Camden Palace Theatre

The Camden Palace Theatre, now a night-club, was built between 1900 and 1901 by WGR Sprague, with later alterations in the late 20th century. The interior decoration is by Waring & Gillow. The building is constructed of stucco to the front (painted on the ground floor) and red brick to the return, with a symmetrical facade in a Baroque pastiche style.

The exterior has four main storeys and five bays. There is a single-storey entrance foyer with pilasters supporting an entablature and blocking course. Round-arched openings, blocked in the outer bays, have pilasters supporting architraved heads with keystones, and include part-glazed double doors. A tetrastyle in antis Ionic screen rises through the second and third floors to support an entablature with paired ogee pediments and a parapet, behind which is a large copper dome. Pilasters define the bowed angles of the flanking bays. The first floor has round-arched windows, the second square-headed windows, and the third has keyed oculi; this treatment is repeated on the first return bay. The ground floor return has two doorways with Ionic pilasters supporting entablatures with pediments, and panelled wooden double doors.

The interior is symmetrically planned, featuring an elaborate foyer behind the main entrance with Ionic pilasters and moulded ceilings, and an overmantel with a bronze bas relief plaque depicting Ellen Terry. A cantilevered dress circle and balcony are present, now without seats and with steps to the ground floor. The plasterwork is lightly modelled and demonstrates a mixture of Baroque and Rococo ornament by Waring & Gillow. The marble proscenium arch is surmounted by a segmental pediment with recumbent figures, and within the tympanum is a mask surrounded by rays. Four bays on either side of the proscenium incorporate marble Corinthian columns. Within three of these bays are six boxes in two tiers; the upper boxes have canopies and the lower boxes are supported by caryatids. The balcony fronts have rococo motifs. The ceiling is supported on brackets within the cove above the entablature and features a large oval centrepiece with a shallow dome. The theatre formally opened in December 1900 as the Royal Camden Theatre, hosting a range of productions from Shakespeare to pantomime and opera to musical comedy. Later uses included a cinema and a BBC recording studio. Sculptured statues originally adorned the parapets.