Grand Opera House

Grand Opera House, York

A corn exchange and warehouse dating from 1868, converted to a music hall in 1902 by architect JP Briggs. The building was restored and reopened in 1989. It occupies the corner of Cumberland Street and King Street, with its entrance and foyer incorporated into Nos 2-10 Clifford Street.

The Cumberland Street front is constructed of red brick in English bond, banded with orange brick, on a sandstone plinth. It comprises a 3-storey 4-window block to the left and a taller block to the right of 3 storeys with basement and 3 bays. The left block has a remodelled entrance with panelled double doors in a plain doorcase, a small round-headed window, and a replacement panelled stage door beneath an overlight. On the first and second floors, windows are round-headed with stone sills and round arches of brick, including a tall staircase window between floors. All windows and overlights feature rounded Gothic-style glazing. A gable eaves cornice of three stepped courses of contrasting brick runs across the gable apex beneath three stepped ventilation slits. The right block has a double door at its right end beneath a blocked former lifting opening, and an inserted basement door to the left. The ground and first floor centre windows are tripled and round-headed with stepped detailing on the first floor; all windows are now blocked with chamfered sills forming sill bands. Round brick arches surround all openings.

The King Street front is of red brick in Flemish bond on a rusticated sandstone plinth, with sandstone ashlar dressings and bands of cogged brick. It comprises 3 storeys with basement across 7 bays. The basement features five pairs of double board doors with tooled lintels and one altered doorway at the right end. Ground floor windows are tiered and paired with cambered heads, stepped back beneath segmental arches of gauged brick and set over a chamfered basement band. The first and second floors have a single tier of similar paired windows, some retaining original diamond motif glazing, others blind or blocked. Windows on these floors are flanked by bands of cogged brick beneath stone sill bands. An eaves cornice of stepped brick corbels surmounted by a pierced brick parapet tops the elevation. The roofs are of slate.

The interior has been restored using original fitments, including a scenery grid. The foyer features a bow-fronted box office front. Panelled and half-glazed doors with embossed bevelled glass and curvilinear glazing bars are set in segment-arched glazed screens with spandrels decorated with Art Nouveau carving. The auditorium retains two serpentine balconies with moulded fronts. A rectangular moulded proscenium arch with a central cartouche is flanked by full-height round arches on composite columns containing pairs of bow-fronted boxes at each balcony level. The ceiling is an oval saucer dome set in a rectangular surround with decorated spandrels and a plaster sunburst radiating from the centre.