place

Grand Theatre, Southampton

1898 establishments1898 establishments in England1960 disestablishments in EnglandBuildings and structures in SouthamptonFormer theatres in England
History of SouthamptonTheatres completed in 1898
Grand Theatre Southampton 1905
Grand Theatre Southampton 1905

The Grand Theatre was a playhouse in Southampton in Hampshire, England from 1898 until it was demolished in 1960.The Grand Theatre stood on the corner of Windsor Terrace and Civic Centre Road. It was constructed in 1898 but included some 18th-century buildings on its east side. It was designed by the architects William Hope and J. C. Maxwell of Newcastle upon Tyne and was built by Messrs Jenkins & Sons of Southampton in red brick with terracotta dressings in a French Renaissance style. The front entrance was enhanced with a balustrade above and a central tower, at the top of which was a high domed lantern fitted with a purple light.The theatre was owned by Frederick Mouillot and H. H. 'Mackenzie' Morell, who put on productions with their own company with which they toured the provinces. Among the many theatres the two owned was the Swansea Grand Theatre in Swansea. The theatre's dressing rooms had originally been The Weighbridge, the former home of the Aslatt family in the 19th century, which was acquired by the theatre after the death of Henry Poate Aslatt in 1905. It opened on 5 December 1898 with a performance of The Little Minister by Frederick Harrison; it was performed by the theatrical company of Cyril Maude. The foundation stone was dedicated by the actress Mrs Kendal on 15 November 1898.The theatre's horseshoe-shaped auditorium was 60 feet (18 metres) wide and two-tiered, with the Circle on the first tier and the Gallery on the second above that. The stage was 53 feet (16 m) in height from the floor to the grid and 37 feet (11 m) in depth. Below the stage was a large scene dock, a properties room, large cellars and a mezzanine floor. The theatre could seat 1,800 patrons and had electrical lighting throughout, with gas as an additional system.The Grand Theatre was a "legitimate" theatre as it was a venue for plays, dramas and pantomimes performed by touring theatrical companies as opposed to music hall or variety acts. Among the performers to appear at the theatre were Sarah Bernhardt and Henry Irving. In 1904 Ellen Terry and her daughter Edith Craig appeared at the theatre in Much Ado About Nothing. The actor and theatre impresario Alfred Denville produced repertory plays at the Grand Theatre during the 1930s, and among the many actors who appeared in his productions at that time was Peter Cushing, who stayed with the company for about nine months. Early in its history the theatre was equipped to show bioscope films, with films of local events of interest being screened on 31 May 1902. On 2 July 1913 five short Kinemacolor films were shown. The Grand Theatre became "The New Hippodrome" from 25 March 1939 until 14 September 1940, when it closed. It was used to provide accommodation for soldiers during World War II. With the end of war the theatre was renovated and, under its old name of the Grand Theatre, hosted dramas with its resident repertory company. As audiences dwindled in the 1950s as television became more popular, the theatre featured more striptease shows. The theatre finally closed in 1959 and was demolished in 1960. Marland House, a large commercial office block in the Brutalist style was constructed on the site in 1963 providing offices for local social services. On the demolition of this in about 2016 a new Marland House was built providing student accommodation for the nearby University of Southampton.

Excerpt from the Wikipedia article Grand Theatre, Southampton (License: CC BY-SA 3.0, Authors, Images).

Grand Theatre, Southampton
Windsor Terrace, Southampton The Polygon

Geographical coordinates (GPS) Address Nearby Places
placeShow on map

Wikipedia: Grand Theatre, SouthamptonContinue reading on Wikipedia

Geographical coordinates (GPS)

Latitude Longitude
N 50.9067 ° E -1.4054 °
placeShow on map

Address

Windsor Terrace
SO14 7BQ Southampton, The Polygon
England, United Kingdom
mapOpen on Google Maps

Grand Theatre Southampton 1905
Grand Theatre Southampton 1905
Share experience

Nearby Places

Marlands Shopping Centre
Marlands Shopping Centre

The Marlands Shopping Centre (formerly known as The Mall, Southampton) was opened on 5 September 1991. At the time, the Marlands Shopping Mall was the largest shopping centre in Southampton and the first significant shopping centre in the city (East Street Shopping Centre being well out of the way of the main shopping district hence never being very successful and the Bargate Centre being much smaller), however it is now dwarfed by Westquay, which opened in 2000. The Marlands Shopping Centre was constructed to a postmodern design, and was built on the site of Southampton's bus station (the city is now without such a facility), a popular rose garden and some terraced housing which had become shops, on Manchester Street. These were destroyed in 1988 to make way for the shopping centre, despite local opposition. A replica of the Manchester Street shops was constructed as part of the Centre's atrium.The centre is laid out across two levels, with escalators connecting them at the North West entrance and escalators and glass lifts connecting them in the atrium, at the South of the centre. Unlike most of its contemporaries, the Marlands Shopping Centre does not contain a car park of any kind - the designated car park for the centre is accessed by going through Southampton's unusual ASDA supermarket which is on a slope - you go in on the ground floor and come out on the tenth floor - and across a bridge. The layout of the centre consists of an L-shaped mall where the street entrance at Above Bar Street leads through the centre's main arcade, to terminate at a large anchor store. The original anchor tenant of the mall was Dunnes Stores, though following their exit this facility was later occupied by Matalan. In 2014 it was confirmed that the Matalan store would be split to provide retail stores for Peacocks and Poundworld. Since then Peacocks has closed down. Other significant stores within the centre include The Saints Store, CeX and F. Hinds. The upper level of the centre has never been hugely successful - many of the units have been empty for some time. This lack of success is mainly due to the centre's location which is to the Northern part of the main shopping area although still in the centre of the city. In 2005-2006 the main (Above Bar Street) entrance to the centre was significantly refurbished. The original 'Postmodern' sign tower was replaced with an ultramodern glass and steel canopy and a new Costa Coffee outlet. An information desk was also added. The telephone of the management offices however stayed the same as (023) 8033 9164. On Thursday 19 August 2010 The Mall was sold as a £136m deal. Other Malls throughout the UK have been sold and will now be run as part of a group, together with others in Gloucester, Romford and Falkirk, by a specially created management company called The Other Retail Group. On June 9th 2021, the iconic well-known Disney Store shut its doors for the last time. The Saints Store has replaced it.

Southampton Tunnel
Southampton Tunnel

Southampton Tunnel (alternatively known as the Southampton Civic Centre Tunnel) is a 528-yard railway tunnel that runs close to the Civic Centre in the centre of the Hampshire city of Southampton, in England. The tunnel was constructed by the Southampton and Dorchester Railway to enable the Southampton and Dorchester Railway to pass through Southampton and join the London and Southampton Railway. Southampton West End station, subsequently relocated and presently known as Southampton Central lies to the West of the Tunnel. The experienced civil engineer Samuel Morton Peto acted as contractor for the works with the majority of the tunnel being constructed using traditional cut-and-cover techniques. Its route cut through that of the Salisbury and Southampton Canal, an incomplete project that had partially built an earlier tunnel; the presence of this earlier engineering work would negatively impact the project due to the prior disturbance of the ground. The tunnel suffered a collapse during construction, and subsequent movement of the structure delayed its opening until two months after that of the rest of the line, being finally opened to traffic for the first time during August 1847. Carrying a pair of tracks throughout its length, it has been periodically operated as a single-track only tunnel while remedial or improvement work was performed. Southampton Tunnel has been used by a variety of direct passenger services connecting the South Coast with London and the North. In addition, the tunnel has facilitated large amounts of freight movement to and from the Southampton Container Terminal and the rest of the UK. During 2009–10, it was subject to extensive re-engineering works, successfully raising both its loading gauge and maximum speed for container traffic.

Southampton Cenotaph
Southampton Cenotaph

Southampton Cenotaph is a First World War memorial designed by Sir Edwin Lutyens and located in Watts Park in the southern English city of Southampton. The memorial was the first of dozens by Lutyens to be built in permanent form and it influenced his later designs, including the Cenotaph in London. It is a tapering, multi-tiered pylon which culminates in a series of diminishing layers before terminating in a sarcophagus (or cenotaph, 'empty tomb') which features a recumbent figure of a soldier. In front is an altar-like Stone of Remembrance. The cenotaph contains multiple sculptural details including a prominent cross, the town's coat of arms, and two lions. The names of the dead are inscribed on three sides. Although similar in outline, later cenotaphs by Lutyens were much more austere and featured almost no sculpture. The design uses abstract, ecumenical features and lifts the recumbent soldier high above eye level, anonymising him. The memorial was unveiled at a public ceremony on 6 November 1920. Shortly afterwards, concerns emerged that the list of names on the cenotaph was incomplete. After a newspaper campaign, more than 200 further names were identified and these were eventually added to the cenotaph. The names of most Jewish casualties were omitted, the Jewish community being unhappy that the memorial featured a Christian cross. By the beginning of the 21st century, the engravings on the memorial had deteriorated noticeably. Rather than re-cut them and damage the stonework, they were supplemented by a series of glass panels that bear all the names from the cenotaph, as well as names from the Second World War and later conflicts. The panels were unveiled in 2011. The memorial is a Grade I listed building, having been upgraded in 2015 when Lutyens's war memorials were declared a national collection.