Shaftesbury Theatre

CAMDEN

TQ3081SW HIGH HOLBORN 798-1/105/1429 Shaftesbury Theatre 01/03/74

GV II

See under: Shaftesbury Theatre SHAFTESBURY AVENUE.

CAMDEN

TQ3081SW SHAFTESBURY AVENUE 798-1/105/1429 (East side) 01/03/74 Shaftesbury Theatre

GV II

Includes: Shaftesbury Theatre HIGH HOLBORN. Theatre. 1911. By Bertie Crewe. Terracotta, stone and brick in elaborate Renaissance style. Rectangular plan on a corner site, the main entrance being at the angle of Shaftesbury Avenue and High Holborn. EXTERIOR: 3 storeys, 4 bays to each return, the entrance bay being curved. Ground floor rusticated with continuous plain canopy over. 1st floor rusticated, much of the fenestration covered by hoarding. 2nd floor with Diocletian windows & oculi in alternate bays, the entrance having rectangular windows with enriched architraves, all having large consoles under a cornice and elaborate parapet. Above the entrance front, a cupola. INTERIOR: foyer and booking hall with delicate plaster decoration. Auditorium of considerable richness with 2 cantilevered balconies, the fronts varied in form and decoration. Rectangular ceiling with enriched cove and cornice and circular flat-domed centre. Segmental proscenium arch with figure reliefs in spandrels over. Bow-fronted boxes paired in two tiers and framed by giant Ionic columns rising from heavy console brackets and carrying an entablature with figures, the whole composition crowned by a semicircular arch and a heavily moulded eaves cornice. In the arch tympanum a sculptural group is set over each upper box. Balustraded balcony terraces at upper box level run laterally along the walls towards the boxes and balustraded front to filled orchestra pit. HISTORICAL NOTE: the theatre was designed as a melodrama house. (Curtains!!! or, A New Life for Old Theatres: London: -1982: 157-58).

Listing NGR: TQ3013781354