Empire (Middlesbrough)
- Theatre ID1874
- Built / Converted1899
- Dates of use
- 1899: Until when not known.
- Current stateExtant
- Current useLicensed premises (Nightclub)
- AddressCorporation Street, Middlesbrough, Cleveland, England
Details
Like Tunbridge Wells Opera House, this was a bingo house at the time of the first Curtains survey and is now a nightclub. Like the Tunbridge Wells theatre it is an excellent ‘Sleeping Beauty’ which, if the ground had been better laid, could, by now have returned to theatre life. The first Curtains assessment said that it was ‘likely that the day (would) soon come when the Empire, with its fine auditorium… will be better able to stage touring opera, ballet and drama, which cannot visit Teesside at present because of the limited size of the (nearby) Billingham Forum’. Teesside is still, sadly, without a first rate classic proscenium theatre, for reasons similar to those which bedevilled the Tunbridge Wells Opera House. Fortunately the conversion works have done little harm to theatre potential and much of the tawdry bingo overlays have been removed and more appropriate decoration restored. Architecturally, the two theatres are quite different, but the Empire, faced in terra cotta, makes a significant contribution to the townscape of central Middlesborough, as does the Opera House in Tunbridge Wells. Built on an open island site alongside the splendid Town Hall (whose impressive great hall houses many concerts and theatrical events it is ill-designed for) the Empire originally had square towers on the four corners, each surmounted by a crested parapet and octagonal dome. Between the towers, in the upper storeys of the front and the two side elevations, are a series of closely-set arched windows divided by slender columns. The style was described in the opening souvenir brochure as being ‘Spanish Renaissance’. The stage was bombed during the Second World War and the rebuilding omitted two flanking towers. Fine and intimate auditorium with two curved balconies of six rows each terminating in superimposed stage boxes, each framed within an arch and flanked by colonnettes with enriched shafts. Rectangular proscenium and circular ceiling incorporating six circular panels. The plasterwork on the balcony fronts, proscenium, etc is in a rich and delicate Renaissance style. The Empire is important as being the best of the only three surviving theatres designed by Runtz, the others being the New Theatre, Cardiff, and the Hippodrome, Hastings (where only the exterior now survives). The present owner seems to be proud of the building, so regret must, in this case, be tinged with relief.
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Events
- 1899 Use: Until when not known.
- 1899 Design/Construction:
- Ernest Runtz - Architect
- Capacities
- Current: est. 1100
- Listings
- Grade II*
