Theatre Royal (Margate)

• Theatre ID
  2300
• Built / Converted
  1787
• Current state
  Extant
• Current use
  Theatre
• Address
  Addington Street, Margate, Kent, CT9 1PW, England

Details

Margate Theatre Royal was used as a live theatre from 1787 to 1963 with a period for chapel use during the 1840s, and cinema between the wars. In 1988 it returned to live theatre following essential works for licensing but operated only falteringly until closure again in 1991. From 1992 to 1994 it had occasional use only, and from 1995 operated on a theatre club basis. In 1998 it reopened licensed for limited capacity public performances. This remarkable theatre is located on a promontory site at the junction of Addington Street, Princes Street and the south-east corner of Hawley Square. When the Theatre Royal first opened in 1787 the overall site area was then largely that as occupied as present. The auditorium and stage housing were contained within a simple rectangular brick building, with pitched and slated timber roof of 24m (78ft) depth by 14.5m (47ft) width. Flanking this on the south side was the original, so called ‘Royal House’. The pay box and entrance foyer formed a single storey adjunct to the Addington Street frontage. The structure of the 1787 building partly remains, but Robinson drastically remodelled the theatre by removing the old auditorium and stage, increasing the width by demolishing one side wall, and doing very odd things with the old roof trusses in order to extend their span. In so doing the depth of the Royal House was effectively halved and reduced to little more than a façe, of which there now remains almost nothing to suggest its original form. Robinson also rebuilt the front-of-house and frontage. This is in stucco, very restrained - of two storeys and four bays, defined by fluted pilaster strips topped by a cornice and parapet. The two bays to the right curve around the side street, with the entrance in the end bay on the corner. Robinson’s auditorium is delightful, like a smaller version of his earlier London Old Vic auditorium of 1871 - two horseshoe balconies supported by slender iron columns along the line of their fronts, which are of pulvinated section and decorated by swags. The balconies curve around the sides to meet the elliptically-arched proscenium which rises directly to the underside of the saucer-dome ceiling. Stage left boxes were blocked in the 1940s to form an escape staircase. Of even more particular note is its comparison with a contemporary etching of his Alexandra Theatre, Camden (1872) of which it is a scaled down version but clearly employing identical decorative detailing from the proscenium arch to the balcony fronts and ceiling. The recent addition of the scene dock at the rear of the stage revealed the footings to the 1787 rear wall well above the present and suggesting that the first theatre had no significant stage basement. The theatre, which is of major significance, is returning to active live theatre use and is well supported by its local community, but its serious lack of both FOH and backstage facilities and accommodation will arrest this progress and limit the scale and quality of its productions until its much deserved restoration and development is carried out.

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• Other names
  Theatre Royal & Opera House, Kinema Royal
• Events
  • 1787 Design/Construction:
    • Unknown - Architect
  • 1874 Alteration: auditorium and stage reconstructed and enlarged; frontage on Addington Street extended
    • J T Robinson - Architect
  • 1988 Alteration: Muir & Partners, remedial and improvement works
    • Jaques - Architect
  • 1994 Alteration: Muir & Partners, new scene dock constructed; stage basement extended
    • Jaques - Architect
  • 1787 Owner/Management: Charles Mate & Thomas Robson following grant of Royal Charter in 1786
  • 1840 - 1849 Owner/Management: Use as chapel and thereafter various theatre managements until 1873
  • 1873 Owner/Management: Robert Fort, owner
  • 1870 - 1895 Owner/Management: Sarah Thorne, manager
  • 1900 - 1914 Owner/Management: Frances Talford, manager
  • 1930 Owner/Management: Samuel Wentor, owner
  • 1937 - 1939 Owner/Management: Miss Pat Nye, manager
  • 1949 - 1954 Owner/Management: Various managements
  • 1954 Owner/Management: J Baxter Somerville, owner
  • 1956 Owner/Management: Margate Theatre Trust, lessees
  • 1962 - 1963 Owner/Management: Margate Stage Co Ltd, manager
  • 1964 - 1965 Owner/Management: D P Chaudhuri, manager
  • 1966 Owner/Management: Bingo
  • 1988 Owner/Management: Jolyon Jackley, Theatre Royal (Margate) Ltd, owner
  • 1991 Owner/Management: continuing Margate Theatre Royal Trust and Castle Trust, joint freeholders; Margate Theatre Royal Trust, manager
• Capacities
  • Original: Contemporary source quotes 700
  • Later: 1874: c.560
  • Current: 360 (but potentially 550)
• Listings
  • Grade II* - The fabric of this outstanding historic theatre deserves urgent and generous funding for its restoration and development
• Stage type
  • Proscenium rake c.1:24
• Dimensions
  • Building dimensions: Overall site depth (incl. annex) 35m (115ft) x 19m (62ft)
  • Stage dimensions: Depth: 7.3m (24ft) Width SL: 7m (23ft) SR: 7m (23ft)
  • Proscenium width: 7.31m (24ft)
  • Height to grid: 10.36m (34ft)
  • Inside proscenium: 9m (29ft)
  • Orchestra pit: Capacity 8-10