Skip to main content

New Alexandra Theatre

461

Most of Owen & Ward’s Lyceum building was demolished and rebuilt in 1935, except for the plain brick dressing room wing flanking the auditorium and stage.

The entrance is now in a separate (1960s) block, some distance from the original, quite decent, black and cream faience façade, which is now somewhat drastically interfered with by a link bridge penetrating it at first floor level.

The auditorium, by contrast, has been stripped of later, dismal alterations and partly restored and partly sympathetically re-invented. It can now be seen as a handsome room of its period, with rippled plaster ornament over the ante-proscenium. Two balconies. Splendid, deep-coved, enriched proscenium arch in Art Deco style. The total effect is, in some ways, reminiscent of the much smaller London Whitehall. Metal clad fly tower.

Built / Converted
1901
Dates of use
  • 1901 : Theatre, continuing
Current state
Extant
Current use
Theatre
Address
Station Street, Birmingham, West Midlands, B5 4DS, England
Further details
Other names
Alexandra , Lyceum
Events
  • Owner/Management: See file for additional list information on managements
  • 1901 Design/Construction:
    Owen & Ward
    - Architect
  • 1901 Owner/Management: William Coutts, owner & manager
  • 1901 Use: Theatre, continuing
  • 1902 Owner/Management: Carr & Carr, lessees?
  • 1902 - 1911 Owner/Management: Lester Collingwood, owner & manager
  • 1911 - 1937 Owner/Management: Leon Salberg, owner & manager
  • 1935 Alteration: almost completely rebuilt
    Roland Satchwell
    - Architect
  • 1937 - 1968 Owner/Management: Derek Salberg
  • 1946 Owner/Management: T Alexandra Birmingham Ltd
  • 1967 Alteration: exterior bridge & new foyer created
    Unknown
    - Architect
  • 1968 Owner/Management: Birmingham Corporation
  • 1968 Owner/Management: Alexandra Theatre Co,lessees
  • 1983 Alteration: renovated
    Unknown
    - Architect
  • 1988 Alteration: front of house renovated
    Unknown
    - Architect
  • 1990 Alteration: auditorium and backstage refurbished; white cladding boards removed to expose original proscenium arch
    Seymour Harris Partnership
    - Architect
  • 1992 Owner/Management: Apollo Leisure
  • 2009 Owner/Management: Bought by Ambassador Theatre Group
Capacities
  • Capacity
    Original
    Description
    2000
  • Capacity
    Later
    Description
    1935: 1530
    1946: 1550
    1991: 1367
  • Capacity
    Current
    Description
    1347
Listings
  • Listing
    Not listed
Stage type
Rake 1:3.4 Pros flat
Building dimensions: -
Stage dimensions: 1912 Depth: 35ft Width SL: 27ft SR: 27ft
Proscenium width: 1912: 28ft 6in 37ft 8in x 17ft
Height to grid: 53ft 4in
Inside proscenium: 28ft 6in
Orchestra pit: Enlarged, 32