Victoria Pavilion

Theatre ID
2060
Built / Converted
1897
Dates of use
- 1897 - 1977
Current state
Extant
Current use
dark (Undergoing restoration)
Address
Marine Road Central, Morecambe, Lancashire, LA4 4BU, England

Details

The spelling ‘Pavillion’ which has been adopted recently, derives from what appears to be a foreign paviour’s error in working the name into a mosaic paving. We will not be seduced into perpetuating this historical blunder. The building, previously called Winter Garden Theatre, is too important to be misspelt. This is a music hall of a rare type, probably now unique of its kind (following the loss of the Islington Palace, London, formerly Mohawks’ Hall of c.1869, dem 1982) - that is, a big concert party or minstrels’ hall. It was built in 1897 alongside the earlier glass-roofed Winter Gardens and Empress Ballroom (Waugh & Issott, 1878), to the designs of Mangnall & Littlewood, with Frank Matcham as consultant. Prominently sited on the sea front, the main elevation is an ornate, symmetrical composition in brick and terra cotta. A big central gable with an elaborately scrolled outline expresses the rear wall of the auditorium and is flanked by projecting square towers with shaped gables. At ground level, the entrance is set between shop fronts. Internally, a flavour of Matcham is detectable in a building quite unlike any of his surviving works. The general form must be Mangnall & Littlewood’s although the design of the balconies and some other details may have been modified as a result of Matcham’s involvement. The foyer is richly appointed, with mosaic, coloured and modelled faience tiling and plaster decorations and a pair of remarkably preserved bow-fronted ticket kiosks. The stair hall is equally elaborate, with marble, coloured tiles, and fine joinery. This leads to curving promenades at two levels with glazed screens looking into the hall. The hall itself is impressive, very wide and covered by a vast segmental tunnel-vaulted ceiling which soars over the whole space, including the area over the tops of the boxes and is divided into richly decorated panels. The curve of the ceiling embraces a huge tympanum above the proscenium and boxes, decorated at the sides with painted muses etc (all now badly discoloured). The proscenium is framed by coupled columns with garlanded shafts supporting an enriched entablature and an elaborately modelled, scrolled and panelled gable-like attic ornament. On either side are two tiers of paired boxes set in splayed pavilions against which the balconies terminate. A deep serpentine-fronted balcony returns along the side walls with five rows of seats. The upper (gallery) tier is set back and has shallow slips above the side promenades of the lower tier. The fly tower is plain rendered with dressing rooms on either side, providing a quite mean stage for such an auditorium. For some conventional stage productions this great space has too large a capacity and too small a stage. The narrow proscenium also makes the sight lines from the side slips particularly uncomfortable and this limits usable capacity for stage shows. However, the large floor area would permit the staging of some kinds of events within the auditorium with temporary seating, making the side balcony seats saleable. The future treatment of the theatre needs to provide for use in different formats and also to open up the possibility of occasional profitable non-theatre uses to underpin financial viability. When the original glass-roofed Winter Gardens was allowed to be demolished after 1978 it was replaced by a particularly depressing amusement arcade development. It was understood that one reason for permitting this development was that the music hall would be restored and reopened but, in the event, it fell into a seriously dilapidated state, standing uncared for, for most of the following decade. The prospects for repair and reopening under different ownership seemed reasonably good in 1997 and the exterior has already been well restored, but care must now be taken not to destroy the long-term theatre potential of this remarkable building for short-term advantage. The stage area and fly tower, in particular, need to be carefully considered in any future proposals. The Victoria Pavilion is a highly visible, architecturally striking building in the heart of Morecambe and its fate could well be a major factor in determining whether the town experiences an exciting revival or goes into terminal decline. In this respect it illustrates a phenomenon observed in other places, that the neglect of a theatre has a deadening effect on a town, but its reopening can power an urban revival.

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Other names
Winter Gardens Music Hall, Victoria Pavillion (sic), King’s Pavilion, People’s Palace & Aquarium
Events
- 1897 - 1977 Use:
- 1897 Design/Construction:
  - Mangnall & Littlewood - Architect
- 1910 - 1911 Alteration: Array additions and alterations; balcony added to façade
  - Unknown (possibly Frank Matcham) - Architect
- 1934 Alteration: alterations and extensions; stage house possibly rebuilt
  - Unknown - Architect
- 1997 Alteration: restoration of exterior; other repairs
  - Lancaster City Council Architects’ Department - Architect
- 1897 Design/Construction:
  - Frank Matcham - Consultant: Theatre Consultant
  - Bardell Co - Consultant: Plasterwork
  - A R Dean - Consultant: Decorations
- 1878 Owner/Management: Morecambe Bath & Winter Gardens Company
- 1896 Owner/Management: Morecambe Winter Gardens Company
- 1910 Owner/Management: W H Broadhead
- 1953 Owner/Management: Moss Empires (leased to Trust House Forte)
- 1990 Owner/Management: Fred Edmondson purchased
- 1995 Owner/Management: Buildings at Risk Trust
Capacities
- Original: said to be 6000 to 7000 (see note at end)
- Later: 1934: c.3000 1970: 2196 1977: 1600
- Current: Probably c.1200
Listings
- Grade II*
Stage type
- Proscenium Rake
Dimensions
- Stage dimensions: Depth: 8.99m (29ft 6in)
- Proscenium width: 9.75m (32ft)
- Height to grid: 19.51m (64ft)
- Orchestra pit: Original