The Hackney Empire

The Hackney Empire is a variety theatre, built in 1901 by Frank Matcham for Oswald Stoll's "Empire" circuit. It is constructed of red brick with buff terracotta dressings and is executed in a Victorian Baroque style. The two-storey, three-bay front has half-glazed entrance doors set in square-headed architraves, with engaged columns flanking the centre bay and mannerist piers to the outer bays. The central first-floor bay features a pair of semi-circular arched windows set within a recessed frame topped by a four-centred mannerist arch with scrolled ends, supported by squat, bulbous Ionic columns, and with a balustrade to the front. Pilasters rise from the arch to a blank balustraded parapet, and a wreath and musical trophies appear in the tympanum of a swan-necked open pediment surmounted by a female figure. The slightly projecting outer bays each have semi-circular arched openings with decorative heads above a pair of circular and vertical windows, and are surmounted by extraordinary twin domes set on octagonal drums; the lower drums have tall slit openings, and the upper domes are formed of circular balustrades with scrolled brackets to Flambeaux. Other elevations are treated more simply with classical terracotta dressings.

The interior is in a flamboyant Rococo Baroque style. The porch has a mosaic floor and decorative plaster frieze. The foyer, of three by three bays, features marbled wood piers and walls, a wreathed cornice, and a large quatrefoil panel to a coffered ceiling. Painted panels of cherubs and composers are set in oval frames, suspended with festoons; decorative tile dados line the passages leading to the stalls. Marbled balustrades extend to the two flights of stairs, continuing to the upper foyer which has painted panels set in an elaborate plaster ceiling. There are three-bay semi-circular arched arcades to the front, mirroring flanked by doorways to the stairs, to the rear framing stained-glass windows set in wood frames, and to the side bays, which have Rococo ceilings and Art Nouveau plaster friezes. The auditorium is notable, with painted panels set in Rococo frames above a proscenium arch. The arch is flanked by winged cherubs holding urns and by onion domes set in curved recesses. The three-tiered auditorium features elaborate Rococo plasterwork to the front of cantilevered balconies, which have decorative plasterwork beneath. Three-bay arcades flank the proscenium to the second floor, with fluted Ionic piers separating a tall central arch flanked by painted panels above lower flanking arches with turned balusters to the arcaded balcony fronts. First-floor boxes are framed by console brackets and decorative plaster friezes, and have semi-circular arched exit doors flanking the proscenium. A decorative plaster frieze and coved cornice with shell niches adorn the panelled plaster ceiling. The Hackney Empire is noted as one of the most exuberant Matcham interiors in Britain.