St Georges Theatre

GREAT YARMOUTH

TG5207SE ST GEORGE'S PLAIN 839-1/16/181 (North East side) 27/06/53 St George's Theatre (Formerly Listed as: KING STREET (East side) Former Church of St George)

GV I

Church, now theatre. Built 1714 as a chapel of ease to St Nicholas by John Price of Wandsworth. Redundant in 1959, restored 1974 and opened as a theatre 1979. The ground plan is based on St Clement Danes, London. Red brick with ashlar dressings on a stone plinth course. The brick is laid in Flemish bond but is of header bond in the quadrants. Copper roof. EXTERIOR: 2 storeys; 4-window range. The north and south sides are of 4 bays each, with giant pilasters supporting a Doric block entablature below a rebuilt parapet. 8/8 lower sashes and 12/12 upper ones, all round-headed. There is one 6-panelled door to each front, requiring the shortening of one window. The east and west ends are joined to the sides by means of double quadrants, each of which has a pair of sashes as before set within a broad ashlar band. One quadrant bay on north and south sides has a pedimented doorway. The church is entered from the west through a double-leaf door under a pediment. Pilasters rise up either side to a broken pediment containing a round-headed sash with glazing bars. Above the parapet is a tower of square section lit through a small sash to the west and with a clock face under a pediment to the north and south. There is a low open balustrade and then an open cupola with paired columns to the projections. On top of this is a polygonal lantern under an ogeed dome. Ball finial and weathervane. The east end has the same double quadrants as the west except they do not have doorways. The upper east window is the only one to retain C18 glazing bars, though not of 1718. The east end has a pair of giant Corinthian pilasters supporting an open pediment on block entablatures. Panelled door with an arched overlight. The roof is low and hipped. INTERIOR: the entrance narthex has a staircase right and left: turned balusters, ramped and wreathed moulded handrail, open string. The interior was formerly of 6 bays of panelled timber piers supporting a gallery. On the gallery were 6 Doric columns rising to a barrel-vaulted ceiling with subsidiary domes at the east end. These elements remain, but the lower

pier panelling and the plaster vault has gone, leaving the roof timbers exposed. Roof of principal studs, curved tension braces to the upper wall plate and flat purlins. The barrel-vault formers remain. The east and west ends have a pair of Corinthian upper columns. The north side under the gallery has been partly partitioned off as a bar and the south side has been partitioned off to provide for changing rooms and other offices. The furnishings have been moved to the Church of St Nicholas (qv).

Listing NGR: TG5261207348