
I don’t think I will be booking online again .
I must add I have always enjoyed my many times at the Braid and think they all do a great job but this time was an exception.

Built around the ld Town Hall, The Braid is a wasted opportunity. With a huge site, this could have been an excellent civic centre, but instead we have a poor theatre and a fairly mediocre museum. Massive amounts of wasted space, this was obviously designed by an architect more interested in showing off his creativity, than providing a practical useful resource for the borough.
The seating in the main theatre is awful - bleachers with restricted legroom. This was an insane compromise to allow the theatre seating space to be multi-purpose! It's a small theatre, yet money was wasted on a huge "fly-tower" - as if that's going to get a lot of use in a venue of this size!!
A huge proportion of the museum is wasted in the massive glass-fronted display area, which will mean nothing to most visitors, and is effectively an over-sized foyer for the rest of the displays.
Why they didn't make the "listed" theatre into the museum, and build a proper theatre is beyond me!

I came here to see the paintings of Kenneth Shoesmith. I’m a fan. He often painted ships, ocean liners, in great, gloriously colourful works. They were fantastic, and well worth a five star review on their own… but. They were exhibited beside an area with a living artist’s abstract pictures. Sorry, but Maurice Orr’s ‘A Natural End’ collection could only hold my attention for a minute. Then there was the building. I needed directions from someone to find my way to the gallery area. From there the place was a rats’ maze. Lots of corridors with doors marked as vaguely as “workshop three,” or something like that. What rooms can I enter? What is there to see? There are no clues. Very odd. It’s a huge building, but what is on show?

On the plus side the Braid was free to enter, and there was a free Kenneth Shoesmith / Maurice Orr booklet you could take away. Staff, wherever I encountered them, were very helpful. Better signposting, or some note of what’s to see might help visitors.

Booking system is terrible with only few seats available to book via external booking system which is very expensive. Why can the Council not offer a proper booking system for all seats with no additional booking costs like Antrim or Newtownabbey offer. No decent bar service between show. Some of the artists offered are fantastic so credit to the venue staff to attract great names.

Perfectly appointed. Interestingly laid out. Well presented wander through local history from early times to the present era. The medieval section was particularly good, as was the local farming expierence from 60 years ago.
Some very nice exhibits from lots of periods.
Go see.

Was invited here tonight (17th sept) for an event. The building is quite clean but I believe there is issues with the AC. Very spacious.

Have been to several concerts in this theatre, find the seating not the most comfortable. My husband has long legs and it's almost impossible to get him to attend events as unless he gets an aisle seat he comes home in pain. He did hv a hip replacement last year which made the whole exp less enjoyable. The staff are very pleasant and the acoustics are very good. Hv been to classical, C & W, choirs etc and all good presentations. Facilities for tea, drinks etc at intervals are really poor. Pity the poor gentleman who tries to contend with the inevitable rush. Queues everywhere and no seating. Badly designed. The Tourist Info desk on ground floor is well manned with the most pleasant ladies one cd wish for. Most knowledgeable and helpful. Loads of literature available. Hv never been to the museum so cannot comment on it.

Braid Arts Centre has lots of Local acts playing deedlydee and tired Country music not worth going to see, but occasionally you get Flash Harry, The Illegals, Ultimate Eagles and similar acts well worth seeing.
Booking online now available at high cost if you are going as a family, surely online booking takes the load off Arts Centre staff and should be at worst free, as you save people's time by doing the job yourself, must be learning from the Easyjet and Ryanair model.
The theatre is comfortable with decent viewing angles, entry to shows is a bit of a last minute dash 5 mins before the acts are due on which creates long queues outside and down the stairway.
Not a place that could be described as rivetingly exciting or worth putting yourself out to visit you would be left somewhat deflated after your experience.

Really nice, had a great time, heartily recommended! Lots of interesting exhibits about the history or norniron

Found the Historical museum very interesting.
Staff so willing to help us locate ancestral information, but unable to do so because the records prior to 1840 are stored in Belfast. Gave us the name of a person in a nearby town that might be able to help us. They went above and beyond to assist us and we are impressed and grateful.