Playhouse Theatre

TO 3080 SW CITY OF WESTMINSTER CRAVEN STREET, WC2 83/46 9.1.70 Playhouse Theatre

G.V. II

Theatre. 1881-82 by F.H. Fowler as the Royal Avenue Theatre, interior reconstructed 1906-07 by Blow and Billerey. Painted stone, concealed roof. Restrained and elegant classical design. 2 storeys. 11 windows wide with curved south east end. Ground floor doorways grouped to corner under canopy, and blind architraved and corniced windows in rusticated ground floor articulated by modified Corinthian pilasters supporting entablature. The tall upper storey has architraved windows with pediments on consoles and blind oculi above, articulated by giant pilasters supporting full entablature and balustraded parapet. The interior is an elegant exercise in Blow and Billerey's Louis XV manner: kidney-shaped outer foyer with cresting of ribboned sprigs to inner archway; panelled inner foyer with cartouche-trophy of musical instruments; the auditorium has basket-arch proscenium set in deep reveal framing the boxes, the arch surmounted by an achievement of figures of Fame crowning Thalia; kidney-shaped lower and upper balconies, the lower continuing the line of the upper boxes, all with turned baluster fronts; caryatids flank the (former) lower boxes, supporting upper ones; sweeping basket arch frames uppermost part of auditorium; circular dome and oval panel of ceiling and the basket arch wall panels all decorated in grisaille. Stage machinery probably dating from 1906-07 reconstruction.

The Theatres of London; Mander and Mitchenson.

Listing NGR: TQ3031880345