Kenton

• Theatre ID
  369
• Built / Converted
  1805
• Current state
  Extant
• Current use
  Theatre
• Address
  New Street, Henley-on-Thames, Oxfordshire, RG9 2BP, England

Details

Built in 1805 in light brown brick with red brick flat arches. Three storeys with a tiled hipped roof behind parapets. There is an extended façe, the frontage building being three windows wide in front of the actual theatre plus having an offset tier of windows and a wide segmental arched opening to the right indicating a separate (but originally associated?) property. The extent of the theatre is marked at ground floor by a semi-circular arched doorway at either end and by stuccoing. There is a modern canopy and theatre entrance beneath the first two window bays. After closing in 1813 the theatre became successively a chapel, a school, a parish hall and a scenery workshop. In the mid 1930s it reverted to theatre use. The consequent alterations together with a further series in the 1960s appear to have left of the original fabric only the shell of the building. The double curved balcony probably dates from the 1967 remodelling which left only the earlier windows, the balcony front and the central ceiling mount for a sunburner. The present auditorium is in domestic neo-Georgian style.

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• Other names
  The Theatre, The New Theatre
• Events
  • 1632 Owner/Management: Land bequeathed to the Corporation of Henley
  • 1805 Design/Construction:
    • William Parker of Henley - Architect
  • 1805 Owner/Management: Lease purchased by Sampson Penley & John Jonas
  • 1813 Owner/Management: non-conformist chapel
  • 1816 Alteration: converted to school
    • Unknown - Architect
  • 1816 Owner/Management: C of E School
  • 1849 Owner/Management: empty
  • 1870 Owner/Management: church hall
  • 1930 - 1939 Owner/Management: Mid theatre
  • 1930 - 1939 Alteration: altered internally
    • Unknown - Architect
  • 1951 Design/Construction:
    • John Piper - Consultant: Design And Painting Of New Proscenium Arch
  • 1957 Alteration: new painted proscenium
    • John Piper - Architect
  • 1967 Alteration: altered
    • Maurice R Day & Assoc - Architect
  • 1967 Owner/Management: Restored theatre reopened and run by a Theatre Trust
• Capacities
  • Later: 277 (Stalls 199 circle 78)
  • Current: 245
• Listings
  • Grade Not listed
• Stage type
  • Forestage 0.46m (extends to 1.83m with covers over pit)
• Dimensions
  • Stage dimensions: Depth: 5.03m Width SL: 4.57m SR: 6.10m
  • Proscenium width: 7.62m wide x 4.42m
  • Height to grid: 9.83m
  • Orchestra pit: Original