|
|
||
|
____________________________________________________________________________________________ Coventry Theatres and Halls |
||
|
The Hippodrome, Hales Street, Coventry Formerly The Coventry Theatre / Apollo / Gala and Hippodrome / Granada Cinema
Above - The Coventry Hippodrome during the run of Can-Can on the 7th of May 1956 - Courtesy Gerry Atkins COVENTRY HIPPODROME PANTOMIMES 40
YEARS AGO
Right - A Poster for a Variety show at the Coventry Hippodrome on June 20th 1921 - Courtesy Stephen Wischhusen. The Hippodrome was a big theatre, almost 2,000 seats, nearly twice the size of the Belgrade with a fly tower which meant that you could put on much larger and spectacular scenes than you can at the Belgrade, but the Coventry Council eventually achieved an ambition that germinated forty years ago and pulled the poor old place down.
Above - Billy Eckstine on stage at the Coventry Hippodrome on the 24th of May 1955 - Courtesy Allan Hailstone. The pantomimes were magical and it was a 52 weeks in the year job manufacturing that make believe land. The scenic workshops in the old Plaza cinema and the wardrobe department at a disused garage in Quinton Road worked on pantomime land all the year. Apart from the Hippodrome, pantomimes were also presented at the Alhambra Theatre Bradford, The Hippodrome Theatre Brighton, the Lyceum Theatre Sheffield and the Hippodrome Theatre Dudley by Sam Newsome who was the presiding genius and producer at the Hippodrome. He built the theatre in the thirties and opened it despite the opposition of Cinema. He kept it open despite the German bombs during the war, and made it the show place of the midlands in the fifties and early sixties.
Above - Act 19 of a Variety show at the Coventry Hippodrome in October 1955 - Courtesy Allan Hailstone. When times started to get hard after the advent of television in 1963 he asked the council to give him some relief on his rates. In their wonderful wisdom they refused and set in motion a chain of events that resulted in that hole in the ground on the corner of Hales Street where the theatre used to be. The above text was written in 2003 and very kindly sent in for inclusion on the site by the author, Donald Auty. Also see Pantomime economics of fifty years ago by Donald Auty. Also see this article on Britain's Hippodrome Theatres here. |
||
|
The Theatre / The Theatre Royal / The Empire Theatre of Varieties, Smithford Street, Coventry The first permanent theatre building
was erected in 1819 by Sir
Skears Rew, a local businessman. Like other theatres of the period,
the Royal ran a stock company for about two months in the year and was
part of a local circuit. It suffered the general downturn in attendances
during the 1840s and 1850s
but managed to stay afloat whereas many others closed permanently. The
interior was modernised in 1857
along the lines of newer theatres but initial public enthusiasm soon
faded The above text is a concise history of the Empire, kindly written for this site by Ted Bottle. Ted Bottle is the author of 'Coventry's Forgotten Theatre, The Theatre Royal and Empire' published by Badger Press, in which he describes the Theatre's fascinating history in detail and includes glimpses of other Coventry Theatres and Music Halls, with an informative background of nineteenth Century English Provincial Theatre. Click the image to buy this book at Amazon.co.uk. Arthur Lloyd is know to have performed at the Empire Theatre of Varieties, Coventry in 1895 T. C. King, who was Arthur Lloyd's father in law and father of Katty King, Arthur's wife, headed a week of classics at the Theatre Royal, Coventry in January 1884. The productions that week were 'Othello,' 'Ingomar,' The Merchant Of Venice,' and 'Hamlet.' |
||
|
Royal Opera House, Hales Street, Coventry
The auditorium was built on four levels, Stalls and three circles and could accommodate 2,000 people. When the Theatre first opened the Stage was 30 foot deep by 70 wide, with a Proscenium opening of 24 foot, which meant that it was equipped with considerable wing space for such a small stage. Right - Poster for 'Plucky Nipper' at the Royal Opera House, Hales Street, Coventry on Monday, July 9th 1906 - Courtesy Stephen Wischhusen. The Theatre was altered by W. G. R. Sprague in 1898 when the auditorium's Dress Circle frontage was changed and furthur alterations were carried out to the Gallery and the Proscenium Arch. The Opera House was damaged by bombs during the Second World War in 1940 but was reopened the following year as a Cinema. Although there were plans to reopen the Opera House as a live Theatre after the war, sadly this never came to fruition and so in 1961, after the Theatre had closed for the last time, it was demolished. |
||
|
|
||
|
|
||
|
|
||
It
is almost a year ago that they demolished the old Coventry Hippodrome
(Shown Above). Dam their eyes! Forty years ago it was the premier
The
Royal Opera House in Hales Street, Coventry was built in