The Music Hall and Theatre History Website

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The Coliseum Theatre in Coockridge Street, Leeds was built by William Bakewell in 1895 and was a conversion from a former Concert Hall which was built ten years earlier and opened by the Prince and Princess of Wales on the 15th July 1885.

The original Concert Hall had two balconies and so did the Theatre, but it is not known if they were formed from the original balconies or not. The Theatre which was used for circus and variety shows had an elliptically arched proscenium with boxes on either side and a stage house which incorporated flying facilities.

In 1905 the Coliseum was converted into a Cinema but not radically altered. In 1928 it was taken over by Gaumont and ten years later in 1938 the auditorium was converted to the more usual Cinema style auditorium of two levels and just one balcony.

In 1961 the Cinema closed and was then used as a rehearsal room and a scenery workshop. It was also sometimes used as a Film and Television Studio, and eventually for Bingo for a short time.

In 1992 the Theatre was taken over by Town And Country, who reopened the building as a Music Venue after radically altering the auditorium by leveling the stalls floor, removing the 1895 false ceiling to reveal the original 1885 Concert Hall's timber frame, and extending the auditorium back to its original rear wall thus enlarging the space to its former Concert Hall size.

In 2001 the hall became a nightclub called Creation which subsequently closed in 2004.

The Coliseum is Grade I Listed and has a capacity of 1,800. The stage is 12.5 metres wide at the proscenium and 7.62 deep with a grid height of 5.78 metres.

In August 2008 it was announced that the Coliseum, now owned by AMG (The Academy Music Group), was to have a £3,000,000 refurbishment and that the venue would be reopening as The Leeds Academy in October 2008.

You may like to visit the Leeds Academy's own Website here.

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