Unicorn Theatre (London)

• Theatre ID
  3506
• Built / Converted
  2005
• Dates of use
  • 2005 - 0: continuing
• Current state
  Extant
• Current use
  Theatre (children's theatre)
• Address
  147 Tooley Street, More London, Southwark, London, SE1 2HZ, England
• Website
  • http://www.unicorntheatre.com

Details

In 1947 Caryl Jenner founded Mobile Theatre, with the idea of touring shows for children and adults thorughout the country in an ex-army truck. By the end of 1948 the company had played to over 25,000 children and travelled over 5000 miles. By 1958 additional trucks had been purchased and three companies were concentrating entirely on performance for children as 'the English Children's Theatre' (it became the Unicorn Theatre Club in 1962). In 1960 an idea that had been in Jenner's mind since the early 50s began to take shape and she launched an appeal to create a permanent London base for the English Children's Theatre. The company presented its first season at the Arts Theatre (q.v.) for Christmas 1961, and by 1967 had taken over the lease of the building, making it the first theatre building for children in the UK. The company remained at the Arts until 1999, when land on Tooley Street was identified as the site for a brand new purpose-built theatre for children. Building commenced on site in 2003, and on 1 December 2005 the Unicorn Theatre was officially declared open by Lord Attenborough. The constricted site of the theatre influenced the vertical order of the building. The larger of the two theatre spaces (the Weston Theatre) is lifted up above the smaller theatre and foyer, and is reached by a 'grand stair' visible through the glazed elevation of the foyer when approaching the main entrance. The staircase emerges into the foyer as a vertical series of balconies with balustrades of fair-faced concrete pierced with glazed panels to enable shorter patrons to look over the foyer below. At ground level, the smaller Clore theatre acts as the main support for the overhanging form of the large theatre, under which nestles the double-height volume of the foyer. This enables the architectural play of interlocking volumes voids and clear openings which runs like a leitmotif throughout the composition of the building. The design team began its research at Peter Brook's acclaimed theatre in Paris, the Bouffes du Nord, where the storytelling style, 'one room' principle, non-proscenium thrust stage influenced the Weston Theatre's development. Viewed from Tooley Street, the rectangular mass of the large auditorium is clad in pre-oxidised copper panels which wrap around and continue internally under the volume of the space. This disguises the 'amphitheatre' form of the theatre space within, where steeply raked audience seating on two levels curves around an arena stage combining a storyteller's intimacy with the technical wherewithal to mount large scale productions. Juxtaposed against the volume of the large auditorium, a contrasting white rendered mass of less than half the width of the auditorium hangs as another volume, which encloses the Foyle Education Studio at tree-top level and reveals the 'grand stair' below. At a practical level, building on a Brownfield site has provided the opportunity to carefully plan the relationships between the various facilities, for example the central Wardrobe construction and maintenance facilities are conveniently close to both stages, while each theatre is allocated an exclusive suite of dressing rooms. The Education Department's office is found adjacent to the Foyle Education Studio, and the Technical/Production Offices are on the same floor as the technical gallery and Control Room in the Weston Theatre. The only visible concessions to children's physical size are the height of the seats, the double height handrails on the stairs, the ascending scale of the hand basins in the toilets, the glazed drop in the concrete balustrade to the grand stairs and a small box seat in the foyer with a roof preventing grown-ups from sitting on it. Keith Williams has designed a grown-up building to stimulate the imaginations of the children, families and schools who visit.

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• Events
  • 2005 - 0 Design/Construction: Purpose-designed theatre for children
    • Charcoalblue - Theatre
    • Theatre Projects Consultants - Theatre
    • Keith Williams Architects - Architect
  • 2005 - 0 Use: continuing
• Capacities
  • Original: Weston Theatre: 320 Clore Theatre: 120
• Stage type
  • indoor amphitheatre (with option of 'end-stage' proscenium version)
• Dimensions
  • Stage dimensions: w: 14.5m wall-to-wall d: up to 16m in amphitheatre form
  • Proscenium width: variable - typically 10m
  • Height to grid: 12m
  • Orchestra pit: None