Former Palace Theatre And Great Western Hotel

Former Palace Theatre and Great Western Hotel, Union Street, Stonehouse, Plymouth

A combined variety theatre and hotel opened on 5 September 1898, designed by architects JT Wimpris and Arber. The auditorium was damaged by fire in December 1898 and reopened in July 1899. The building occupies a large corner site and is constructed in brick and yellow terracotta with a ground floor of glazed tiles, plain tiled roofs with banded brick and terracotta stacks featuring moulded cornices. The design draws on Northern Renaissance style with Art Nouveau details.

The exterior comprises 4 storeys plus attic on one section and 3 storeys plus attic on another, with a taller "piano nobile". The composition is arranged as 3 groups of 3 bays, each group symmetrical, with the theatre occupying the right-hand portion. Moulded architectural detail includes an entablature above the ground floor, a string course above the second floor, and a modillion eaves cornice between forward breaks with moulded cornices.

The theatre features a large central Flemish gable with carved and shaped pediment surmounted by a finial and two statues of Spanish soldiers standing against the front face on opposing brackets. The second floor below displays two pairs of round-arched lights flanked by Ionic half columns with turned balustrades. The piano nobile contains three round-arched transomed windows flanked by similar columns. The flanking bays contain pairs of oculi set above large keyed and consoled lunette tiled panels depicting scenes from the Armada. Above the left-hand panel is a pair of lights matching the central ones; above the other panel is a blind floor surmounted by a ramped turret with balcony, oculi, and a bell-shaped dome topped by a ball finial, the whole reminiscent of Winstanley's ill-fated lighthouse. The ground floor, finished in glazed tiles, comprises a 2:3:2-bay colonnade of Tuscan columns.

A second turret with bell-shaped lead roof stands to the left of the three bays of the former Great Western Hotel. A canted oriel projects from the first and second floors of the central bay, with the flanking bays broken forward. The second-floor bays feature Baroque panels above paired round-arched lights with square columns, fronted by turned balustrades. The first and second floors have pilastered and transomed lights with moulded sills and cornices, and fine Art Nouveau panels. The ground floor has a moulded elliptical arch flanked by two similar round arches with spoked fanlights; the doors are 20th-century insertions. The frieze in the entablature above the ground floor of both buildings retains original fine-quality lettering and decorative detail. The left-hand return elevation is also richly detailed across one bay.

The interior contains a panelled entrance foyer with pay-booth and a fine Sicilian marble balustraded Imperial staircase leading to a large first-floor saloon. Lanterns flank the staircase newels. The foyer and saloon feature enriched plaster friezes depicting nereids, dolphins, and cherubs. The saloon is executed in Cinquecento style with roundels to a coffered ceiling and enriched spandrels to blind and open arcades with Ionic capitals to marble pilasters and columns. The two-tiered auditorium has panelled walls, a domed ceiling, and curved balcony fronts partly supported on slender cast-iron columns, decorated with military motifs and enriched plasterwork. A rectangular proscenium arch with rounded angles is flanked by single boxes treated as ships' transoms, with plasterwork rendered as if of clinker planking and fitted with lanterns above.

The building exemplifies the theatre as a place of lavish entertainment, as reflected in its rich and exciting decoration and architectural detail, with particular emphasis on nautical themes throughout.