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West Cliff Theatre

1894 establishments in EnglandClacton-on-SeaTheatres in Essex

The West Cliff Theatre in Clacton-on-Sea, England, dates back to 1894 when Bert Graham, a 21-year-old civil servant, set up a concert party on a patch of waste ground in Agate Road. In 1899, along with Bernard Russell and Will Bentley, Graham moved the concert party to the West Cliff Gardens. Bernard Russell died in 1910, but Graham and Bentley continued the concert party. In 1912 they signed up a new romantic baritone by the name of Stanley Holloway. He stayed with the company for three years. In 1928, Graham and Bentley built a new theatre on the site of their concert party, the theatre which still stands in Clacton-on-Sea today as the West Cliff Theatre. In 1934, Graham and Bentley sold the theatre and it was bought by Will Hammer, who already owned several seaside theatres. In 1934 he also founded the film company Hammer Film Productions, which was later to gain worldwide fame as the producer of many horror films. Will Hammer died in 1957 and there was much doubt over whether the theatre would continue. Eventually, Clacton Council bought the theatre and continued to put on shows. In 1985, a local group of theatre enthusiasts took over the day-to-day running of the theatre and in 1995 bought the freehold of the theatre from the council. The West Cliff (Tendring) Trust is now solely responsible for putting on the shows at the theatre and still maintain the tradition of putting on a summer show.

Excerpt from the Wikipedia article West Cliff Theatre (License: CC BY-SA 3.0, Authors).

West Cliff Theatre
Tower Road, Essex

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N 51.7867 ° E 1.1484 °
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West Cliff Theatre

Tower Road
CO15 1LE Essex
England, United Kingdom
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Clacton-on-Sea railway station
Clacton-on-Sea railway station

Clacton-on-Sea railway station is one of the two eastern termini of the Sunshine Coast Line, a branch of the Great Eastern Main Line, in the East of England, serving the town of Clacton-on-Sea, Essex. It is 69 miles 56 chains (112.17 km) down the line from London Liverpool Street. Its three-letter station code is CLT. The preceding station on the line is Thorpe-le-Soken. The station was opened in 1882 with the name Clacton. It is currently managed by Greater Anglia, which also operates all trains serving the station. The branch diverges from the Great Eastern Main Line at Colchester whence trains run to either Colchester Town, Walton-on-the-Naze or Clacton-on-Sea. Clacton is on a spur from Thorpe-le-Soken which was built by the Clacton-on-Sea Railway and originally operated by the Great Eastern Railway. It opened some 15 years after the branch to Walton was opened. On 1 January 1923 the station passed to the London and North Eastern Railway following the 1921 Railways Act. After World War II and following nationalisation, it fell under the auspices of British Railways (Eastern Region). Services were steam-operated until the line was electrified, with Clacton first seeing electric trains on 16 March 1959. Initially, the line was only electrified as far as Colchester, as part of British Railways' experiments with 25 kV AC electrification, rather than the previously preferred 1500 V DC system. Through electrified services to Liverpool Street were introduced on 7 January 1963.Clacton station has a sizeable concourse sheltered by a glazed roof. Platforms 1 and 3 have an operational length for ten-coach trains and platforms 2 and 4 have an operational length for twelve-coach trains. There is a traction depot just outside the station, with some stabling sidings alongside the station itself. Its name was changed to Clacton-on-Sea in May 2007.