Reminiscence: sadness at final curtain for a Victorian theatre

11th March 2010

Here is a sad reminder of the last days of one of Leicester’s fine Victorian theatres, the Opera House, in Silver Street, which was replaced by Malcolm Arcade. This Mercury archive photograph , complete with contemporary Vauxhall Victor, is dated May 5, 1961, and it is clear from the lengthy caption that the writer was saddened by the theatre’s demise… This is what he said:

“Glories of ancient – but it isn’t, after all, the Colosseum of Rome. It is surely the sole relic of the ‘legitimate stage’ in Leicester. A memorial to much that was made memorable, but is destined to remain a memento no longer than the memories of the Royal Opera House Glories live in the minds of the great majority of Leicester people.

It is disintegrating no more surely under the demolition hammer than theatre has died of neglect and disinterest. In fact, the Corporation has just given permission for its replacement by an arcade of shops.

The ghosts of the famous who ‘trod the boards’, the entranced who sat in its boxes, in the stalls, the dress circle, even the crowded up into ‘the gods’ and forget for a while the relative discomforts of the amphitheatre seats, while they were carried away to other realms – none of these can long be imagined peopling this broken and empty shell.

The shops, restaurants and offices standing in its place will convince us that we have arrived in the second half of the 20th century – in which Leicester has not yet rediscovered its need of the realism, dreams and illusions of the stage.”

An attempt to keep professional theatre alive in Leicester came in the form of the relatively short-lived “Living Theatre” based in St Nicholas Schoolrooms, a building next to the old Vaughan College, in Great Central Street. A year or so later, in 1963, building of the successful Phoenix Theatre began. Then, in 1973, the Haymarket Theatre was opened, which has now been replaced by Curve.

Source: Leicester Mercury