Chester knows a bit about walls and the time it takes to build them, and both are reflected in its Storyhouse theatre. Bennetts Associates added to the redundant 1930s Odeon cinema to create a state of the art cultural complex – but insisted the extension respect its ancient context. The cinema’s ‘Jacobean’ bricks were made in a defunct North Wales brick foundry, but Bennetts chose a bespoke clay brick developed with Cumbria-based Furness Brick, using nearly 124,000. The clay mix has been immortalised as its ‘Theatre Blend’.