Garrick (London)

• Theatre ID
  427
• Built / Converted
  1889
• Dates of use
  • 1889: continuing
• Current state
  Extant
• Current use
  Theatre
• Address
  2 Charing Cross Road, Westminster, London, WC2H 0HH, England
• Website
  • http://www.nimaxtheatres.com/garricktheatre

Details

It now seems clear (Hugh Maguire: Theatre Notebook 1988) that the design of the theatre is essentially Emden’s. The contribution made by Phipps, who was still under a cloud as a result of the Exeter fire, was a matter of argument at the time and the relationship between the two architects seems to have been an uneasy one. The long façe occupies a key position at the curved southern end of Charing Cross Road, where it widens into an approximately triangular space enclosed on the south side by the classical stone flank elevation of the National Portrait Gallery. The corresponding eastern enclosure is formed by the Portland and Bath stone theatre façe. This is divided into three related but independent elements. On the left, the main entrance is classical with colonnaded loggia at first floor level. On the right, two less elaborately articulated compositions relieve the long flank of the auditorium. The entrance canopy was hideously altered in post-war years, but reinstated to its original design in 1997. Excellent three-balconied auditorium in a free, but not excitable Italianate manner. The U-shaped balcony fronts are stacked one vertically above the other, differentiated only by their plaster relief ornaments. Like its neighbour the Duke of York’s, which it almost touches at the rear boundary, there is no proscenium frame as such, the stage opening being defined by flat box fronts whose flanking coupled columns and pilasters carry arched supports to the proscenium wall and twin caryatids at the gallery abutment. The present decoration scheme, in pale veined marbling, is by Carl Toms. The gallery has been disused for some time and still has the character of a late Victorian top tier, but the sight lines from the centre are good and plans have been discussed for bringing it back into use. The Northern line, which passes under the auditorium, can occasionally be heard in the theatre. As is commonly the case in West End Theatres of pre-1914 date, the front of house accommodation is tightly constrained and past alterations have led to the waste of some of the better spaces as rooms denied to the public.

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• Events
  • 1889 Use: continuing
  • 1889 Design/Construction: with C J Phipps
    • Walter Emden - Architect
  • 1934 Alteration: planned rebuild as cinema (not executed)
    • Unknown - Architect
  • 1997 Alteration: entrance canopy reinstated to original design
    • Jacques Muir & Partners - Architect
  • 1889 Design/Construction:
  • 1980 Design/Construction:
    • Carl Toms - Consultant: Auditorium Decorations
  • Owner/Management: Built for W S Gilbert; first manager John Hare
  • Owner/Management: For full list from 1889 to 1950 see Diana Howard op. cit.
  • Owner/Management: Freehold held by LCC & GLC for some years and then transfered to The Theatres Trust in 1986, who have continued to lease to Stoll Moss, later to RUT
• Capacities
  • Original: 1500 (see Unreliable Anecdote)
  • Later: 1912: Given as 1120 or 1200 (including standing) 1971: 800 2003: 700
  • Current: 700
• Listings
  • Grade II
• Stage type
  • Raked
• Dimensions
  • Building dimensions: 140ft frontage
  • Stage dimensions: Depth: 10.36m (34ft) Width SL: 8.08m (26ft 6in) SR: 8.08m (26ft 6in)
  • Proscenium width: 8.76m (28ft 9in)
  • Height to grid: 15.24m (50ft)
  • Orchestra pit: Original
• Unreliable anecdotes
  The original capacity of 733 given by Howard is clearly wrong, but the capacity of 1500 given in 1889 could only have been achieved by dangerous over-occupation (common at the time). The 1912 figure of 1200 seems realistic.