The Alexandra Theatre, Station Street, Birmingham

Formerly The Lyceum Theatre, John Bright Street

Birmingham Index

Above - The Lyceum Theatre, Birmingham - From an illustration in the Playgoer of 1901 / 1902 - Courtesy Iain Wotherspoon.

The Alexandra Theatre in Birmingham's Station Street, originally opened as the Lyceum Theatre on the 27th of May 1901. The Theatre was designed by the architects Owen and Ward and built at a cost of £10,000. The Theatre's original entrance was on John Bright Street.

One of the early performers at the Lyceum was one Grace Anne (Gracie) Housley,who died on stage of the Theatre,on the 5th of February 1902, at the age of 22. Newspaper reports of the time said that she collapsed during the rendition of the song 'Goodbye Dolly Grey'.

Left - Grace Housley - Courtesy Dave Smith.

The Lyceum Theatre was not very successful and was sold only a year after being built to Lester Collingwood for £4,450 and then renamed the Alexandra Theatre, reopening on the 22nd of December 1902 with a performance of 'The Fatal Wedding.' Sadly Collingwood was killed in a car accident in 1910 and so the following year Leon Salberg took over the Theatre.

Right - A Poster for the Leon Salberg Pantomime 'Bo-Peep' at the Alexandra Theatre, Birmingham on Boxing Day, Dec 26th. Undated but probably 1925 as the previous year the same production with a similar cast was performing at the Nottingham Hippodrome. - Courtesy Stephen Wischhusen.

In 1927 Salberg started his own Alexandra Repertory Company at the Theatre which performed twice nightly performances for many years.

In 1935 the Theatre was rebuilt by Roland Satchwell and Ernst Roberts, who also rebuilt the Huddersfield Palace the following year. The Alexandra was built at a cost of £40,000 and had an Art Deco auditorium.

In 1938 Salberg died at the Theatre during a performance of 'Devonshire Cream,' and his son Derek Salberg took over and remained there until he retired in 1977.

In 1968 the main entrance, which was originally situated on John Bright Street, was changed when a new entrance was built to the designs of the John Madin Design Group.

The Theatre was bought by The Ambassador Theatre Group in November 2009 and you may like to visit the Theatre's own website here.

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