Above - The Royal Lyceum Theatre, Grindley Street, Edinburgh.

 

The Royal Lyceum Theatre, in Grindley Street, Edinburgh was built in 1883 by the well known Theatre architect C.J Phipps. The auditorium was built on four levels, Stalls and three horseshoe shaped Balconies, which were not cantilevered but supported by columns. The auditorium, which can currently accommodate 658 people, also has three stage boxes on either side, each decorated with plasterwork scrolls and painted panels, and the circle fronts and proscenium are also decorated with delicately reserved plasterwork.

Above - The Auditorium of the Royal Lyceum Theatre, Edinburgh in 1999 - Courtesy Ted Bottle

The Lyceum's owners, the actor managers JB Howard and FW Wyndham, also became lessees of the Royalty Theatre Glasgow from the end of 1884, and took over the Theatre Royal Hope Street Glasgow in 1888. In 1895 the new firm of Howard & Wyndham Ltd was created by Michael Simons of Glasgow and would become the largest theatre group in Britain of high quality theatre. The four founding theatres were the Royalty Theatre Glasgow, the Theatre Royal Hope Street Glasgow, the Royal Lyceum Edinburgh and the Theatre Royal Edinburgh. In 1928 the King`s Theatre Edinburgh joined the burgeoning group.

The above paragraph is courtesy Graeme Smith. You may be interested to know that the history of Howard & Wyndham Ltd forms a major part of Graeme's forthcoming book about Glasgow`s Theatre Royal: 'Entertaining a Nation.' Details here...

For a detailed history of this Royal Lyceum, Edinburgh, including images and booking details for the Theatre you may like to visit the Theatre's own Website here...

 

 

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