A Job Well Done -'Save London's Theatres' Campaign Ends

What a great article, thanks for posting it.

It seems mind-boggling that people had to go to the lengths of forming a human chain to save the Shaftesbury from demolition. The London theatre landscape would be a very different (and poorer) place without the SLTC.

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Agree with The Tig, thanks for bringing this interesting article to us.

A lot of 'cathedrals of culture' got knocked down in New York to make way for business as only America knows how to, the theatre in there place typically consist of a balcony, orchestra and a restroom below, very uniform and sterile, lucky London theatres cannot tell a similar story, nothing better walking round theatre-land and see the aesthetic beauty of a London house, we owe a huge amount of gratitude to SLTC.

What theatre is that above ^ please.

Do not have the book on hand that you Mama recommended 'lost New York Theatres' the bulldozer seems more sever there and lost such gems as the original Broadway Theatre and America Theatre.

Top 2 are THe Stoll Theatre on Kingsway.
Bottom 2 are its replacement The Royalty, now know as The Peacock.

Theatreguy, its not so much that they 'couldnt' be listed, the whole listing of buildings didn't come into operation until quiet recently-1970s/80s onwards.
Also back in the time leading up to the 1950s almost every city in the UK, large or small, had at the the very least 3 or 4 major big theatres, some as many as 10 to 15!
So come the 1950s and 60s the demolition of most of the theatres didnt seem at all important as they were empty and losing audiences big time to TV and cinema.
Now cinema competes on par with live theatre and, well, TV has gone to the dogs, most cities wish they still had some of there bigger, gorgeous theatres in which to house live theatre.
Take Birmingham for example, it doesn't have a decent size touring house to take medium size plays. Small plays can only play the two barns it has left, the huge Hippodrome and The Alexandra. I bet they wish that they had kept an Empire or Grand now. Southampton just has the gigantic Mayflower. The list is endless.

The huge Stoll/Moss chain had 300 theatres around the country in its heyday and one day they decided that they would, as an experiment, close the Empire Theatre in Swansea. The Swansea Empire was one of the top money making theatres in the chain, they closed it in 1956 and by 1962 they only had 80 odd theatres left, all sold off and demolished. (The site of the Swansea Empire is now an empty 1960s eyesore that has housed Poundstretcher and Primark in its past).

**This is the stunning old Carlton Cinema in Swansea which has its front of house areas completed preserved as a cafe but with the auditorium demolished and replaced by Waterstons- the plain glass fronted building to the right is where its neighbour stood until 1957, The Swansea Empire.

The remaining theatres of Stoll/Moss went to bingo or cinema use.
Very few of these buildings still stand today.

Updated On: 8/28/09 at 01:06 PM

This will put you to sleep.....zzzzzzzzzzz
http://www.heritage.co.uk/apavilions/glstb.html

You would be surprised how many ugly buildings from the 1960s onwards are listed buildings.

A building as hideous as the New London Theatre could get Listed Status just for its ground breaking auditorium design.
If it was at any time threatened with demolition it would most certainly get a Listing Grade I, as of now it has no listing.



The Piccadilly is one Londons very few theatres that is not listed. It could close tomorrow and be gone in a month.




Other unlisted London theatres:
Prince Edward


As spectacular as it looks today it is regarded as too much altered from its original design.

Arts Theatre



Regents Park Open Air Theatre

Updated On: 8/28/09 at 01:58 PM