Theatre Street
Theatre Street
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In the early part of the eighteenth century Theatre Street was known as Chapel Field Lane; it did not obtain its present name until after 1757 when Thomas Ivory “to oblige the general wish and request, and with the promise of all kinds of countenance and support from the principal inhabitants” undertook to build a theatre on a site in Chapel Field adjoining the then newly built Assembly House. It was completed and opened in January of the following year with a comedy called The Way of the World, the Norwich Company of Comedians being engaged to perform there. At first known as the “Concert Hall”, it was licensed as a Theatre by His Majesty’s Letters Patent in 1768, by which it was enabled to open from 1st January until 1st June each year and also in Assize Week. In the early part of the nineteenth century the building underwent various alterations and improvements, but it was eventually decided to pull it down and build a new one on the adjoining site. William Wilkins was the architect and proprietor and the new building opened on Easter Monday, 1826, with The School for Scandal. |
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A few doors further west was Trinity Presbyterian Church, whose hundred-foot tower was a well-known landmark. Services were first held in the Victoria Hall, St Andrew’s Street, in 1866 on the initiative of four Scottish drapers, and in the following year St Peter’s Hall in Theatre Street was purchased, the Rev. W. A. McAllan being ordained as minister. An increase in the number of worshippers soon made this accommodation inadequate and on 17th September 1874, the foundation stone of a new church was laid on adjoining land by C. E. Lewis, MP. Built of white brick with Bath stone dressings at an estimated cost of £3,600 in what was described as the Lombardo-Gothic style, the new church had a large rose window above a triple doorway as its central feature. Designed by local architect Edward Boardman, it was opened for public worship on 23rd June of the following year. The roof of the church sustained damage when the Theatre Royal burned down in 1934, but this was soon repaired. Just eight years later, however, the whole building except the tower was gutted when enemy raiders scattered incendiary bombs over the district. With the help of war damage compensation a new church was built on the site of the old Baptist church on Unthank Road; it was opened in 1956. Demolition of the remains of the Theatre Street building took place in the following year. Text and photographs Copyright © G.A.F.Plunkett 2001 |
Rampant Horse Street leads directly
into Theatre Street, where Nos 4-8 on its south side
formed an unassuming row of late Georgian houses. Three
storeys high, they were of red brick with pantiled roofs
and sash windows. Adjoining No 8 a covered way led to
Chantry Court, which these houses enclosed. This was a
somewhat narrow, stone paved yard made pleasant by a
number of plants growing in tubs standing by doorways and
other odd corners. However, the most remarkable feature
was at the street entrance - a pair of wrought-iron
gates with a semicircular grille above, fashioned in
the most intricate design and exhibiting the outstanding
craftsmanship of both designer and smith.
It was at the narrowest part of Theatre
Street, opposite No 4, that a 1,000lb delayed action
bomb fell during the early hours of 19th September 1940,
embedding itself deep into the subsoil. Fortunately it
failed to explode and after much digging and delicate
handling it was eventually defused and removed. The
houses thus escaped damage at this time, but they were to
remain only for another twenty-four years, for at the end
of 1964 they were pulled down, No 4 being replaced by
modern offices, the rest of the site being used as a
“temporary” car park but earmarked for an
extension of the civic centre, as yet unbuilt.
In 1883, as a result of a dispute
between the Town Clerk and the proprietor, Mr William
Sidney, concerning the provision of additional exits, the
discovery was made that the licence granted in 1768 was
personal to Thomas Ivory and had expired on his death in
1779. The theatre owned by Mr Sidney therefore was not a
Patent Theatre but had been carried on for 104 years
without patent, licence or permit of any kind.
After standing for more than a century,
during which time it was enlarged and otherwise improved,
the second Theatre Royal was ultimately destroyed
by fire on 22nd June 1934. Commencing at the stage end of
the building, the fire spread so that the whole theatre
was very soon involved; within an hour nothing but the
mere shell remained and Jack Gladwin, the proprietor, was
faced with the choice of abandoning it altogether or
completely rebuilding. Fortunately for Norwich he chose
the latter course, and on 30th September 1935, the
present Theatre Royal (the third to stand on or adjacent
to the site) opened with a production of The White
Horse Inn.
At 19 Theatre Street, on the western
corner of Lady Lane, stood for many years the Shakespeare
public house. With the Theatre Royal almost opposite,
it is not difficult to see how it obtained its name; the
sign, in the centre of the facade, was a medallion
portrait of the bard.