Theatre Royal

BURY ST EDMUNDS

TL8563NE WESTGATE STREET 639-1/11/687 (South side) 07/08/52 Theatre Royal

GV I

Theatre. 1819; later used as a warehouse, but restored and re-opened as a theatre in 1965. By William Wilkins. In white brick and stucco with slate roof. EXTERIOR: the auditorium has a gabled end in white brick, with a 3-light small-paned sash window set in a semicircular arched recess. This rises above a stuccoed flat-roofed entrance foyer in 2 tiers, with a triglyph frieze and cornice to the lower part of the front, which is divided into 3 bays by plain pilasters, doubled at the corners. The 2 outer bays have small-paned semicircular arched windows and the central bay has double entrance doors with a semicircular fanlight. The windows and fanlight all have radiating glazing-bars. Lower side wings flank the foyer, each with 2 semicircular arched openings, one with a small-paned window, the other with a doorway. INTERIOR: the circular auditorium has 2 tiers of galleries above, supported on slender reeded cast-iron columns with acanthus-leaf capitals. The original Etruscan style decoration to the fronts of the galleries has been restored. The stage has a door at each side and figured marble pilasters. The foyer has a pair of matching fireplaces on the rear walls: the slightly raised cast-iron grates have reeded surrounds and moulded architraves with dentil cornices. Domed ceiling. (BOE: Pevsner N: Radcliffe E: Suffolk: London: 1974-: 151; Statham M: The Book of Bury St Edmunds: Buckingham: 1988-: 109-110).

Listing NGR: TL8563563748