Grand Theatre

The Grand Theatre is a theatre built in 1894 by Frank Matcham. It features a stone corner-entrance block that rises three storeys in a flamboyant free Baroque style, complete with a drum and dome. The façade is three-sided and canted, with round-arched entrances on the ground floor. The upper storeys are adorned with giant pilasters flanking windows, which are paired on each side with a bullseye above and a Venetian window in the centre. The attic storey has scrolled gables with finials on either side. The stone drum, featuring paired classical pilasters, supports a domed roof covered in copper fish-scale tiles, topped by a cupola at the centre.

Inside, the auditorium boasts three cantilevered and double-curved balconies, along with a semicircular proscenium arch flanked by corbelled curved boxes beneath semicircular arches, all richly decorated with pediments and putti. The oval ceiling is elaborately adorned with fibrous plaster decoration in a very ornate Baroque style, which is gilded and painted. The fronts of the boxes are ornamented with cherubs, putti, swags, and painted panels. The pendentives on either side of the proscenium arch feature large oval panels depicting muses. The ceiling is decorated with two heavily-moulded circular bosses that support chandeliers, surrounded by six large panels painted with portrait medallions, nymphs, putti, and garlands, all encased by a coved cornice. The dress circle level includes an ironwork staircase head and a wood-panelled bar with stained glass windows. The entire building was ingeniously designed to provide ample accommodation on a small site and was completed in just seven months, from December 1893 to July 1894.