Coronet

• Theatre ID
  440
• Built / Converted
  1898
• Dates of use
  • 1898 - 1923
• Current state
  Extant
• Current use
  Cinema (regularly used as a cinema from 1916)
• Address
  103 Notting Hill Gate, Kensington & Chelsea, London, W11 3LB, England
• Website
  • http://www.coronet.org

Details

Exterior in painted stone and, despite some architectural losses, important to the local townscape. Classical with giant pilasters above the ground floor; alternate major bays emphasised by pediments breaking the crowning balustrade. Over the corner, a short, round tower is crowned by a dome. The auditorium, as might be expected, is in slightly lower key than Sprague’s contemporary West End theatres but it is remarkably complete and cries out for restoration. Plaster ornament in Louis XVI manner. Two elliptically curved balconies. Square, enriched architrave to proscenium, flanked by blank bays where the boxes should be - but it would be easy to reinstate their missing fronts. The box bays are framed by attenuated Corinthian columns with enriched lower shafts, set on lofty pedestals and carrying an entablature with segmental broken pediments. A flat arched ceiling spans between the boxes. There is a domed ceiling over the auditorium. Consent was given in 1993 to the insertion of a small cinema auditorium on the stage, but designed so that the stage has remained intact and the new works could be easily removable. Although the Coronet had a comparatively short life (18 years) before cinema began to intrude, the architectural and theatrical quality of Sprague’s design makes it fair to regard this as one of London’s most important theatre buildings no longer in its designed use. In such a location, with many theatregoers in the local population, an outstanding fringe theatre (the Gate) nearby and very easy access from the West End, a live theatre of this size might be expected to succeed today.

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• Other names
  Gaumont
• Events
  • 1898 - 1923 Use:
  • 1898 Design/Construction:
    • W G R Sprague - Architect
  • Owner/Management: Built for Edward George Sanders. For full list see Diana Howard op. cit. DH 178
• Capacities
  • Original: 1143
  • Later: With modern reseating would probably be c.800
  • Current: c.800
• Listings
  • Grade II
• Stage type
  • Raked. Cinema on stage
• Dimensions
  • Stage dimensions: Depth: 35ft Width SL: 27ft 6in SR: 27ft Full width given as 50ft
  • Proscenium width: 28ft
• Unreliable anecdotes
  Wrongly attributed in some contemporary accounts of opening to Frank Matcham