The Gielgud Theatre

This list entry was subject to a Minor Amendment on 26/08/2014

TQ 2980 NE 71/28

CITY OF WESTMINSTER, SHAFTESBURY AVENUE W1, The Gielgud Theatre

(Formerly listed as The Globe Theatre)

28-6-72

GV II

Theatre. 1902, by W. G. R. Sprague. Portland stone, slate roof. Free Baroque style with some French features. On corner site and designed as part of a symmetrical composition with the Queen's Theatre, originally with similar plans and elevations. 4 storeys. 2 windows wide to Shaftesbury Avenue, 3 windows wide bowed corner and 3 window return to Rupert Street continued as plain brick and stone facade. Foyer doorways on corner under canopy on ornamental brackets. Square headed windows with enriched architraves and cornices to 1st and 2nd floors and oeil de boeuf windows to 3rd floor; crowning cornice and balustrade. The bowed corner is slightly recessed with 1st floor windows arcaded and with a giant Ionic order uniting the 2nd and 3rd floors; above the main cornice, the bow is fully developed as a short, buttressed, circular tower with stone dome. Good interior decorations, including spacious circular foyer with Ionic columns; the auditorium, in a 'Louis XIV' style, is of circular form cut by the tangent of the proscenium wall and has 2 cantilevered balconies; the curved side walls at both levels dressed with pairs of engaged Ionic columns carrying entablatures (a theme repeated in the Grand Saloon behind the Dress Circle). Flanking the stage pairs of giant, pedestalled Corinthian pilasters frame 2 tiers of boxes and carry entablature on and across the architrave of the proscenium proper. Circular moulded ceiling with central crystal electrolier. Original stage machinery includes the working bridge (of original form), grave trap, 2 single traps, elements of stage grid with a bridge winch and slider mechanisms, etc. Sprague was a friend and collaborator of Frank Matcham. Survey of London; vol XXXI The Theatres of London; Mander and Mitchenson

Listing NGR: TQ2964180874