Royal Theatre & Opera House

• Theatre ID
  1051
• Built / Converted
  1880
• Current state
  Extant
• Current use
  dark (previously cinema)
• Address
  Abbey Road, Torquay, Devon, England

Details

An earlier assembly rooms was converted to a theatre by G S Bridgman (Frank Matcham’s first employer) in 1871, but was still called by turns, the Royal Assembly Rooms or Lyceum Theatre, according to the type of entertainment being offered. It was gutted in 1880 and a new theatre built within the shell by C J Phipps. The interior was again completely rebuilt in 1933 as a cinema and, more recently, converted to two smaller cinemas. Only the basic structural shell survives from 1888 (parts possibly earlier). The entrance front is on Abbey Road, parallel to the axis of the auditorium/stage. The ground floor with three arched doorways under a modern canopy is largely original. Above this, however, the façe was altered in 1933 with a three-bay, columned loggia. Behind Abbey Road front the ground level falls away steeply so that from the entrance one descended to the stalls. The tall rear elevation, fronting a narrow street, shows the original stone rubble walling, patched up with later brickwork, and a serpentine-headed frontpiece to a lower entrance of c.1920.

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• Other names
  Royal Assembly Rooms, later: Lyceum Theatre, Royal, Odeon, Merlin
• Events
  • 1862 Design/Construction: as Assembly Rooms
    • T R Matthews - Architect
  • 1871 Alteration: conversion to theatre
    • G S Bridgman - Architect
  • 1880 Alteration: new theatre within existing shell; royal box built
    • C J Phipps - Architect
  • 1888 Alteration: altered
    • C J Phipps - Architect
  • 1933 Alteration: converted to cinema
    • Unknown - Architect
  • 1960 - 1969 Alteration: twinned
    • Unknown - Architect
  • 1933 Owner/Management: E J Vickery, owner
  • 1937 Owner/Management: Odeon (continuing)
• Listings
  • Grade Not listed
• Unreliable anecdotes
  This site never housed the winter gardens (as published in Curtains!!! and The Theatres Trust Guide). These were built in Babbacombe Road.