FORMER PALACE THEATRE AND GREAT WESTERN HOTEL

FORMER PALACE THEATRE AND GREAT WESTERN HOTEL, UNION STREET

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Overview

Heritage Category:: Listed Building
Grade:: II*
List Entry Number:: 1386483
Date first listed:: 23-Oct-1974
List Entry Name:: FORMER PALACE THEATRE AND GREAT WESTERN HOTEL
Statutory Address:: FORMER PALACE THEATRE AND GREAT WESTERN HOTEL, UNION STREET

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Date:: 2002-06-13
Reference:: IOE01/06370/24
Rights:: © Mr Gerald Rendle. Source: Historic England Archive

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Official list entry

Heritage Category:: Listed Building
Grade:: II*
List Entry Number:: 1386483
Date first listed:: 23-Oct-1974
Date of most recent amendment:: 09-Nov-1998
List Entry Name:: FORMER PALACE THEATRE AND GREAT WESTERN HOTEL
Statutory Address 1:: FORMER PALACE THEATRE AND GREAT WESTERN HOTEL, UNION STREET

This List entry helps identify the building designated at this address for its special architectural or historic interest.

Unless the List entry states otherwise, it includes both the structure itself and any object or structure fixed to it (whether inside or outside) as well as any object or structure within the curtilage of the building.

For these purposes, to be included within the curtilage of the building, the object or structure must have formed part of the land since before 1st July 1948.

Understanding list entries

Corrections and minor amendments

This List entry helps identify the building designated at this address for its special architectural or historic interest.

For these purposes, to be included within the curtilage of the building, the object or structure must have formed part of the land since before 1st July 1948.

Understanding list entries

Corrections and minor amendments

Location

Statutory Address:: FORMER PALACE THEATRE AND GREAT WESTERN HOTEL, UNION STREET

The building or site itself may lie within the boundary of more than one authority.

District:: City of Plymouth (Unitary Authority)
Parish:: Non Civil Parish
National Grid Reference:: SX4695054399

Details

PLYMOUTH

SX4654 UNION STREET, Stonehouse 740-1/57/832 (South side) 24/10/74 Former Palace Theatre and Great Western Hotel (Formerly Listed as: UNION STREET, Stonehouse Academy Theatre & Great Western Hotel (Palace Theatre))

II*

Former variety theatre and hotel. Opened 5th September 1898. Architects JT Wimpris and Arber. Auditorium damaged by fire in December 1898 and re-opened July 1899. Brick and yellow terracotta with ground floor of glazed tiles; plain tiled roofs with banded brick and terracotta stacks with moulded cornices; gabled dormers with pediments and 2-light windows with glazing bars. Northern Renaissance style with Art Nouveau details. Large corner-site plan. EXTERIOR: 4 storeys plus attic and 3 storeys plus attic including taller "piano nobile"; 3:3 bays, each group of bays symmetrical, the theatre on the right. Moulded architectural detail includes: entablature above ground floor, string above 2nd floor and modillion eaves cornice between the forward breaks with moulded cornices. Theatre has large central Flemish gable with carved and shaped pediment with finial and 2 statues of Spanish soldiers standing against the front face on opposing brackets. 2nd floor below has 2 pairs of round-arched lights flanked by Ionic half columns and with turned balustrades. Piano nobile has 3 round-arched transomed windows flanked by similar columns. Flanking bays have pairs of oculi over large keyed and consoled lunette tiled panels depicting scenes from the Armada. Above the left-hand panel is pair of lights like the central ones and above the other panel is a blind floor surmounted by a ramped turret with a balcony and oculi and bell-shaped dome surmounted by ball finial, all rather reminiscent of Winstanley's ill-fated lighthouse. Ground floor with glazed tiles has a 2:3:2-bay colonnade of Tuscan columns. There is another turret with bell-shaped lead roof to left of the 3 bays of former Great Western Hotel. There is a canted oriel to 1st and 2nd floors of central bay and the flanking bays are broken forward. 2nd floor bays have Barque panels over paired round-arched lights with square columns and they are fronted by turned balustrades. 1st and 2nd floors have pilastered and transomed lights with moulded sills and cornices and fine Art Nouveau panels. Ground floor has moulded elliptical arch flanked by 2 similar round arches with spoked fanlights; C20 doors. The frieze in the entablature above the ground floor of both buildings has the original fine quality lettering and decorative detail. Left-hand return elevation is also richly detailed for 1 bay. INTERIOR: panelled entrance foyer with pay-booth has fine Sicilian marble balustraded Imperial staircase leading to large 1st-floor saloon; lanterns to newels. Foyer and saloon have enriched plaster friezes with nereids, dolphins, cherubs etc. Saloon is in Cinquecento style with roundels to coffered ceiling and enriched spandrels to blind and open arcades with Ionic capitals to marble pilasters and columns. 2-tiered auditorium has panelled walls, domed ceiling and curved balcony fronts (partly supported on slender cast-iron columns) with military motifs etc. to decorative plasterwork. Rectangular proscenium arch, with rounded angles, is flanked by single boxes treated as ships' transoms, with plasterwork as if clinker planking and with lanterns above (adapted from former list description). This building represents the theatre as a place for lavish entertainment as reflected in the rich and exciting decoration and architectural detail, with particular attention to nautical themes. (The Buildings of England: Pevsner N: Devon: London: 1989-: 672).

Listing NGR: SX4695054399

Legacy

The contents of this record have been generated from a legacy data system.

Legacy System number:: 473870
Legacy System:: LBS

Sources

Books and journals
Pevsner, N, Cherry, B, The Buildings of England: Devon, (1989), 672

Legal

This building is listed under the Planning (Listed Buildings and Conservation Areas) Act 1990 as amended for its special architectural or historic interest.