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Theatre Royal, Queen Street, Glasgow

Glasgow Index

Above - Queen Street, Glasgow showing the Theatre Royal to the right of the image - Courtesy Graeme Smith.

Glasgow Corporation successfully petitioned Parliament in 1803 for letters-patent for a new theatre to be built beside the elegant mansions in Queen Street. It was designed by the city`s leading architect David Hamilton, paid for by public subscription and opened in April 1805. Its first manager, for a short time, was John Jackson previously at the city`s Dunlop Street theatre. In its Adam style and splendour it accommodated 1500 people in "an elliptical spectatory" complete with three galleries.

In September 1818 the theatre became the first in Britain to have gas lighting, with the announcement that: The Grand Crystal Lustre of the front Roof of the Theatre, the largest of any of that time in Scotland, will, in place of the Wicks and the Candles and the Oil Lamps, be "Illuminated with Sparkling Gas."

Scene painters included Alexander Nasmyth, and David Roberts who wrote of it: "This theatre was immense in its size and appointments - in magnitude exceeding Drury Lane and Covent Garden."

Fire destroyed the Queen Street theatre in 1829 following a rehearsal.

The above text was written by, and is courtesy of, Graeme Smith 2008.

The Three Theatre Royals in Glasgow

When Jackson and his partner Aitken took over the new Theatre Royal, Queen Street, in 1805, the Dunlop Street Theatre was renamed the Caledonian and became the City's 'minor' house, used for musical entertainments, circus shows and equestrian dramas.

In 1825 the lease of the Caledonian was snatched from under J.H. Alexander's nose by Frank Seymour. Alexander leased the cellar and a war of attrition between the two Theatres began. On nights when a quiet drama was planned for one Theatre the other would hire a brass band:

Eventually the magistrates insisted the Theatres played on different nights but the public came in their thousands to see the fun and the more illustrious Theatre Royal in Queen Street lost heavily.

Fire destroyed the Queen Street Theatre and the patent, bought by Alexander, transferred to the rebuilt Theatre Royal Dunlop Street, where it stayed 'till 1869.

The Dunlop Street Theatre was burnt down and rebuilt in 1863 and finally demolished in 1869 to make way for St Enoch's station. The title was transferred to The Theatre Royal in Hope Street where it still remains.

Text (edited) courtesy University of Glasgow Special Collections Department.