Gaiety Music Hall (Birmingham)

• Theatre ID
  951
• Built / Converted
  1897
• Dates of use
  • 1846 - 1920
• Current state
  Demolished
• Current use
  demolished (1920 ciné-variety and film, then reopened as cinema)
• Address
  88-90 Coleshill Street, Birmingham, West Midlands, England

Details

A performance room of some kind with a platform 30ft by 12ft is reported as existing in 1841. In 1846 the Rodney Inn Concert Rooms opened, probably a rebuild or part rebuild of the earlier room. In 1857 a new and much larger hall (116ft long) was built without first closing the existing room (it was possibly built around and over the old structure, as was done at the Canterbury Hall in London in 1854). This seems to have been a grand music hall on the lines of the Canterbury/Weston’s halls, with a capacious balcony on three sides but, in this case, with a proscenium and a painted act drop to what was possibly a scenic stage, rather than a concert platform. In 1886 the hall reopened as the Gaiety after extensive alterations and improvements and was, for a time, run by Charles Barnard, who owned theatres and music halls in north Kent. At this time it had (surprisingly) a temperance bar. The 1897 rebuild within the brick shell of the old building was on fully theatrical lines with horseshoe tiers, elaborate plasterwork and domed boxes. In 1920 it reopened as a cinema. In September 1936 part of the gallery fell in after an explosion in the operating box. The new Gaiety opened in 1938. It closed in 1969 and was demolished the following year.

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• Other names
  Rodney Inn Concert Rooms, Birmingham Concert Hall, Birmingham Grand Concert Hall, Gaiety, Coliseum, Gaiety, New Gaiety
• Events
  • 1846 - 1920 Use:
  • 1841 Design/Construction: performance room
    • Unknown - Architect
  • 1846 Alteration: became Concert Rooms
    • Unknown - Architect
  • 1886 Alteration: alterations
    • Unknown - Architect
  • 1897 Alteration: Butler & Hope (Birmingham), rebuilt; new auditorium within old exterior walls and new proscenium
    • Crouch - Architect
  • 1902 Alteration: new gents; new verandah
    • Owen & Ward - Architect
  • 1906 Alteration: new waiting area, committee room and flat
    • Unknown - Architect
  • 1906 Alteration: altered verandah
    • Owen & Ward - Architect
  • 1923 Alteration: new exit staircase
    • Unknown - Architect
  • 1846 Design/Construction:
    • Hill of London - Consultant: Organ
  • 1846 Owner/Management: Henry Holder, proprietor
  • 1863 Owner/Management: Soward & Gardiner, proprietors
  • 1867 Owner/Management: John Soward Jr, proprietor
  • 1870 Owner/Management: John Judd, proprietor
  • 1876 Owner/Management: Phillips & Chowles, proprietors
  • 1886 Owner/Management: Charles Barnard (Chatham), lessee
  • 1908 Owner/Management: Gaiety Theatre of Varieties, proprietors
  • 1910 Owner/Management: P D Elbourne, lessee and manager
  • 1911 Owner/Management: Edwards, lessee
  • 1920 Owner/Management: Ben Kennedy, lessee
  • 1929 Owner/Management: ABC, lessees
  • 1970 - 0 Demolition: demolished
• Capacities
  • Later: 1857: 2000 1897: 3500 1908: 3800 1912: 3200
• Listings
  • Grade Not listed
• Dimensions
  • Stage dimensions: 1897 d: 30ft w: 60ft
  • Proscenium width: 1897 34ft x 32ft high
  • Inside proscenium: 1897 c.52ft