Lyceum Theatre

This list entry was subjected to a Minor Enhancement on 20 March 2025 to amend details in the description, remove superfluous amendment details and reformat the text to current standards

TQ 3080 NE 73/30

CITY OF WESTMINSTER WELLINGTON STREET, WC2 Lyceum Theatre

(Formerly listed as Nos 17 to 21. (odd) Lyceum Theatre)

20.8.60

G.V. II*

Theatre now dance hall. 1831-34 by Samuel Beazley, interior rebuilt with auditorium of 1904 by Bertie Crewe. Painted stone front with painted brick side and rear. Graeco-Roman porticoed main front by Beazley, the principal theatre architect of his day. Two storeys and attic. Three major bays wide with portico extended to right with a wing whose frontage is angled to street line. Giant hexastyle Corinthian columned portico with coupled outer columns extending over pavement with pediment. Tall attic above the dentilled and modillioned main entablature; triple arched group of doorways. The wing is of two storeys only with arcaded treatment and bracketed cornice.

Interior despite adaptation and alteration for present ballroom use retains substantial part of Crewe's 1904 work: grand entrance foyer and staircase lead to spectacular auditorium, now with flat floor, but with most of its original lavish Rococo style ornament intact; three balconies; immense cartouche above proscenium arch which is flanked by two tiers of paired, elaborately framed, boxes, the upper tier with Corinthian columns and fantastical arches; square deeply coved ceiling with original paintings etc. One of the oldest theatres in London and a major Crewe auditorium.

The Theatres of London; Mander and Mitchenson

There is a six-mantle Rochester gas lantern mounted to the west corner of the building, on the corner of Burleigh Street and Exeter Street.

Listing NGR: TQ3055580851