Frank Matcham
Frank Matcham (born 22 November
1854,
Newton Abbot,
Devon - died 17 May
1920,
Southend-on-Sea,
Essex) was a famous
British theatrical
architectMatcham and two architects he helped to train,
Bertie Crewe and
W.G.R. Sprague, were together responsible for the majority - certainly more than 200 - of the theatres and variety palaces of the great building boom which took place in Britain between about 1890 and 1915, peaking at the turn of the century
[http://www.thelondonseason.com/newvenues.htm]Matcham himself designed
Blackpool Grand Theatre in
1894 and
Buxton Opera House and the Royall Hall (Kursaal),
Harrogate in
1903. He also designed several famous
London theatres: the
Hackney Empire (
1901), the
London Coliseum (
1904), the
London Palladium (
1910), and the
Victoria Palace (
1911).
Matcham is remembered in
Northern Ireland for his design of the
Grand Opera House (opened December 1895) on Great Victoria Street,
Belfast.
Matcham also designed theatres in
Scotland: in
Aberdeen, there were
His Majesty's Theatre, built in 1904 to replace the
Tivoli Theatre - the Tivoli was originally known as Her Majesty's Theatre, opened in 1872 to the designs of C.J. Phipps, and was subject to alterations by Matcham in 1897, followed by a complete interior rebuild by him in 1909. Both theatres still survive in Aberdeen, although the Tivoli is sadly disused after a spell as a bingo hall. In
Edinburgh, he designed the Empire Palace Theatre, opened in 1892, and he also rebuilt it after a fire in 1911. It was subsequently demolished and rebuilt in 1927/8, this time to the designs of Newcastle architects Milburn and Milburn, and still stands today, having been refurbished after a time as a bingo hall, as the
Edinburgh Festival Theatre, albeit with a modern glass facade built in 1994. Over in
Glasgow, he designed the King's Theatre in Bath Street in 1904, which happily also still entertains citizens of that city today.
One unusual commission, built around 1900, is the three blocks in
Briggate,
Leeds, that are today known as the
Victoria Quarter. Matcham's Empire Palace Theatre, which was the centre-piece of the design, was demolished in the 1960s, but his surviving exteriors and the impressive
County Arcade have been refurbished to a high standard.
In 1982 it was estimated that 85% of the theatres that had lit up British towns and cities in 1914 had been lost - 35 of them, including 20 of Matcham's, in London alone.
John Betjeman and
Simon Jenkins had spoken up for such architects of
Victorian and
Edwardian parish churches as the
Gilbert Scotts,
JL Pearson and
GE Street, but few had heard of theatre architects such as Matcham,
Bertie Crewes,
CJ Phipps,
W.G.R. Sprague and
Walter Emden.
That gross neglect came to an end with one too many proposed ruthless destructions: the Granville Theatre in
Walham Green, in 1971, where the
Greater London Council stepped in to stop a developer. This incident brought about the formation of the Frank Matcham Society, and the beginning of the preservation of our theatrical heritage.
[http://www.guardian.co.uk/comment/story/0,3604,1271324,00.html]*
Frank Matcham Society*
Theatres built by Frank Matcham*
Frank Matcham page
