Summary
Theatre. Built in 1857-1858 to the design of the architect Edward Middleton Barry by the contractors Messrs Lucas in neoclassical style for the Royal Italian Opera Company. The original building was extended to the west in the same style in 1979-1982 by the architectural practice Gollins, Melvin and Ward (GMW); the interiors of this later addition are excluded. A south extension to the theatre was added by Dixon Jones and the Building Design Partnership (BDP), largely in a modern style except for a neoclassical colonnade, in 1996-2000, the interiors of which are excluded. A neoclassical fly tower and stage infill were was also added at that time. Further alterations, particularly to the later interiors, by the architectural practice Stanton Williams in 2015-2018.
Reasons for Designation
The Royal Opera House, built in 1857-1858 to the design of E M Barry and extended in 1979-1982 and 1996-2000, is listed at Grade I for the following principal reasons:
Architectural interest:
* as one of the great Victorian international opera houses of the world, which upon construction was compared to La Scala, Milan, and the theatre at Bologna in scale and sophistication;
* deemed as the oldest ‘complete’ theatre building now surviving in London, it retains what is considered to be the oldest Victorian auditorium in England;
* for its rarity as one of few surviving theatres of this period, built at a time when only a small number of theatres were being constructed in London; the theatre-building boom occurring several decades later in around 1875 to 1910 when many West End venues were built;
* as an important theatre design by the major Victorian architect E M Barry who designed a number of other significant listed buildings, including the Floral Hall (Grade II), Charing Cross Hotel (Grade II), the Eleanor Cross (Grade II*) and St Saviour’s Church (Grade II), as well as completing the Palace of Westminster (Grade I) and Halifax Town Hall (Grade II*);
* for the grandeur and accomplishment of its external design with an imposing Corinthian hexastyle portico and fine bas-reliefs by Flaxman and Rossi salvaged from Smirke’s earlier theatre (1808);
* for the exceptional quality and craftsmanship of the interior, including the auditorium with its elegant proportions and high level of decorative detailing to the tier fronts, proscenium arch and saucer-dome, as well as the ornate decoration to the Grand Staircase, Crush Room, and royal suite;
* as a display of Victorian advancements in materials and technology, including innovative use of iron girders to span a theatre auditorium, as well as the application of Desachy’s patent fibrous plaster system of 1856 to the bas-relief of the proscenium arch and tier fronts; one of the earliest uses of a technique that would be widely used in late Victorian theatres, and now the oldest surviving fibrous plaster in the country;
* for the west extension of 1979-1982 by the acclaimed architectural practice GMW, which was extremely progressive in terms of its architectural plurality, contextualism and urban sensitivity, and represents an important work within their oeuvre;
* for the south extension of 1996-2000 by Dixon Jones BDP, which reimagines part of Inigo Jones’s Covent Garden piazza, drawing from his original inspiration, the Piazza d’Arme in Livorno, Italy, whilst also serving as a major late C20 work of British urbanism and town planning.
Historic interest:
* as the third theatre to stand on a site which saw the erection of its first theatre in 1732, has had a long-standing royal association and patronage, and which has been in almost continuous theatrical and operatic use for nearly 300 years;
* for the close historic association with the theatre managers Frederick Gye and Augustus Harris, as well as numerous leading actors, singers, musicians and directors.
Group value:
* with the nearby Theatre Royal, Drury Lane (Grade I), with which this site formed a historic core around which London’s Theatreland district developed, as well as the contemporary Floral Hall (Grade II) and other adjacent listed buildings within the Covent Garden Conservation Area.
History
In the C15, the area where Covent Garden is now located was semi-rural, dominated by the large walled convent garden that served as an orchard for the monks of Westminster Abbey and from which it gained its name (Alan Baxter 2017, 5). In 1536, the convent’s garden came into the possession of Henry VIII. The Crown subsequently granted the land to John Russell, the first Earl of Bedford, and it remained in the ownership of the Russell family for almost 400 years until the mid-C20 (Alan Baxter 2017, 6). This land was developed in 1631-1639 to designs by the architect Inigo Jones with a large open piazza. An informal market subsequently developed within the square, which was regularised in the late C17.
During the Commonwealth, theatres were closed by an Act of Parliament in 1642. The playwright Sir William Davenant produced what is generally regarded as the first performance of an English opera when he put on a private showing of ‘A Siege of Rhodes’ in his home in 1656 (Ibid, 17). Following the Restoration of the monarchy in 1660, theatre-going was once more permitted. The first purpose-built theatre to be constructed after the Restoration was built at Drury Lane in 1663. On the nearby site of the present Royal Opera House, a sequence of three theatres were built between the early C17 and mid-C19 (see below). The establishment of the theatres at Drury Lane and Covent Garden followed royal patents issued in 1662-1663 by Charles II (Ashton 1982, 21). These provided the theatres with exclusive rights to perform ‘spoken drama’ in London.
In 1732, the Theatre Royal was built on the site to the design of the architect Edward Shepherd under the patronage of John Rich, a celebrated director and manager. It was completely hemmed in by other buildings and approached down narrow alleyways. The theatre opened with a premiere of Congreve’s The Way of the World in December 1732 and hosted a series of Handel opera premieres in 1735-1737, as well as a premiere of Thomas Arne’s Artaxerxes in 1762 (Saint 1982, 14). The auditorium was reconstructed in 1792 by the architect Henry Holland. However, the theatre burnt down on 20 September 1808; the cause was believed to be some smouldering scenery after wadding from a gun was fired during Sheridan’s Pizarro the previous evening.
In 1808-1809, the second Theatre Royal was built on the site to the design of the architect Robert Smirke at the considerable cost of £187,888. According to Saint, this was London’s first major building in the Greek Doric manner, and the modern world’s first ‘Grecian’ theatre (Ibid, 16). It also appears to have been the first centrally heated theatre in Britain with a system of steam-heating and ventilation supplied by Boulton and Watt, as well as stoves and gas lighting (Ibid, 19). The theatre was given a grand façade facing Bow Street dominated by a Doric portico inspired by the Parthenon in Athens. The opening to Macbeth on 18 September 1809 included new seating and pricing arrangements which resulted in the ‘Old Price’ (OP) riots. This was one of the most sustained and well-known theatre disturbances of the Georgian period, lasting for some three months until the old prices were brought back. Theatre, opera and pantomime were subsequently held at the theatre which was the stage to such theatre giants as Charles Kemble, Edmund Kean, William Charles Macready and Lucia Elizabeth Vestris.
The 1843 Theatres Act removed Drury Lane and Covent Garden theatres’ monopoly on the presentation of spoken drama in London. A disaffected group of performers led by the conductor Sir Michael Costa left the Haymarket theatre in 1846 to host opera at Covent Garden. The auditorium was rebuilt in elaborate Italian Renaissance style as one of the largest theatres outside Italy and reopened in April 1847 as the ‘Royal Italian Opera House’ (Alan Baxter 2017, 20). Saint described it ‘as fully Italian a theatre as ever existed in England’ (1982, 22). However, on 5 March 1856, it caught fire during a masked ball and burnt to the ground.
In 1857-1858, the third, and current, theatre on the site was built to the design of the architect Edward Middleton Barry, son of Charles Barry, for the Royal Italian Opera Company. The driving force behind it was the theatre manager Frederick Gye. The site acquired by Gye was larger than before, but the amount of ground allocated to the theatre was less because of his intent to include a glazed Floral Hall to the south (Grade II). This also resulted in a change to the axis of the auditorium to run broadly east-west rather than the north-south alignment of its predecessors. Despite the reduced footprint, Barry actually managed to design a larger stage and auditorium by raising the height of the building and arranging reduced circulation spaces and ancillary spaces around them. The new auditorium rivalled that at La Scala, Milan, in size, which was generally considered to be the largest in the world (Alan Baxter 2017, 34). The contractors Messrs Lucas had built it in less than eight months with 1,200 men employed in the final few weeks. The ironwork was supplied by Messrs Grissell of the Regent’s Canal Ironworks and the joinery prefabricated in the contractors’ Lowestoft works and reassembled on site. The exterior brickwork was faced in Portland cement with a Roman Revival temple front facing Bow Street; a treatment deemed an unnecessary expense by Gye but insisted upon by the Bedford Estate. The main elevation featured a Corinthian portico and statues and reliefs by John Flaxman and John Charles Felix Rossi salvaged from the previous theatre. Barry claimed to have completed the new theatre at a cost of just £80,000 and it opened with a performance of ‘Les Huguenots’ on 15 May 1858 (Saint 1982, 28).
E M Barry (1830-1880) worked closely with Sir Charles Barry on the Palace of Westminster and, following his father’s death, completed the palace and Halifax Town Hall (Burnet and Blissett 2004). His independent commissions included: St Saviour’s Church, Haverstock Hill, (Grade II) the Birmingham and Midland Institute (demolished), the Charing Cross Hotel (Grade II), the Eleanor Cross (Grade II*), as well as work for the Fitzwilliam Museum, Cambridge, the Reform Club, and the National Gallery (Alan Baxter 2017, 33). He was highly regarded within his profession and served as the Royal Academy’s Professor of Architecture and the vice-president of the Royal Institute of British Architects in the last decade of his life.
The interior of Barry’s theatre included an entrance hall and Grand Staircase leading to an elaborately decorated Crush Room. The success of the previous auditorium of 1847 influenced the design of its successor. It retained the horseshoe form and had three main tiers of boxes divided by removable mahogany partitions which corresponded with the position of the structural columns. There was a double-width Royal Box with its own staircase and retiring room, as well as a private box for the Duke of Bedford with a retiring room and fireplace. In structural terms, the auditorium walls supported eight huge concealed wrought-iron lattice girders from which was hung stage machinery and the low saucer-dome ceiling (Ibid, 51). The decoration was partly carried out in fibrous plaster and carton pierre whilst the ceiling detailing appears to have been influenced by C R Cockerell’s St George’s Hall, Liverpool. The Italian sculptor Raffaelle Monti designed the rococo decoration to the box fronts and the relief over the proscenium arch. The present (2024) colour scheme matches the original with a prevailing white and gold palette contrasting with crimson hangings and the cerulean blue of the saucer-dome. The stage was originally laid out by the scene painter William Beverley and was raked with an apron front.
In 1882, fire protection measures were carried out to the theatre. These included a proscenium wall dividing the stage from the auditorium and concrete floors to the workshops. ‘Italian’ was dropped from the theatre’s title in 1892 and it became the ‘Royal Opera House’. The theatre had been managed by Sir Augustus Harris since 1888 who had restored its place as one of the world’s greatest opera houses (Ibid, 78). Electric lighting was introduced to the theatre in 1892. The Grand Opera Syndicate purchased the ground lease in 1899 and began a scheme of refurbishment. The architect and engineer Edwin Sachs (1870-1919) rebuilt the stage house, levelled the stage, replaced the machinery and installed a counterweight flying system in 1899 to 1902. The conservatory was added to the terrace of the Bow Street portico, the royal suite redecorated in the Adam style, and new theatre seating and lavatories installed.
During the First World War, the Royal Opera House was requisitioned as a furniture store. In the early 1930s, the building came under very real threat of demolition. It received the first ever grant of public subsidy for the arts from 1930 but the grant was suspended in 1932 following public criticism (Survey of London 1970, 84). However, the theatre was saved after a new syndicate, the Royal Opera House Company Ltd, obtained the lease in December 1933 and carried out a series of alterations. A neo-Georgian extension was added to the rear of the theatre by the firms Hood and Huggins and Frank Matcham and Co (since demolished), a new staircase added to the gallery, the Crush Room and conservatory bar refurbished, and new stage lighting and a cyclorama installed. There were further works in 1937 to 1938 when new seating was installed in the orchestra stalls and balcony, whilst most of the auditorium boxes were also removed at around this time. The 1930s witnessed a series of triumphal performances in German and Italian opera under Sir Thomas Beecham as artistic director.
During the Second World War, the Royal Opera House operated as a dance hall after Mecca cafes purchased the lease (Ibid, 85). Following the war, the Covent Garden Opera Trust was established and the Arts Council began regular subsidies to the theatre, which combined seasons of subsidised opera and ballet. Ninette de Valois’s Sadler’s Wells Ballet (later the Royal Ballet) transferred to the Royal Opera House, which reopened with the ballet The Sleeping Beauty on 20 February 1946. The porte-cochére of the theatre was enclosed in 1950 to create a new foyer. The 1950s saw the world premieres of a series of British operas: Billy Budd (1951), Gloriana (1953), Troilus and Cressida (1954) and The Midsummer Marriage (1954), before the practice of singing British translations of ‘International Opera’ waned at Covent Garden (Alan Baxter 2017, 80). In 1964, there were major internal works when the structural timberwork of the gallery and amphitheatre in the auditorium were replaced with steel by Peter Moro and Partners. New lighting and a ‘follow spot’ position were also installed. In 1968, the granting of a royal charter saw the Covent Garden Opera Company become The Royal Opera.
The relocation of Covent Garden Market to Nine Elms in 1974 presented the opportunity for the Royal Opera House to expand. The government purchased the land to the immediate west and south and took over the freehold of the Royal Opera House in 1980 to bring it into public ownership. In 1979-1982, a new L-shaped extension was designed and built by the acclaimed architectural practice Gollins, Melvin and Ward (GMW) attached to the north-west corner, providing new studios, rehearsal rooms and dressing rooms. It was financed by public appeal and completed at a cost of £9.2m (Building Design, 21 May 1982, 1). The brief for the extension required that the elevations harmonise with Barry’s original theatre, and the firm thus had to reconcile the discipline imposed by a bold classicising exterior with complex functional requirements.
Economic stringencies saw the abandonment of GMW’s larger masterplan for the site. However, in 1983 to 1984 an architectural competition was held for a major extension to the south, occupying the north-east corner of the Covent Garden Piazza, which was won by Jeremy Dixon in partnership with Building Design Partnership (BDP). There was then a considerable gestation period before the final scheme was constructed in 1996 to 2000 at a cost of £214m (Isaacs 2002, 123). It included the refurbishment of the auditorium, rebuilding of the stage and stage machinery (including the demolition and infilling of the area occupied by the 1930s extension), new scene docks, a new fly tower, the Linbury Theatre, six new ballet studios, a new get-in for articulated lorries, new rehearsal rooms, workshops, shops, offices and foyers. The scheme combined two main stylistic elements: several ranges stylistically hanging between rationalism and modern, and a neoclassical corner range with a colonnade to the Covent Garden Piazza. The latter referenced part of Inigo Jones’s piazza, whilst drawing inspiration from his original source, the Piazza d’Arme in Livorno, Italy. In both architectural and urban planning terms, the scheme was generally seen as a resounding success, marking the resolution of an exceptionally complex brief. Kenneth Powell described it as ‘probably unique in Britain’ for challenging architectural and planning orthodoxies and serving as a ‘vivid example of culture reshaping the city’ (2000, 204). At this time, the remaining east section of the Floral Hall, which had been used since 1887 as a fruit market and latterly as a storage space, was also dismantled and re-erected as a public gathering space for the operagoers. Its rear portico, which had faced the market, was removed to make way for the new buildings at the north-east angle of the market piazza: it was subsequently repurposed as a frontage to Borough Market, Southwark.
The ‘Bridge of Aspiration’, a high-level skew footbridge, was added in 2003 to the design of Wilkinson Eyre Architects to link the Royal Opera House with the studios of the Royal Ballet School on Floral Street. The bridge is not part of this listing.
Following the Royal Opera House’s ‘Open Up’ competition in 2012, the architectural practice Stanton Williams reworked many of the Dixon Jones BDP interior spaces. Undertaken in 2015 to 2018, this work was intended to make the building more inviting and easier to navigate and included a large public foyer linking new entrances off Covent Garden Piazza and Bow Street, as well as a refurbishment of the Linbury Theatre.
Details
Theatre. Built in 1857-1858 to the design of the architect Edward Middleton Barry by the contractors Messrs Lucas in neoclassical style for the Royal Italian Opera Company. The original building was extended to the west in the same style in 1979-1982 by the architectural practice Gollins, Melvin and Ward (GMW); the interiors of this later addition are excluded. A south extension to the theatre was added by Dixon Jones and the Building Design Partnership (BDP), largely in a modern style except for a neoclassical colonnade, in 1996-2000, the interiors of which are excluded. A neoclassical fly tower and stage infill were was also added at that time. Further alterations, particularly to the later interiors, by the architectural practice Stanton Williams in 2015-2018.
MATERIALS: original theatre constructed in brick with a Portland cement facing and a Portland stone portico (all now painted) whilst the west extension is built of concrete and brick faced in stucco (also painted). There is surviving original Victorian internal ironwork, which was supplied by Messrs Grissell of the Regent’s Canal Ironworks. The south extension of 1996-2000 has a steel frame faced in smooth finely joined stone slabs except for the neoclassical corner range to Covent Garden which is built of Portland stone.
PLAN: at the east of the original theatre is the main foyer, Grand Staircase and Crush Room leading to the auditorium, which is surrounded by the royal suite, Bedford suite, foyers, ancillary spaces and staircases. The auditorium contains the stalls and three main tiers of seating, as well as the Royal Box and Bedford Box. Behind it, to the west, are the stage and scene docks as well as workshops, two ballet studios and shops. The south extension of 1996-2000 contains the Linbury Theatre, an opera rehearsal room, four ballet studios, public spaces and foyers, cafes, bars, shops, dressing rooms, the wardrobe and costume departments, offices and plant rooms. The interiors of the 1979-1982 GMW west extension and the 1996-2000 Dixon Jones BDP south extension are excluded from the listing.
EXTERIORS: the Royal Opera House is orientated north-east to south-west but this description is simplified to the cardinal points, for example east front rather than north-east front. The main façade of the original theatre faces Bow Street and is dominated by a central Corinthian portico. This elevation is of seven bays, comprising the hexastyle portico, which projects for one intercolumniation from the main wall face, and two flanking bays. The ground floor is rusticated with a large moulded plinth and entablature. Originally there was a porte-cochére to the ground floor of the portico, but this now forms an entrance foyer with the former windows altered as doorways. The Portland stone columns of the portico rest on pedestals, linked by open balustrades, to support a pedimented entablature with a moulded architrave, plain freeze and a dentilled cornice framing a plain tympanum. There are five large round-arched windows which originally lit the Crush Room but are now concealed by the mansard-roofed conservatory added in 1899. The windows have plain piers, moulded imposts, and moulded archivolts broken by keystones carved with masks which are thought to be derived from Greek originals in the Townley Marbles (a collection of items from Townley's Grand Tours held in the British Museum). In the spandrels between the window arches are four roundels containing busts of Shakespeare, Jonson, Aeschylus and Aristophanes by James Tolmie. Above the windows are Coade stone bas-reliefs by Flaxman and Rossi salvaged from Smirke’s theatre and combined in a long panel depicting the Ancient Drama and the Modern Drama. There are then five small circular windows and a coffered ceiling to the underside of the portico resting on decorative corbel brackets. The bays flanking the portico each have niches containing statues beneath further bas-reliefs by Flaxman and scrolled trophy panels of musical instruments. The statues depict Melpomene (south) and Thalia (north) and were carved by Rossi and also salvaged from Smirke’s theatre. These end bays terminate in pairs of plain pilasters beneath a dentilled cornice and parapet topped by tall-necked urns.
The north elevation, facing Floral Street, continues in a similar but stripped-back treatment. It has a rusticated ground floor with a plinth and entablature beneath nine original bays of paired openings to the first, second and third floors, divided by plain piers. The window openings are variously blind (blocked up) or filled with sash windows. There are numerous blind openings and doorways to the ground floor, including a doorway to the Royal Box flanked by pilasters and covered by a cantilevered porch. Above the third floor is a blind clerestory, heavy eaves cornice and parapet. The original theatre range ends in a pair of pilasters. However, beyond it is a further five bays added in 1979-1982 by GMW in the same neoclassical style.
The south elevation of the original theatre is similar to the north and of ten bays with the lower part concealed by the adjacent Floral Hall.
The west elevation of 1979-1982 by GMW continues in the same style, fronting onto James Street, and has a rusticated ground floor with a plinth and entablature beneath six recessed window bays divided by plain piers. There are six projecting ground floor bays containing shops and a restaurant with large plate glass windows, glazed doorways and plain fascias. Above the shops are double-height round-headed windows rising through the first and second floors and then square windows to the third floor. The round-headed windows are each of six panes with fanlights and broadly echo the mid-C19 round-arched openings to the Bow Street façade. The square windows are of four panes. This elevation is framed by paired pilasters and has a heavy eaves cornice beneath a moulded parapet.
The roof structure of the original theatre is largely covered in a series of gabled roofs whilst the GMW range has a sawtooth roof which was added in 1996-2000 when the area to the rear of the stage was infilled. Between these two ranges is a lofty neoclassical fly tower also added in 1996-2000 by Dixon Jones BDP. It is a rectangular tower, over 50m tall, with plain piers beneath an eaves cornice and moulded parapet decorated with scrolls and corner urns. The structure is built on a steel frame and faced in stucco with a flat roof.
The south extension of 1996-2000 by Dixon Jones BDP, has a broadly L-shape footprint. The largest part extends south of the Floral Hall along Bow Street and west alond Rusell Street in a Post modern style, faced in smooth finely-joined slabs. The elevation to Bow Street is an irregular composition, 11 bays wide, with a deeply recessed central bay where there is a get-in for articulated lorries and glazed bridges. The flanking bays have a range of projecting panelled or small square windows with steel balconies to the fourth floor windows. There is a set-back double attic storey with a mansard roof. On Russell Street there are eight bays comprising ground floor shops beneath six projecting window panels extending through the first and second floor to the first six bays, six round windows to the fourth floor and then ribbon-glazing to the fifth floor set below a projecting canopied roof. The seventh bay has similar treatment but with a three-light window to the second floor, whilst the eighth bay forms a corner tower with a huge projecting signboard. This is also the style of the smaller section facing James Street to the west, which adjoins the 1980s GMW extension. This has a deeply recessed four-storey link bay, which is rendered with pairs of windows to the upper storeys, attached to the main five-storey volume. The latter has a ground floor faced in dark-grey stone slabs interrupted by two large glazed shopfronts, and the upper floors faced in cream-coloured slabs with recessed square windows. The windows have recessed fascia panels above them. There are single-light windows to the first, second and third floors, and two-light windows to the fourth floor. Additionally, the fourth floor windows have square steel balconies and there is a rooftop terrace with a canopy. Behind the terrace are further attic storeys, including four top-lit ballet studios.
The 1990s extension faces the east-north-east and north-north-east sides of Covent Garden Piazza, however, it is fronted by a three-storey classical range of Portland stone with a colonnade at ground floor formed of Tuscan columns supporting an entablature amd openings for a false mezzanine. Pilasters continue the line of the columns to frame each bay of the frontage, which has at first and second floor, casement windows of two panes and six panes. The top floor is demarcated by a dentilled cornice below the attic storey in the form of a loggia, partly open and partly glazed, with a pitched copper-clad roof. Inside the arcade is a plain barrel-vault, its curve facing the market pierced by rectangular openings externally expressed as a falze mezzanine. Shops inside the arcade have windows piercing the vault on its side. Royal coats-of-arms, carved by Dick Read, are incised into the walls above the west and south arches of the arcade. At the inner angle of the arcade is an entrance into the main public spaces of the Royal Opera House. The south and east elevations of the south extension, facing Russell Street and Bow Street respectively, return to the modern styling seen on James Street. On Russell Street there are eight bays comprising ground floor shops beneath six projecting window panels extending through the first and second floor to the first six bays, six oculi (round windows) to the fourth floor and then ribbon-glazing to the fifth floor set below a projecting canopied roof. The seventh bay has similar treatment but with a three-light window to the second floor, whilst the eighth bay forms a corner tower with a huge projecting signboard. The east elevation to Bow Street is an irregular composition, 11 bays wide, with a deeply recessed central bay where there is a get-in for articulated lorries and glazed bridges. The flanking bays have a range of projecting panelled or small square windows, as seen to the other modern elevations, with steel balconies to the fourth floor windows. There is a set-back double attic storey with a mansard roof.
The Floral Hall located between the original 1858 theatre and 1990s Dixon Jones BDP ranges is a Grade II-listed building under a separate List entry (National Heritage List for England (NHLE) entry 1357231).
INTERIORS: the original theatre is entered via a former porte-cochére or carriage entrance on Bow Street, which is now entirely enclosed with 1990s glazed doors to form a foyer. It has walls with moulded pilasters, cornices, a plain ceiling and five early C20 octagonal bronze hanging lanterns in Louis XIV style. Four glazed double doors lead into the original entrance hall, which is divided into bays by Doric pilasters and anatae with a plain ceiling divided by cross beams into corniced compartments. There are five mid-Victorian 6-branch wall lights and a statue of Frederick Gye by Count Gleichen (1880). On the north side of the hall are two doorways leading to the lift lobby. On the south side is a modern corridor to the Floral Hall, and the Grand Staircase, whilst on the west side are two glazed mahogany doors leading to the Pit Lobby. This lobby has cast-iron columns supporting the stalls circle above, mahogany panelling and Victorian 2-branch wall lights. Further doorways lead out from the Pit Lobby to stairways ascending to the stalls, as well as to the corridors, lobbies, staircases, and lavatories flanking the auditorium. There is a vaulted basement containing dressing rooms and the main lavatories which have early C21 fixtures and fittings*.
The Grand Staircase on the south side of the entrance hall has two flights of stairs, separated by a half-landing, which ascend to the Crush Room. The second flight has a central mahogany handrail of 1882 resting on gilt ironwork enriched with acanthus leaves and scrollwork. The flanking walls are decorated with panels and festooned garlands and have mid-Victorian 3-branch wall lights. There is a coved ceiling with a central boss from which hangs an early C20 Louis XIV style bronze lantern. At the top of the staircase is a left-hand doorway to the Grand Tier and a central doorway to the Crush Room. The Crush Room (historically also called the Grand Saloon) is divided into bays by Ionic pilasters and decorated in cream and gold. It has wall panels enriched with festooned garlands, a panelled ceiling and two Ionic columns at the north end. Lighting is provided by a pair of 24-light cut-glass chandeliers and ten William IV ormolu 3-branch girandoles. There is a fireplace to the west wall and glazed double doors leading out to the Grand Tier. Four round-arched openings with upper windows and lower doorways provide access to the conservatory on the portico terrace. The conservatory was originally added in 1899 to the design of the Duke of Bedford’s surveyor, Philip Pilditch, and contains a bar* installed in around 2018.
The theatre auditorium is designed to a horseshoe plan with stalls and three main tiers of stepped seating (formerly occupied by boxes), including an amphitheatre gallery. The present (2024) colour scheme matches the original with a prevailing white and gold palette contrasting with crimson hangings and the cerulean blue of the saucer-dome. The gilded proscenium arch was designed to be adjustable in width and the inner panel, decorated with twisted colonettes, can be slid towards the centre to narrow the proscenium opening by 2m. There is an outer moulding enriched with ball ornament and a cover at the head of the arch decorated with acanthus leaves. Beneath the arch is a crimson pelmet embroidered in gold with the royal arms, whilst the crimson tableau curtains bear the royal cypher. Above the proscenium arch is a gilded bas-relief by Raffaelle Monti with life-size figure subjects representing Music, with Orpheus, and Poetry, with Ossian. They are separated by a gilded bust of Queen Victoria within a medallion flanked by figures on either side supporting a corona. Four great elliptical coved arches frame the pendentives and saucer-dome of the ceiling. The soffits of the arches are enriched with a band of gilt double guilloche ornament whilst the pendentives are decorated with a circular panel and three spandrels, the latter containing gilt trellises and the former flutes radiating around a wreathed lyre. The saucer-dome was constructed by George Jackson and Sons using Bielefeld’s fibrous slab. It has a central cast-iron oculus from which radiate 12 panels, further subdivided into five triangular shapes by cable-mouldings, then an outer ring enriched with a scale-patterned trellis, and, finally, a wide border decorated with paterae. The elliptical arches on the north and south sides of the auditorium open to the upper slips where the ceiling is decorated in cerulean blue panels with gilt borders. The interior of the saucer-dome retains original cast-iron and timber trusses and roof joists.
The theatre seating and walls are covered in crimson fabric, which present a further contrast to the white and gold of the tier fronts. These fronts carry Monti’s decoration; fluting and foliage ornament to the panels of the first tier, and then a gold trellis and rococo decoration, including leaf and flower ornament, and winged nymphs to the upper tiers. The nymphs increase in age from the amphitheatre level downwards and the tier fronts retain original box numbers. The Royal Box on the Grand Tier also retains gilt colonettes with twisted shafts, and the royal arms above it. All three tiers carry an array of 3- or 5-branch lighting brackets dating to 1858 and 1892. At the top left and right of the auditorium are upper slips that have original iron railings with wooden handrails.
On the north side of the theatre, accessed via Floral Street, is the royal suite and Bedford suite. The royal suite comprises a lobby, staircase, a smoking-room, and a retiring room on the first floor adjoining the Royal Box. The King’s Smoking Room was created at the request of the Prince of Wales (later Edward VII) in 1865. It was refurbished in around 1900 in ‘Adam’ style and is decorated with Ionic pilasters, swags and other ornamentation. There is a fireplace and four late-C19 wall lights. An original cantilevered stone staircase with a decorative iron balustrade and wooden handrail leads up from the royal lobby to the first floor. The walls of the staircase have decorative plaster panelling, and it is lit by a late Victorian gilt brass and cut-glass chandelier as well as a light pendant. The Royal Retiring Room on the first floor has a coved ceiling with gilt trellis-work by Barry, and there are arabesque-panelled pilasters supporting an enriched architrave, brass door furniture, a fireplace bearing a crown, brass flambeaux, and Edwardian chandelier. A separate lavatory contains a water closet of about 1900 set in a panelled surround. Double doors open to the Royal Box, which has hand-modelled decorative plasterwork to the ceiling and box divisions.
The Bedford suite is accessed via a separate entrance from the royal lobby and comprises a staircase, retiring room and box. The staircase has a decorative iron balustrade and wooden handrail and is lit by a light pendant. On the first floor is the retiring room, which has a fireplace decorated with the ducal coronet beneath a heavily ornamented gilt mirror flanked by two wall lights. This room took on its current function in around 1997 when fittings were moved from the original ante-room. A partition has been inserted at the west end to create a modern kitchen which contains modern units*, fixtures and fittings*. There is a separate lavatory with a historic water closet. The original Bedford Box on this floor was refurbished in around 1997.
Behind the theatre proscenium is the stage and scene docks, largely within the 1979-1982 west extension, which have been successively rebuilt or remodelled, including in 1996-2000. The interiors of the west extension are not of special interest and therefore excluded from the listing.
The south extension of 1996-2000 by Dixon Jones BDP was refurbished in 2018 and has modern fixtures and fittings throughout; the interiors are not of special interest and therefore excluded from the listing.
EXCLUSIONS
* Pursuant to s1 (5A) of the Planning (Listed Buildings and Conservation Areas) Act 1990 (‘the Act’) it is declared that these aforementioned features (namely: the early C21 fixtures and fittings to the dressing rooms and main lavatories of the original Victorian theatre building; the early C21 bar to the conservatory; and the modern units and fixtures and fittings to the kitchen of the Bedford suite), and the interiors of the 1979-1982 GMW west extension and the 1996-2000 Dixon Jones BDP south extension, are not of special architectural or historic interest. However, any works to these which have the potential to affect the character of the listed building as a building of special architectural or historic interest may still require Listed Building Consent (LBC) and this is a matter for the Local Planning Authority (LPA) to determine.
