The Winter Gardens

The Winter Gardens is a theatre built in 1896 by Mangnall and Littlewood, located on Marine Road Central in Morecambe. The rear elevations are rendered, while the facade features red terracotta and brick, topped with a slate roof. The facade includes a central doorway and six shop units, which have some 20th-century alterations but retain some original doors and fascias. In front of the building, there are cast-iron columns that once supported a glazed canopy, now demolished. The facade is accentuated by two three-storey corner towers connected by a glazed first-floor arcade with a balustrade and a central projection. The towers feature third-floor lunette windows and shaped gables with finials. The wide central gable is set back and has a lunette beneath a stepped coping adorned with volutes and finials.

Inside, the entrance foyer is richly decorated with a mosaic floor and an elaborate plasterwork ceiling. It includes dark timber revolving doors, three box offices, and inner carved doors with leaded glazing. The walls are finished in terracotta and coloured glazed tiles. Stairs on either side rise to the left and right, featuring marble steps, mosaic landings, glazed terracotta balustrades, and tiled dados. The first-floor foyer leading to the circle mirrors this style, with a plasterwork ceiling and wall panels, and two flights of stairs leading to the upper circle. The auditorium boasts a plasterwork ceiling with arched ribs spanning 118 feet, richly decorated panels, and two tiers of balconies with raking seating and ornamented fronts. The proscenium arch is enhanced with an entablature, columns, and scrolled brackets, flanked by two tiers of paired boxes with curved fronts.

The Winter Gardens complex originally included the 'People's Palace', which opened in 1878 to the west of the current building and was demolished in 1982.