Grand Theatre

The Grand Theatre in Wolverhampton is a theatre built between 1893 and 1894 by C.J. Phipps. It is constructed of brick with stone dressings and features a slate Mansard roof, designed in the Renaissance style. The building has three storeys plus an attic and consists of nine bays. The central five bays on the ground floor are recessed behind a colonnade, with Mansard-roofed end bays flanking them.

The ground floor includes a frieze and cornice, a sill course on the first floor, and a top entablature with a brick frieze and a stone-coped parapet that has a central balustrade. The colonnade is supported by antae, with a balustrade between them. The ground floor features piers with plate-glass windows replacing shop fronts in two bays at each end. The windows on the first and second floors are adorned with architraves and casements, while the end bays have balustraded aprons and friezes with cornices on the first floor, which serve as sills for the second-floor windows that have enriched iron grilles. The centre has a 20th-century glazed enclosure on the first floor, and there is a pedimented half-dormer at each end.

There are five central entrances with 20th-century doors and a glazed cast iron lean-to canopy. The building has some brick stacks.

Inside, the theatre retains its original features, including an auditorium with original plasterwork, curved balconies, two boxes with broken pediments, and a proscenium architrave with an enriched panel above. The coved ceiling has a round central panel covered with acoustic tiles. Notably, the original act drop with a painted landscape is one of only two surviving examples. This theatre is considered one of Phipps' most important remaining works and is regarded as one of his most successful designs.