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____________________________________________________________________________________________ Apollo Victoria Theatre, 17 Wilton Road, Westminster, London Formerly the New Victoria Theatre
Above - The Apollo Victoria during the run of 'Wicked' in October 2006.
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  The
Apollo Victoria was built by E. Wamsley Lewis in
1930 for Provincial Cinematograph Theatres, who were part of Gaumont British,
as a so called Super Cinema with stage facilities and was originally called
the New
Victoria. The auditorium was art deco and lavishly decorated in an
underwater theme with an extravaganza of scallops around a huge dome.
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The Theatre is unusual in that it occupies a site that gives it two front entrances and two almost identical facades, one on Wilton Street, the other on Vauxhall Bridge Road. Right - The Apollo Victoria during the run of 'Wicked' in October 2006. Photo M.L. Unusually for a Cinema this one was saved from the property developers in the 1950s who were willing to sacrifice just about anything for new building projects and new money, by the fact that it was a Theatre too. With its large stage and plenty of dressing rooms the building was spruced up in 1958 and began playing host to Ballet and Live Shows, as well as Film. The Theatre had incredible success when it became home to the hit show 'Starlight Express' which opened in 1984 and was to run for a staggering 18 years. John Earle writes: 'After many years of being blotted
out by alterations and general clutter from a series of big musicals,
the interior has recently enjoyed the first phase of a programme of
painstaking restoration. It is already revealed as one of the most spectacular
Art Deco interiors in Britain and the process will continue as breaks
occur (somewhat rarely!) between productions. The original 'streamlined
effect' lighting on the Wilton Road front is also being reinstated.
It is worth buying a ticket for 'Wicked' to see the magical auditorium
lighting, not seen for a generation or so!' John Earl. This is probably one of the best surviving examaples of a 1930s Super Cinema, and is Grade II Listed. The Apollo Victoria was bought by The Ambassador Theatre Group in November 2009. |
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Adelphi Aldwych Apollo Apollo Victoria Arts Cambridge Comedy Criterion Dominion Drury Lane Duchess Duke Of Yorks Fortune Garrick Gielgud Haymarket Her Majesty's London Coliseum London Palladium Lyceum Lyric New Ambassadors New London Noel Coward / Albery Novello Old Vic Palace Peacock Phoenix Piccadilly Playhouse Prince Edward Prince of Wales Queen's Royal Opera House Savoy Shaftesbury St. Martin's Trafalgar Studios / Whitehall Vaudeville Victoria Palace Wyndham's
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It
did begin life by staging large live shows too but after only a month
this was given up in favour of the new kid on the block; Cinema. However
it did play host to Big Band concerts and smaller scale live acts as
well during its first decade.