Description

949-1/0/10023 CHURCH STREET
04-FEB-04 CROWN THEATRE

II
Theatre, later converted to cinema, then bingo hall, currently disused and closed (December 2003 ). Dated 1898, opened 1899, built to the designs of Campbell and Horsley, architects, for Richard Flanagan. Smooth red brick with red terracotta dressings and detailing in Renaissance revival style.

EXTERIOR: Prominent corner site with entrance front to Church Street and secondary elevation to Mather Street, both elevations detailed in matching style. Church Street elevation , 4 storeys, 5 bays, the left-hand corner detailed as a tower with corner pilasters and a low curved parapet above a moulded cornice. Painted ground floor with altered entrance canopy, below 3 tall semi-circular arched first floor windows with mullions and transoms, the arch heads with moulded decoration. These windows and 2 tiers of small rectangular openings are set between between shallow pilasters which define the bays. Above these, 3 circular lights within moulded surrounds with flanking scrollwork and swags. Right-hand end bay with small window openings, some staggered at different levels. Left-hand corner with 2-light mullion and transom window with decorative cresting and apron to first floor. Above and below tower parapet, moulded terracotta decorative panels. Return elevation to Mather Street similarly detailed, the corner tower with staggered windows lighting a staitcase, 3 single doorways with shallow bracketed canopies, and numerous shallow arch-headed windows, all blocked. 4 upper floor circular lights in plain surrounds, below shallow parapet. Canopy to Church Street on cast-iron columns.

INTERIOR: Auditorium is the full height of the building, with timber ceiling exposed having lost its plasterwork. Three balconies supported on cast-iron columns whose decorated capitals reflect their relative status, with mouldings reserved for the dress circle. The uppermost balcony (the Gods) retains Adamesque floral plasterwork to front and bench seating, but pierced by insertion of brick projection box in the 1930s that removed the central section. Balcony front to upper circle obscured by inserted false ceiling; timber boarded balustrading and some tip-up seating survives. Seats and a single box to the dress circle, the box set back and with moulded cornice. The upper part of the proscenium survives, with stencilled decoration of flowers and swags. The front of house area very small, but with broad staircase having decorated cast-iron balustrade leading to dress and upper circles. Flytower has been partly demolished, and stage rebuilt.

HISTORY: The building opened as the Lyceum Theatre in 1899, later becoming the Grand Theatre and Opera House. It became a cinema in 1932, becoming the Crown Cinema in 1955, when stage use ended following conversion to Cinemascope. In 1963, it became a bingo hall, and closed in the 1980s.

Included as a rare surviving example of a suburban working-class theatre that still retains the original form of its auditorium and front of house. The Lyceum/Crown was large, but never lavish, and while it did not form part of a major circuit it hosted many of the leading variety artists of the early twentieth century.

External Links

• Historic England Listing
• Wikidata Q26388400

External links are from the relevant listing authority and, where applicable, Wikidata. Wikidata IDs may be related buildings as well as this specific building. If you want to add or update a link, you will need to do so by editing the Wikidata entry.

Recommended Books

• 
  Harrow on the Hill: A photographic portrayal of listed buildings and structures (Historic Buildings Picture Guides)
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  England's Post-War Listed Buildings
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  Sussex: West (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of England)
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  Gloucestershire 2: The Vale and The Forest of Dean: Vale and Forest of Dean Pt. 2 (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of England)
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  Liverpool: Pevsner City Guide (Pevsner Architectural Guides: City Guides)
• 
  Old House Handbook: A Practical Guide to Care and Repair