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____________________________________________________________________________________________ The Garrick Theatre, Charing Cross Road, London WC2
Above - The Garrick Theatre during the run of 'Zorro'
in February 2009 - Photo M.L.
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   The
Garrick Theatre opened on the 24th of April 1889
with a play called 'The Profligate' by A. W. Pinero. The Theatre backs
onto The Duke Of York's Theatre and
was designed by Walter Emden and C.
J. Phipps and built by Messrs Peto with deep excavations so that the
back of the Dress Circle would be level with the street. This caused some
problems because an old river known in Roman times was discovered to be
running through the land and held up construction considerably. At one
point it seemed that the Theatre might have had to be given up on altogether
but eventually it did get finished. |
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Left - Programme detail for ' The Bishop's Move' at The Garrick Theatre 1902. Two days after the opening of the Garrick Theatre, The Stage printed a review of the building in their April 26th edition which said: 'The style of Mr Hare's new theatre is classic. The whole of the Charing Cross Road front is executed in Portland Stone and Bath Stone and has a long frontage of 140 feet. |
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Left - Programme detail for ' Rejane' at The Garrick Theatre early 1900s. Right - Programme detail for ' Pilkerton's Peerage' at The Garrick Theatre 1902. The saloon on the foyer opens on to a broad balcony facing on to Charing Cross Road, the |
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Text above from The Stage April 26th 1889.
And The Era also printed a review of the building
a week before its opening in their April 17th edition which said: 'The
house consists of four tiers, pit, stalls, dress circle, upper circle
and gallery, and will Left - Programme for ' Whitewashing Julia' at The Garrick Theatre early 1903. Right - Programme for ' Madame Louise' at The Garrick Theatre early 1940s. The auditorium is decorated in Italian Renaissance style, the ornamental work being in high bold relief. The proscenium opening is formed by groups of columns on either side of the first proscenium box, the general form of the theatre being after that of Covent Garden, with four openings forming a square, supporting in their centre a circular dome. The box front of the dress circle tier is divided by groups of cupids supporting shields crowned with laurels, each shield bearing the name of a celebrated author.' Text above from The Era April 17th 1889.
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Right - 1905 Postcard for The Garrick Theatre. After the Second World War began the Theatre was tried out as a 'Forces Theatre' but this failed and the Garrick closed and didn't reopen until September of 1941 with a play called 'Room V'. After this though the Theatre had many successes. At the time of writing this page in 2006 The Garrick Theatre is currently in production for the play 'Amy's View.' |
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Above - The Garrick Theatre whilst in production for 'Amy's View' in October 2006. |
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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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The
auditorium was built on four levels, Stalls and Pit, Dress Circle, Upper
Circle, and Gallery, and was quoted as being able to seat 1500 on its
opening by 
The
theatre is entered on the dress circle level, which is reached after
passing through the outer vestibule by a large inner vestibule. A striking
object in this is a handsome oil painting copy of the celebrated portrait
of Garrick. From this, by a staircase on either side, the stalls are
entered; and from it, by a staircase, the foyer level, with its refreshment
saloon and smoke room, is approached. 
balcony being covered with an arcade. The floor of the vestibule is
laid with mosaic and that of the entrance hall and saloons in marquetry,
and they are surrounded by dados of polished walnut in panels, the upper
part of the walls being divided by marble pilasters, the panels thus
formed being filled with mirrors and decorations in relief. The ceilings
are of a highly ornamental character, the whole of these decorations
being in the Italian Renaissance style. To every part of the house there
are two separate means of exit, ten in all.'
Left
- Programme detail for ' The Wedding Guest' at The Garrick Theatre 
hold
about 1500 persons. 
The
Garrick Theatre was very nearly destroyed in 1934 when plans were prepared
to convert the building into a so called 'Super Cinema'. An architect
was even named and a rebuilding date given but thankfully this plan
never came to fruition and the Theatre survives much in its original
state to this day.