Stamford Arts Centre

Now part of an Arts complex of which the theatre is the right-hand element. Built in 1768, only the original shell and ashlar façade remain as a consequence of the interior being stripped out in 1871 and a further remodelling in 1978 to provide the present interior.

The façade is a rare and valuable surviving example of the front of a Georgian playhouse. It is of two storeys and five bays under a continuous bracketed cornice and straight parapet. There is a large pedimented central doorway with an arched window over and two small side doorways. The 1978 works provided a theatre for amateur use and occasional professional tours. Repeated pleas for an authentic reconstruction were rejected on the assumption that insufficient evidence remained. The present interior bears no resemblance whatsoever to a Georgian playhouse. However, the evidence still extant in the 1970s and the lesson learned at Richmond, Yorks, and King’s Lynn would have made restoration possible.

A description of the theatre as it existed before 1978 may be found in the RCHM volume for the Town of Stamford, 1977.