The Brindley is a theatre in the town of Runcorn, Cheshire, England. Located by the Bridgewater Canal, the centre is named after the canal's engineer, James Brindley. It opened in autumn 2004; the architects were John Miller and Partners.^[1] The building is owned and operated by Halton Borough Council.^[2]

Halton Borough Council were concerned about the building's impact on the environment and about its energy requirements. Therefore "low energy, high efficiency techniques" were used in its construction.^[3] These include a TermoDeck slab system, a storage technique for controlling the environment within large and medium-sized buildings using hollow cores within pre-cast concrete floor slabs as ventilation ducts.^[4]

The venue consists of a 420-seat main auditorium playing host to touring productions, a professional pantomime each Christmas season, local amateur shows and in-house productions, a 108-seat studio which also serves as a single screen cinema, an exhibition and gallery space, an education room, a dark room, a digital imaging room, dressing rooms, a meeting room, a bar and a café overlooking the Bridgewater Canal.^[2]

The centre has won several awards for its architecture: The Centre Vision Award from The Civic Trust in 2005,^[1] the Excellence in Access award from the ADAPT Trust (Access for Disabled People to Arts Premises Today), and the Architectural Award from the Royal Institute of British Architects.^[5] RIBA praised the building for fitting into its context, using the canal-side location to give views, and making good use of its budget.^[6] It also won the Open Award for Technical Excellence in Architectural Technology 2008.^[7]

For its community activities, The Brindley won the title Best Arts Project in the UK at The National Lottery Awards in 2007.^[8] In May 2008, the theatre won the Best Performance Venue Award at the Mersey Partnership Tourism Awards 2008.^[5]