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     Palace Theatre - Information & History
The Palace Theatre is situated on the end of Shaftesbury Avenue and was originally opened as the Royal English Opera House on an island site overlooking Cambridge circus in 1891.
This magnificent Victorian Building was designed by the owner Richard D'Oyly Carte and its imposing structure must have dominated the area in late Victorian London. Even today the building has presence, so you can only imagine what it was like if the building was separated from the adjoining buildings and standing alone on an island as it used to be.
Unfortunately the original intention for this grandiose building to be solely used to promote opera was a failure and, within a year, it was quickly converted to become a Variety Theatre by Walter Emden and was renamed The Palace Theatre of Varieties.
The Palace Theatre underwent a reconstruction in 1908 when Emblin Walker decided to redecorate the auditorium and exterior back to its original colour scheme and décor.
Shaftesbury Avenue became London's street of theatre during the Edwardian period, following the death of Queen Victoria in 1901 and during the reign of King Edward VII to 1910, with theatres being constructed along the Shaftesbury Avenue. Before then, they had been concentrated on and around the Strand and at the start of the Edwardian Era Shaftesbury Avenue only had 2 theatres namely the Lyric and the Shaftesbury [not the current theatre but another one which has long since gone].
The Shaftesbury Avenue of Edwardian London was an entirely different place than today. It was brand new thoroughfare and was light and bright with a mixture of flats, jewellers, dress and clothing shops, pubs and a couple of theatres intermixed with offices. It did have far more drinking venues, with pubs such as the Prince Rupert, which was a bright and colourful large pub, unlike traditional ale houses. The Prince Rupert was a noble pub full of crystal and memories of times long gone, with images of English Cavalry charges led by Prince Rupert and dashing officers in uniforms. It was immensely popular with actors and theatrical persons, writers and thespians alike, and it was more like a gentleman's club than a pub, with an upstairs bar called the 'Fitz Bar', which was in fact run by Aubrey Fitzgerald the well known actor. This great pub has long gone and is now sadly a large corner shop.
The Palace Theatre stood alone at the end of the new avenue on its own island detached from the other buildings. Despite its high brow intentions, it had adapted well, being a variety music hall of class with stiff white shirted gentleman and flowing silk dressed ladies occupying the boxes. The stalls and dress circle were predominantly occupied by men as the theatre was seen to be more of a male occupation and less suitable for a lady. The air was often think, blue and heavy with smoke from expensive cigars. Champagne and whisky were served in its bars to the exclusion of all other types of alcohol.
The Palace theatre became more like a gentlemen's club as 'season tickets' were sold. They cost 5 shillings [25p] and entitled the holder to frequent the bars, view the odd scene or two, but did not entitle them to a seat. This was not so much a problem as they mainly frequented the Palace as meeting place.
The Palace Theatre had lost its gentlemen's club atmosphere after the roaring twenties, when it became more of a theatre and music hall and continued to draw in the audiences throughout the twentieth century. The Palace Theatre lost its island isolation as continued development adjoined the theatre to Shaftesbury Avenue and it merely began to merge into the architecture.
The Palace Theatre is perhaps most known for its longest run and success 'Les Miserables', which ended in 2004, after which it was decided to give the Palace Theatre a long overdue restoration to now retain and expound its original grand style over 110 years after its creation.
Showing: Priscilla - Queen of the Desert
Tuesday 10th March 2009 to Open ended run Palace Theatre | Performances | Information | Directions | History
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