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Royal Theatre, Guildhall Road, Northampton
Formerly the Theatre Royal and Opera House / The Repertory Theatre

Northampton Theatres Index

Above - Painting by the late Osborne Robinson of the Auditorium of the Royal Theatre Northampton - From a publicity handout of the then Northampton Repertory Co. (Circa 1970) - Courtesy Alan Chudley.

The Royal Theatre, Northampton was built by the well known Theatre Architect C. J. Phipps and opened on the 5th of May 1884 with a production of 'Twelfth Night'.

Right - The opening night Bill for the New Theatre Royal and Opera House, Northampton - From a programme for 'Twelfth Night' at the Theatre in May 1959 which was a commemorative production for the Theatre's 75th year - Courtesy Richard Don Simms.

On the Theatre's opening the Stage newspaper reported:

'No element of success was wanting to contribute to the superb triumph that crowned the opening of this new theatre; the audience which thronged every available part of the house, comprised the rank and fashion of the town and county, while the charming Thespian temple, fresh from the hand of the scene painters, gleamed everywhere with light and colour. The artistically designed scenery, the dress circle brilliant with blue and gold, the crimson rested chairs, together with the soft and delicate beauty of the ceiling and mural embellishment, were the theme of audible admiration from all parts of the house.' The Stage 1884.

After a fire in 1887 the Theatre was restored, again by C. J. Phipps, and two years later the Proscenium was widened.

Above - The aftermath of the fire at the Royal Theatre, Northampton on the 12th of February 1887 - From a publicity handout of the then Northampton Repertory Co. (Circa 1970) - Courtesy Alan Chudley.

On the Theatre's 75th anniversary in 1959 a production of 'Twelfth Night' was performed to commemorate the event. The play's programme had the following information about the Theatre:

'This year, on May 5th, Northampton's Royal Theatre and Opera House will attain 75 years as an historic monument of drama and entertainment. Here, since 1927, the Repertory Players have achieved a continuous and notable standard of plays, old and new.

It is Northampton's third "New Theatre," the New Theatre in Abington Street, opened in 1912 and now closed, being its fourth to be so called. Previous to the opening in 1735 of the town's first actual theatre building, in a malting between St. Giles' Street and The Riding, companies of players must have often performed in the yards of the spacious inns, of which in a town of such importance in the later Middle Ages and Elizabethan times, there were a number. During its sixty-nine years the St. Giles' Playhouse presented many of Shakespeare's plays. In 1778 Mr. Kemble informed the nobility and gentry that he had fitted up the theatre at a very great expense in a very elegant manner.

Left - The auditorium of the Theatre Royal, Northampton - From a programme for 'Twelfth Night' at the Theatre in May 1959 which was a commemorative production for the Theatre's 75th year - Courtesy Richard Don Simms.

The second New Theatre, at the corner of Horseshoe Lane and Marefair, opened on May 5th, 1806, with Mr. Robertson's Company in " The Castle Spectre." It was built upon the plan of the old Haymarket Theatre, London, at the cost of £1,500. It was a neat little building, but with an elegant interior, with rows of boxes, and twelve rows of mat covered benches. Here Charles Kean thundered his tragic sentences, and the great Matthews attracted large crowds.

This theatre, the New Theatre Royal and Opera House, was also opened on a May 5th, in 1884. Built for Mr. John Franklin by Mr. Henry Martin, it was a bold and important development in the town's theatrical history. The architect was C. J. Phipps (1835-1897), the most eminent of Victorian theatre architects, who built forty theatres in Great Britain, including Her Majesty's, in London. Many of the most eminent in British theatrical history acted here. During this theatre's first four decades, as well as productions of George Edwardes' musical comedies, grand opera, operettas, here the first provincial "Mikado" was presented, spectacular pantomimes, burleques and full blooded melodramas. Here Irving, whose walking stick, with Garrick associations, is in the foyer, Ellen Terry, Gordon Craig, Martin Harvey, Benson, Tearle, Seymour Hicks, Wilson Barrett, Mrs. Patrick Campbell, were among those who played in their great roles.

Left - A Sketch of the Theatre from a programme for 'Twelfth Night' at the Theatre Royal, Northampton in May 1959 which was a commemorative production for the Theatre's 75th year - Courtesy Richard Don Simms.

Since 1927, when with vision and faith the Repertory Company was established, many of the eminent in to-day's theatre, films, radio and television have been members of the Company.

Northampton's Theatre Royal and Opera House, saturated with three-quarters of a century of great and inspiring traditions, stimulates not only those who work in front and behind its gilded high proscenium, but must continue to attract an ever-increasing patronage, so that it may go forward confidently to its centenary. O.R.'

Above text in quotes from the Theatre's 75th anniversary production of 'Twelfth Night' - Courtesy Richard Don Simms.

Right - The programme cover for 'Twelfth Night' at the Theatre Royal, Northampton in May 1959 which was a commemorative production for the Theatre's 75th year - Courtesy Richard Don Simms.

The Theatre was restored and redecorated in 1960 by the late Osborne Robinson, who painted various murals and updated the previously plain surface which surrounded the Rococo Plasterwork in the auditorium's ceiling with stylised clouds.