The Empire Theatre

SUNDERLAND

NZ3957SW HIGH STREET WEST 920-1/17/111 (North side) 10/11/78 The Empire Theatre

GV II*

Theatre. 1906-7. By W and TR Milburn with c1989 rear upper bar extension. Ashlar entrance building; rear auditorium and lobbies brick with ashlar dressing; copper dome; slate roof. L-plan. Free Baroque style. EXTERIOR: 2 storeys, 2 windows to High Street West; 3-storey corner entrance tower. Right return 2 storeys; entrance one window, long rear range. Main front: box office entrance at left of shop front. One wide tripartite round-headed window above with upper glazing bars in architrave; canted right corner of this has narrow first-floor window with upper glazing bars. Projecting corner tower has paired Ionic columns supporting ground floor entablature with dentilled frieze; long panels through upper stages have keyed oeil-de-boeuf below cornices on first floor; second-floor aproned moulded sills to small lights under swags with lions' heads; modillioned cornice to top entablature below balustraded parapet interrupted by continuation of panels through to round-headed dormers containing oeil-de-boeuf under long keystones which extend to moulded round cornice. Ribbed dome supports lantern of 4 angled pairs of Ionic columns framing niches, with top open-work sphere supporting statue (replica, the original inside the theatre) of Terpsichore. Right return has blank ground floor, Venetian first-floor window. Brick rear range has shallow canted first-floor bay windows with upper glazing bars. Plaque on right return commemorates laying of foundation stone by Vesta Tilley on September 29th, 1906. INTERIOR: much rich Baroque detail. Main entrance has circular lobby with painted classical scenes, terrazzo floor. Auditorium wide with 2 curved balconies, the lower with side arcades to stairs which rise to balcony from stalls level. Above these lower stairs boxes project in round turrets at second-balcony level, with paired Ionic columns supporting balustraded moulded cupolas with gabled dormers. Rectangular proscenium arch with central raised tablet. Ribbed coved ceiling with stucco decoration in Baroque style. All balconies have richly moulded fronts. A remarkably unaltered interior, carefully restored by the Borough Council. (The Curtains Committee: Curtains: 1982-: 184).

Listing NGR: NZ3926957047