OrganFax Directory

Worthing Wurlitzer

Telephone Number :  01903 206 206

Email address :  contact@worthing-wurlitzer.org

Website :  www.worthing-wurlitzer.org

Contact name :  Box Office

Venue address : Worthing - The Assembly Hall, Stoke Abbott Road , Worthing, West Sussex, BN11 1HQ

About Worthing Wurlitzer

Thank you for visiting the Organ Fax website for the Worthing Wurlitzer.   Please note that our concerts start at 2.30pm and our dances at 2.00pm. .

2025 SATURDAY TEA DANCES at 2pm

18th October - Cameron Lloyd

2026 SATURDAY TEA DANCES at 2pm

January 10th with Michael Wooldridge

March 28th with Phil Kelsall MBE

Blackpool comes to Worthing!! Come and experience the atmosphere of dancing to the sounds of the mighty Wurlitzer Organ, just like in the Ballroom at Blackpool Tower. 

The entry price includes tea, coffee and delicious cake, provided in the interval.

2025 SUNDAY AFTERNOON CONCERTS at 2:30pm

October 12th - Robert Wolfe

November 16th - Richard Hills

2026 SUNDAY AFTERNOON CONCERTS at 2:30pm

February 15th at 2:30pm - Nicholas Martin

March 29th at 2:30pm - Phil Kelsall MBE

June 14th at 2.30pm - Young Wurlitzer Stars of the Future - A special afternoon featuring reigning UK Young Theatre Organist of the Year Oscar Battle, Jamyma Hanson, and students from the Rye and TPOPS Academies, hosted by Richard Moore BEM and Michael Wooldridge

Our Sunday afternoon concerts comprise two halves of about 50 minutes each with an interval of about 25 minutes.   We do hope that you can join us! Tea and cake are available.

Second hand CDs and vinyl records are available to purchase before concerts and during the interval. All proceeds will go to the Sussex Theatre Organ Trust to help ensure the future of the Wurlitzer events. 

Further Information

For those of you who are new to cinema and theatre organs, Wurlitzer pipe organs are historic musical instruments that were originally designed to provide accompaniment to silent films in cinemas. After the 'talkies' were invented, the instruments were played to provide music before and after film shows and during the interval. Many cinema buildings were demolished in the latter half of the 20th century but a number of the organs were saved and reinstalled in other buildings. The Wurlitzer installed in the Assembly Hall is just such an example and the excellent acoustics of the hall make the best of this organ's rich sounds.

Worthing's wonderful Wurlitzer is one of the largest theatre organs in England, indeed Europe. The sound you hear is produced from over 1500 organ pipes installed in the two organ chambers located behind the grilles on either side of the stage. The pipes range from 2 inches in length to 16 feet in length. Alongside these pipes are real percussion instruments; a xylophone, sleigh bells, drums, cymbals and even a set of cathedral chimes! The organ is a powerful instrument using air produced by two 5kw blowers housed under the stage. The console rises majestically to its playing position on a lift, as all proper theatre or cinema organs should. The console is where the organist sets the sounds (registrations) required from the organ pipes and other instruments from within the chambers, and of course where the notes are played on the manuals, also known as keyboards. The smallest theatre organ will have two manuals of five octaves in length; Worthing's Wurlitzer has three manuals (see photo) and some organs have four or more.