The Theatre Royal And The Colonnade Public House (Number 10) And Attached Colonnade And Stage Entrance To The Theatre Royal

This is a theatre incorporating a public house, with a complex building history spanning over a century of theatrical development.

The core of the building retains much fabric from the original theatre of 1807, built to designs approved by the Prince of Wales, quite possibly by Edward Hide (or Hides), who designed the Worthing Theatre in the same year. In 1866, the auditorium and stage were rebuilt and the facade heightened and extended by C J Phipps, when Henry John Nye Chart purchased the theatre. The builder was David Bland of London, and the Clerk of the Works was George Tasker. In 1894, there was a re-fronting of the exterior and the theatre was extended into Numbers 8 and 9 New Road and Number 35 Bond Street by C E Clayton of the firm Clayton and Black, North Street, Brighton. Clayton remained the theatre architect until three years before his death in 1923. The auditorium was re-decorated by Sprague and Barton in 1926/7.

Materials and Construction

The theatre frontage is of painted brick with painted terracotta decoration, copper cupolas and hipped pantiled roofs. The sides are of brick in various bonds and some cobbles with slate roofs. Numbers 9 and 10 are of yellow brick in Flemish bond with stuccoed dressings and parapeted roofs. Number 35 Bond Street is of painted brick with tiled roof.

Layout

The theatre occupies the north-east of the site, including scene dock, painting room, property stores and dressing rooms to the north-west. Number 9 includes the Colonnade Public House on the ground floor and theatre bars above. Number 8 comprises the theatre box office on the ground floor, with staircase and bar above. Number 35 Bond Street contains the stage door, scenery entrance and offices.

Exterior

Numbers 8 and 9 are part of an early 19th-century terrace which includes Numbers 1-7 (consecutive) New Road and Numbers 159-161 (consecutive) North Street and were incorporated into the theatre circa 1894. They are a pair, four storeys over basement, and have three window openings between the pair with central blanks. The pedimented parapet has a painted inscription 'THEATRE ROYAL'. There are end channelled stuccoed pilasters with anthemion decoration to the capitals. The second-floor windows are eight-pane sash windows. The second floor of Number 9 has a 16-pane sash with stuccoed hood on brackets, but Number 8 has a late 19th-century square bay of five lights. The first floor has a central round-headed niche flanked by curved bay windows with marginal glazing. The ground floor has a colonnade with modillion cornice, pierced balustrading above and is supported on paired columns. Number 8 has a late 19th-century wooden frontage with two paired half-glazed doors with swans neck pediments flanked by fixed light and has elliptical-arched fanlights with stained glass. Number 9 has a late 19th-century bar front with elliptical arch flanked by pilasters and fine coloured tiles at the sides with floral panels. Behind is a central canted bay with swans neck pediment, side-lights, side entrances, one round-headed entrance and fanlight with glazing bars above. The glass is engraved.

The 1894 theatre front to New Road by Clayton is of four storeys and attics over basement and has a centre projecting range of five windows, while a further window on each side of the third floor is slightly set back and attached to octagonal corner turrets topped by ogee-capped metal roofs. The turrets and centre are linked on the second and third floors by arches, the latter enclosed. The first-floor windows in the centre range are set in an elaborate aedicule surmounted by a round-arched tympanum filled with a shell motif; the pair of flanking windows have architraves and are topped by a floral entablature frieze. These and many other details in the elevation are in the Flemish Renaissance style. The central window on the second floor is set in an elaborate aedicule with a scrolled pediment. There is a sill band to the side windows, each of which has a flared lintel. All the third-floor windows are round arched. Those in the central section are treated as an arcade with a section of balustrade filling each spandrel, while each side window has a projecting balcony enclosed by railings. In this stage, shallow corbel shafts rise to frame the centre window of the fourth floor, where they support pilaster brackets, each terminating in an obelisk; there are remains of scrolled gables to be found above this upper floor. There are keyed oval windows in the fourth floor of the attached turrets. The attic, framed in wood and glazed, dates to circa 1915 and replaced a scrolled parapet. The ground floor has a colonnade of paired Ionic columns with deep cornice incorporating a pierced balustrade. The north-east side elevation of painted brick retains the brackets of Phipps' 1866 heightening of the 1807 theatre and 19th-century brickwork to the old painting room. From the rear, the late 19th-century lead-covered roof projection housing the safety curtain is visible.

Number 35 Bond Street is part of an early to mid 19th-century terrace. It is of two storeys, painted brick with a tiled roof. The first floor has a late 19th-century sash without glazing bars. The ground floor has a recessed stage door entrance, double fire doors and an unusual circa 1894 tall, narrow scenery door stretching partly into the upper floor with two tier ledged and braced doors.

Interior

The ground floor of Number 8 contains the box office and entrance lobby. There are panelled walls with pilasters and cornice above, a large panelled ticket kiosk with elliptical fanlights and central swan's neck pediment, a wooden fireplace with carved, mirrored overmantel, engaged columns and tiles, and entrances with double doors to the Stalls and Royal Circle. There is an open well staircase with balustrading and flat open arches to the royal circle and a separate entrance with a staircase to the gallery. The stalls bar retains an 1890s panelled mahogany bar counter and mirrored shelving. The Colonnade Public House interior retains original fittings including bar shelves. A further curved staircase from the stalls to the Royal Circle behind the boxes on the south side has a circular newel post, stick balusters and a round-headed niche containing a statue of Bacchus and is considered to date from 1807.

On the first floor, late 19th-century double doors with stained glass panels lead into the Dress Circle Lounge Bar which retains the 1890s mahogany panelled counter, mahogany and mirrored shelving with central swans neck pediment and a mahogany fireplace with reeded pilasters. The adjoining Phipps Bar contains a later 19th-century black marble fireplace with tiled cheeks.

The auditorium has a flat proscenium arch with early 19th-century Royal Arms in the centre. Above the proscenium is a frieze of Jacobean-style strapwork which may date from 1894. In 1866, Phipps altered the 1807 plan to a bell-shaped plan with a central chandelier and a three tier gallery supported on cast-iron columns. The 1866 colour scheme was purple, cream and buff. The first and second level omnibus boxes near the stage with flanking, double giant pilasters remain from Phipps' scheme, also the chandelier, the iron columns supporting the galleries and the general proportions. Clayton in the 1890s appears to have left most of Phipps' scheme in place with the possible exception of the frieze above the proscenium arch. However, Barton and Sprague in 1927 replaced Phipps' decorations with plaster decoration in a late Louis Seize style, strengthened the rear of the galleries with reinforced concrete lintels, altered the plan of Phipps' galleries adding a reverse curve near the stage and, in so doing, removed one cast-iron column on each side of the dress and upper circles.

The theatre retains some interesting backstage features, including a serving hatch to pass drinks straight through to actors waiting in the wings, a late 19th-century safety curtain metal counterweight, hemp ropes and the old scene painting room retains a wooden drum and shaft remaining from Victorian machinery. The sub-stage mezzanine area retains the standing members of a fully machined wood stage which could raise scenery and performers to stage level but the moving parts have been removed. The dressing room area retains a staircase, plank panelling and a fireplace with paterae and cast iron firegrate.