St Nicholas Hospital Theatre

• Theatre ID
  2261
• Built / Converted
  1897
• Dates of use
  • 1897: continuing
• Current state
  Extant
• Current use
  Theatre (Multi-purpose amateur theatre)
• Address
  Salter’s Road, Newcastle upon Tyne, Tyne & Wear, England

Details

Vestibule entrance leading to a flat floored auditorium, flanked on each side by six bays of windows, with narrow balcony at rear of the room. The main feature of the auditorium is the signed Royal Doulton proscenium arch by W J Neatby, a striking composition, depicting two pre-Raphaelite female figures playing musical instruments and seated amidst swirling branches with flowers festooned around a tree trunk. The central cartouche of the proscenium arch is a female mask. Dyson, the architect, and Neatby were also both associated with the new Victoria Royal Infirmary in Newcastle, which has a fine collection of Doulton tile pictures. Neatby’s other theatrical work included a set of 28 panels with paintings of women in pre-Raphaelite costumes for the Winter Gardens in Blackpool; a set of medallions illustrating the history of costume for the Theatre Royal, Birmingham; the modelling of the plaster pendentives in the dome of the Gaiety Theatre London (1903); and the mermaid panels at the Palace Theatre, Plymouth. He also designed the tiled interior of Harrods Food Hall in London. The stage of St Nicholas Hospital Theatre is fully equipped with timber fly floors and grid. There is no substage machinery, and no evidence of scenic grooves as at Wakefield, Stanley Royd. Backstage there is a small suite of purpose-built dressing rooms.

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• Other names
  Jubilee Theatre
• Events
  • 1897 Use: continuing
  • 1897 Design/Construction:
    • John W Dyson - Architect
  • 1898 Design/Construction:
    • W J Neatby - Consultant: Proscenium Arch (Royal Doulton Glazed Tiles)
• Capacities
  • Current: 400
• Listings
  • Grade II
• Stage type
  • Proscenium, raked
• Dimensions
  • Stage dimensions: Depth: 7.5m (24ft 8in)
  • Proscenium width: 7.3m (24ft)
  • Height to grid: 8.12m (26ft 6in)
• Unreliable anecdotes
  The stage is said to be a ‘replica’ of the Newcastle Theatre Royal. It isn’t.