Theatre Royal (Bury St Edmunds)

• Theatre ID
  785
• Built / Converted
  1819
• Current state
  Extant
• Current use
  Theatre
• Address
  5 Westgate Street, Bury St Edmunds, Suffolk, IP33 1QR, England
• Website
  • The Theatre Royal Bury St Edmunds

Details

The Bury Theatre is unusual in that it is one of the few existing nineteenth century theatres built by major but non-specialist architects - others being The Royal Opera House, Covent Garden, the Grand Leeds, and the Theatre Royal, Drury Lane. The younger William Wilkins was, for all his distinction as leader of the Neo-Classical movement (his work includes Downing College, Cambridge and the National Gallery, London), a man of the theatre. He followed his father, also William Wilkins, as proprietor of the East Anglian circuit, which included the former Barnwell Theatre in Cambridge (see Cambridge Festival Theatre). They had rebuilt all their theatres before William the Younger decided to erect ‘a theatre of ample dimensions and elegance’ in Westgate Street, Bury St Edmunds. The auditorium is on four levels and originally held 800. The pit is surrounded by a double horseshoe of boxes, the lower tier having four rows of tip up seats, in the centre where once there were boxes. The upper tier, which is supported by 16 slender cast iron pillars on the forward edge of the tier below, consists of an unbroken sweep of 15 boxes with no pillars to obstruct the view. This is achieved by setting back of the gallery above a canopy, an effect that gives the whole a grace and an elegance which one might associate more with a European court theatre than an English country playhouse. The auditorium walls are deep salmon pink which allows the eye to dwell on the upper tier front with its sphinxes and winged griffins in gold on ochre and the lower tier with its crimson screen panels, also in flat painting, on a grey ground. The proscenium is rectangular in shape, 7.3m (24ft) wide and 5.5m (18ft) high, and is flanked by pairs of marbled classical piers between which are curved and panelled proscenium arch doors. The line of the present forestage, which is also convertible into an orchestra pit, dates not from 1819 but from 1906 when the theatre was redecorated by Bertie Crewe. Other twentieth century solecisms that jar include the plush velour seats in the pit, the centre gangway inserted in 1965, and the removal of the stage boxes which linked the lower tier to the outer proscenium pilasters. A 1906 improvement which pleases is the breaking open of the screen wall behind the upper tier of the boxes. The exceptionally large stage, 12.2m (40ft) wide by 12.2m deep had been removed between 1925, when the theatre closed, and 1962 when it ceased to be a barrel store for the neighbouring brewery. The theatre was restored by a specially formed Trust who employed Ernest Scott as architect assisted by Iain Mackintosh as consultant. The modern stage surface is unfortunately flat where once it was raked. Although the walls and the main roof trusses are original, the scenic suspension system is modern and depends on a tubular structure introduced in 1965 to take the load down on to concrete pads in the basement below. The theatre is built of red brick and presents an attractive small scale classical facade to Westgate Street. Above the porte-cochere, now glazed, is the windowless circle bar, introduced in 1906 and extended in 1974 to include additional escape stairs from the gallery. The theatre is free standing save for an uneasy connection with the adjoining house, reputedly by Wilkins himself on land he sold off to pay for the theatre. If this house could be brought back into the same tenure and united with the Royal, the improvement and further restoration of this rare and precious theatre would be greatly assisted. For a full analysis of Wilkins’s design, which is geometrically disciplined in a way that his father’s Cambridge (Festival) Theatre is not, see Axel Burrough’s paper ‘Theatre of Proportion’ (Architectural Review, Sept 1988). The theatre is now used as a medium scale touring and amateur theatre by a charitable company, while the head lease has, since 1975, been in the hands of the National Trust. It was the first theatre to be acquired by that body.

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• Events
  • 1819 Design/Construction:
    • William Wilkins the Younger - Architect
  • 1906 Alteration: alterations, mainly to auditorium
    • Bertie Crewe - Architect
  • 1965 Alteration: partially restored
    • Ernest Scott - Architect
  • 1974 Alteration: further improvements
    • Norman Westwater - Architect
  • 1994 Alteration: Miller & Tritton, single-storey extension at rear
    • Purcell - Architect
  • 1995 Alteration: Miller & Tritton, facade improved; forecourt lowered to 1819 level; foyer and auditorium ceiling redecorated
    • Purcell - Architect
  • 1966 Design/Construction:
    • Iain Mackintosh - Consultant: Theatre Consultant
  • 1819 Owner/Management: William Wilkins the Younger
  • 1908 Owner/Management: Run by shareholders under a Directorate. G A Auguste A Penleve
  • 1912 Owner/Management: Theatre Royal Company Ltd - lessee Florence Glossop-Harris
  • 1925 Owner/Management: Greene King & Sons, (brewers) freeholders (as a barrel store)
  • Owner/Management: Currently: National Trust 999 year lease from brewers; Bury St Edmunds Theatre Management Ltd, sub-lessee
• Capacities
  • Original: 800
  • Later: 1977: 352
  • Current: 352
• Listings
  • Grade I
• Stage type
  • Proscenium flat
• Dimensions
  • Building dimensions: 133ft (overall to workshop) x 70ft (at widest)
  • Stage dimensions: Depth: 12.2m (40ft) Width SL: 5.17m (21ft 6in) SR: 5.17m (21ft 6in)
  • Proscenium width: 7.3m (24ft)
  • Height to grid: 20ft (to trusses)
  • Inside proscenium: (33ft)
  • Orchestra pit: enlarged for 25