Streatham Hill Theatre

Streatham Hill Theatre is a theatre built between 1928 and 1929 by architects WGR Sprague and WH Barton. It features a steel frame clad in brick, with the facade faced in Doulton's Carrara terracotta. The roof is partly flat and partly covered with pantiles.

The auditorium originally seated nearly 3,000 people across three levels, with three tiers of paired boxes on either side of the proscenium. It includes a full stage with dressing rooms, a fly tower, and a grid, although the machinery has not been inspected. The front of the theatre has a series of foyers and bars that extend from the basement to the second floor.

The facade is designed as a tripartite composition, featuring four-bay pavilions under pediments with swag decoration flanking a five-bay center that has an open parapet set back behind Tuscan columns in antis. There are five pairs of original doors leading to the foyer, which is sheltered by an original canopy that is now covered. Inside, the foyer features an Imperial stair that rises behind a screen of Ionic columns beneath a deep cornice, along with neo-Grec iron balustrades, original kiosks, and mirrors. The upper foyer, located under the circle, has moulded decoration in a similar neo-Grec style, while the first-floor bar showcases a more rococo-style ceiling and cornice.

The auditorium is notably vast and opulent for its late date, with a moulded square proscenium arch and a frieze decorated with urns and sphinxes above it. Similar decorative medallions are found in the ante-proscenium behind two tiers of boxes on each side, all separated by three pairs of giant fluted Ionic columns. The side walls of the stalls and circle areas are adorned with pilasters, cornices, and shallow panelling. The ceiling features a heavily moulded, shallow, circular saucer dome with a central chandelier.

This theatre is included as an unusually lavish example of a building from the brief revival of theatre construction in 1929-30, and as a suburban example from this period, it may be unique.