The Empire Theatre (former Empire Music Hall, Theatre of Varieties and Cinema)

This former music hall and variety theatre began in 1894 as an adaptation of a 19th-century cotton mill. Between 1910 and 1911, architect Bertie Crewe reconstructed it as a theatre and cinema in the Edwardian neo-Baroque style, with further alterations made during the later 20th century.

Construction and Layout

The building is constructed of sandstone, brick, concrete and cast-iron girders, with roofs of timber, concrete and iron-girder framing. The theatre occupies a polygonal plan to the rear of St James's Street, facing Cow Lane, with an east-west aligned stage and auditorium and an irregular-shaped south-west stair block. Two interconnected ranges (providing entrances) extend northwards in north-south and east-west alignments, whilst a north-south aligned dressing room block extends to the south.

Exterior

The theatre reuses the walls of the former mid-19th-century mill and mill pond in its north, east and west elevations. The River Calder turns sharply left around the building's north-east corner. The stage has a mansard roof with rectangular roof light, and catslide roofs separated by a stone-capped parapet from the auditorium's combination and pitched roofs. The southern stair block and north extensions have flat roofs whilst the south range is pitched. All windows are currently blocked (as of 2022).

The west elevation facing Cow Lane, Bertie Crewe's former principal elevation, consists of a single canted north-west bay, seven bays facing Cow Lane, and a wide single bay to the south (the stair block) beneath a truncated parapet. A substantial moulded cornice, string bands and panelled pilasters partially remain, and Bertie Crewe's fenestration arrangement and design can be seen despite late 1930s panel additions and 20th-century render. The ground floor has three entrances: a substantial chamfered canted north-west entrance, a wide doorway to the small stalls foyer, and a narrow door in the back angled southern bay. Above is a central frieze, a round-arched stair light to the south, and a blind projecting late-1930s concrete and steel girder box containing winding rooms.

The north elevation contains the mid-19th-century and late-19th-century fabric of the former mill and Rawcliffe's theatre stage and auditorium wall, adapted in the early 20th century with an upper stage window. A single-storey north-south aligned brick, stone and concrete range (number 118 St James's Street) abuts the stage wall and connects westwards with a two-storey brick and concrete range of 1910-1911. Both form historic entrances and stairs to the auditorium. The 1910-1911 block has ashlar incised render and its north elevation has an exit door from the stalls with windows either side and stair windows above. The right (west) return contains an exit door from the gods and has a heavily projecting cornice extending from the north-west canted entrance.

The building's south elevation includes the projecting stair block with a heavily moulded cornice above a two-leaf south door to the gods pay booth and stairs. Its right (east) elevation is of red brick. Extending east is a gabled and capped parapet auditorium wall with a tall rendered corner chimneystack to the south. Beyond the chimneystack the wall height drops to a two-bay, three-storey stage wall with two upper windows (one retaining a six-over-six sash) below a catslide and mansard roof. Attached to the south wall of the stage is a two-storey north-south aligned scene dock with a catslide roof and a dressing room block. The dressing room block has a pitched roof and margined quoins to the south-east corner with a south door and first-floor casement window.

The rear (east) elevation comprises a four-bay dressing room block with three ground and first-floor windows, and a mid-storey ground and first-floor window to the north. Its masonry ties into the stage elevation which ranges in height between the stone-capped parapet of the catslide and mansard roofs. The bay adjoining the dressing room block has two off-set windows at ground and mid-storey level, margined south-east quoins, an upper wall of white glazed brick, and substantial quoins marking the former end corner of the mid-19th-century mill. To the east, the stage wall reuses the former six-storey mill wall with its infilled windows and doors, and at its north-east corner is a buttressed extension that returns around the north elevation.

Interior

The theatre predominantly retains Bertie Crewe's 1910-1911 design, unless otherwise identified below.

Auditorium

Bertie Crewe's Grecian Renaissance-style auditorium has a wide segmental proscenium arch with a moulded and ornamented plaster surround and spandrels set either side of a re-set 1894 scrolled cartouche of the Burnley shield (late-20th-century modifications conceal the full design). To each side are three sets of pilasters that rise to elongated scrolled ceiling brackets ornamented by composite capitals with cherub heads. The gallery has garland drops to the upper panelled pilasters and between the pilasters are shouldered panels with plaster garlands.

Projecting from the eastern auditorium bays are two-tier bow-fronted boxes with elongated scrolled brackets (removed for replication in 2022) supporting plinths with acanthus leaf moulded bands, partly-fluted columns with composite capitals, and a heavily ornamented entablature. Above the entablature is a moulded flat pediment embraced by posts and stylised scroll brackets with a plaster cherub in a central panel and two floral motifs in the post panels. Behind each two-tier box is a wooden quarter-landing stair with a moulded floor-to-ceiling newel column and a short access corridor and cloakroom from the circle. The lower box fronts have three rectangular panels with a central scrolled decorative cartouche and swagged garland, set between an acanthus leaf string band and moulded and decorated handrail. The upper box's front has a stylised Graeco-Doric band below a band of enriched geometric panels and a bead-and-reel cornice. The upper box also has a moulded arch opening with scrolled brackets and a stylised central scroll and moulded spandrels above. The auditorium ceiling is coffered with dentillated enrichment and a bow-ended central compartment containing rope plasterwork and a latticed ceiling ventilator.

Stalls and Access

The auditorium has a large concrete orchestra pit and raked stall floor and retains sections of decorative Art Nouveau wall tiles (by Craven Dunhill & Company), moulded dados, and banded cream and red tiles. There are now five exits from the stalls, including a north-west canted exit directly onto Cow Lane. Two exits beneath and beside the north box (now interconnected) provide access to the 1910-1911 extension, exits to the north courtyard and through number 118 St James's Street (blocked in 2022) and entrance stair to the circle. A west exit enters a small stalls foyer containing stairs to the circle and a pay booth with an external door onto Cow Lane. The pay booth retains a moulded architrave, six-panel door and ticket hatch. A further exit door beneath the south box (originally through to the adjacent Listed building, now blocked) accesses a polygonal west room with a hatched four-panel door. Two further doorways, one to the west and another to the north, provide access to former toilets. To the rear (west) of the stalls are three blocked-up auditorium windows replicated on the balconies above, some with moulded architraves and shutters in place.

Circle and Gallery

Bertie Crewe's two-tier cantilever steel, wood and plaster balcony system is tied to the two-tier boxes. The circle balcony has an extended curved balcony front (1938) ornamented with a 1930s scheme of rosettes and diamond motifs below a bead-and-reel cornice and handrail. The adapted raked balcony floor has 1930s velvet-covered metal tip-up seating with panelled seat ends. To the rear of the seating is a curved and panelled promenade balustrade with square and shaped newel posts, three north-facing window architraves and a north room (ladies' room with Duckett and Son pedestal toilet). The circle is accessed by two entrances from the north and east, connecting with the northern 1910-1911 extension and number 118 St James's Street and stalls. Gentlemen's toilets retain wooden window architraves and four white James Duckett and Son of Burnley kiln-fired and salt-glazed urinals and a wooden Edwardian toilet cubicle. A metal-framed north door leads to a narrow winding room with concrete slab walls and ceiling, which originally accessed the biograph box (now removed). Above the winding room, parallel sections of iron girder and brick walling support an inserted 1930s projection room above.

Crewe's gallery balcony is curved and set back from the circle balcony with decoration to the balcony front and underside matching those of the boxes. Its underside has a decorative frieze and is coved above the circle promenade with dentillated and moulded cornicing. The raked gallery benching is divided by tall plank partitions and is arranged with mid and end aisles, and to the rear is a panelled balustrade with chamfered square newel posts and ball finials. A 1930s concrete-built projection box punctures through the gallery seating with a viewing box set above.

The gods has similar exit arrangements to the circle, including a north door to a concrete staircase in the 1910-1911 extension that exits through a west door onto Cow Lane, and a west door leading to a landing. The landing leads to a 1910-1911 lavatory and down to a ground-floor pay booth and external south door. A corridor runs north to access further gentlemen's toilets containing four-panelled doors and brown Duckett and Son urinals and steps down to the 1930s projection and winding rooms. The concrete slab and H-girder frame projection room has metal-framed doors and seven projector windows retaining iron shutters.

Stage and Backstage

The stage utilises the full height of the former mill with a large 'haystack' lantern. Fly floors are positioned either side of the stage and remain connected by a gantry with parts of the fly system and counterbalance system in place. The stage floor has been shortened. There is a brick-infilled tall north doorway (former late-19th-century scene dock doorway), a blocked east door (onto the former ironwork passage to Tanner Street) and two south doors to the dressing-room block and scene dock. Beneath the remaining stage are two dressing rooms and a small ancillary room with shelving and six mill window openings looking over the River Calder with 19th-century three-over-three pane windows and early-20th-century two-over-two casements. The north dressing room has a late-19th-century west door to the foundations of the former mill pond. The south dressing room accesses the basement and sub-basement of the dressing room and stage block.

The dressing room block has a north-south aligned corridor between an external stage door, steps up to the stage, stone stairs down to the stage's basement and a sub-basement beneath the scene dock (for heating services). It has dressing rooms on both floors. The scene dock, adapted as office rooms, is accessed from a south doorway off the stage.