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The Theatre Royal Adelphi Theatre was built in 1842 and for a short while accompanied the City Theatre on Glasgow Green which burnt down only a year after being built.

The Theatre Royal Adelphi was a huge Theatre, constructed from wood, and accommodating around 2,500 people. The Theatre was one of two Theatre Royals in Glasgow at the same time, the other being the Theatre Royal, Dunlop Street where Horatio Lloyd, Arthur Lloyd's father performed for many years as principle Comedian.

Like the City Theatre, the Theatre Royal Adelphi on Glasgow Green also had a short life, this one only lasting around 6 years before it was destroyed by fire in November 1848.

The Theatre Royal Adelphi, by Graeme Smith

David Prince Miller was a showman who came to Glasgow Green in 1839 and was soon prospering by his entertainments - which included drama, drawing the ire of J. H. Alexander of the Theatre Royal, Dunlop Street who held the letters-patent for performing drama and felt he had a monopoly. Twice Miller was sent to jail for not having a licence, and bounced back with greater support from audiences than before. He had opened his booth the Sans Pareil Pavilion which could seat about 1200 at a penny a time.

Right - David Prince Miller and the Theatre Royal Adelphi - Courtesy Graeme Smith.

His company could perform Shakespeare`s 'RICHARD III' twenty times in seven hours and in his own words- “we excelled in our art, for at any theatre in the kingdom it would occupy fully two and a half hours….whereas we could perform it in twenty minutes!”

He started his Theatre Royal Adelphi at the end of December 1842 on the Green at Jail Square at the foot of Saltmarket. This was a new theatre, built of wood, and had boxes, pit and gallery. There were four refreshment rooms, and rooms for scenery, stage properties, wardrobe and library. It was always a well-conducted house and could hold 2,500 people. He secured his full dramatic licence in 1844.

There is a playbill for the Theatre in 1844 here.

Artistes in his theatre, in addition to himself included Fanny Kemble, Sheridan Knowles, Phelps, Robert Wyndham, Horatio Lloyd, Miss Glover, Miss Saker, Mrs Butler, the Misses Cushman, Mrs Warner, Webster and Celeste etc, and the famed Taglioni danced. Dramas, comedies and pantomimes including Baron Munchausen and Aladdin ensured Miller`s continuing popularity.

Left - Marie Taglioni - Courtesy Graeme Smith.

In the summer of 1845 the theatre had improvements and an extension, during which Miller and his Company performed at the Adelphi Theatre, Edinburgh but in the spring of 1848 he was sequestrated having been unable to pay the final bills of his building contractors.

The theatre was advertised for lease and taken up by comedian James Calvert, whose company operated one of the “low theatre” booths on the Green – the wooden Royal Hibernian which could hold over 2000 in its raked arena. Prior to coming to Glasgow he had been at the Theatre Royal, Dublin.

Calvert started a new company at the Adelphi, the Glasgow Herald remarking “The place has been beautifully decorated, and the company is respectable in point of ability.”

Unfortunately fire destroyed the Adelphi in November 1848, after a rehearsal of a new piece the “Ocean Monarch” or “Ship on Fire” a drama based on a recent catastrophe near Liverpool.

By the 1870s all the theatres, zoos, and stalls had been removed from the Green.

The above text was kindly written and sent in for inclusion on this site by Graeme Smith, from research for his planned book on Glasgow`s Alhambra Theatre, a sequel to The Theatre Royal : Entertaining a Nation.

If you have any more information or images for this Theatre that you are willing to share please Contact me.