THE EMPIRE

THE EMPIRE, 49-52, ALEXANDRA ROAD

Listed on the National Heritage List for England. Search over 400,000 listed places

Overview

Heritage Category:: Listed Building
Grade:: II
List Entry Number:: 1103471
Date first listed:: 22-Dec-1988
List Entry Name:: THE EMPIRE
Statutory Address:: THE EMPIRE, 49-52, ALEXANDRA ROAD

User submitted image — Uploaded by Trevor Ekins This photo may not represent the current condition of the site
View all

Location

Location of this list entry and nearby places that are also listed. Use our map search to find more listed places.

There is a problem

Use of this mapping is subject to terms and conditions.

This map is for quick reference purposes only and may not be to scale.

What is the National Heritage List for England?

The National Heritage List for England is a unique register of our country's most significant historic buildings and sites. The places on the list are protected by law and most are not open to the public.

The list includes:

🏠 Buildings
🏰 Scheduled monuments
🌳 Parks and gardens
⚔️ Battlefields
⚓ Shipwrecks

Find out more about listing

Images of England Project

To view this image please use Firefox, Chrome, Safari, or Edge.

Archive image, may not represent current condition of site.

Date:: 2001-08-27
Reference:: IOE01/05031/16
Rights:: © Ms Jo Humberstone. Source: Historic England Archive

Historic England Archive

Search over 1 million photographs and drawings from the 1850s to the present day using our images archive.

Find Photos

Official list entry

Heritage Category:: Listed Building
Grade:: II
List Entry Number:: 1103471
Date first listed:: 22-Dec-1988
List Entry Name:: THE EMPIRE
Statutory Address 1:: THE EMPIRE, 49-52, ALEXANDRA ROAD

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:: THE EMPIRE, 49-52, ALEXANDRA ROAD

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

District:: North East Lincolnshire (Unitary Authority)
Parish:: Non Civil Parish
National Grid Reference:: TA 30655 08858

Details

TA 3008 NE CLEETHORPES ALEXANDRA ROAD (west side)

8/27 The Empire (No's 49-52)

GV II

Theatre, now amusement arcade. 1896, enlarged and refurbished 1900; unsympathetic later C2O alterations. Red brick in Flemish bond with sandstone ashlar dressings, colourwashed. Welsh slate roof. Timber arcade, iron balcony. Rectangular on plan, with rear entrance to Dolphin Street. Main front to Alexandra Road: 3 storeys, 7 bays; symmetrical. Full length ground-floor pavement arcade (largely rebuilt in C2O) carrying first-floor balcony. Plain wooden piers and basket arches, plain Caa balcony railings. Ground floor front retains central basket-arched chamfered entrance with alternating plan and moulded ashlar voussoirs, foliate keystone; flanking sections remodelled cl97O. Upper floors retain original details: projecting octagonal buttresses at left and right angles and flanking central gabled bay, pilaster buttresses between side bays. First floor: full-length windows with C20 blocking or inserted glazing beneath original ornate ashlar lintels with panelled friezes, foliate consoles and scrolled pediments. Flush ashlar band at lintel level, with foliate relief panels to buttresses. Raised moulded name plaque above central first-floor window. Second floor: central round-headed window with delicate radial glazing bars, moulded capitals, archivolt and fluted pedimented keystone flanked by ashlar stringcourse. Side bays have windows with moulded sills, moulded lintels with consoles and flat hoods; flush ashlar band at lintel level, with foliate relief panels to buttresses. Moulded ashlar stringcourse, dentilled brick frieze and moulded eaves cornice. The octagonal buttresses at each end and flanking the central gable project as short turrets with ornate onion domes and miniature cupolas with finials. Central coped shaped gable has moulded slit light, stringcourse and segmental pediment with shell moulding and ball finial. Moulded brick-coped gables. Pair of axial stacks and pair of end stacks with moulded stringcourses. Right return bears remains of painted inscription "THE EMPIRE". Rear to Dolphin Street has 3 storey, 6-bay section with recessed outer bays flanking 2 central bays, 5 segmental-arched basement windows, door to right beneath segmental arch, 4 second-floor sashes, hipped roof. Interior. Ground floor largely stripped or obscured by later partitions: stage boarded-in. Stairhall and gallery entrances have original staircases, basket-arched openings on moulded capitals, plaster panelling to walls with Adam-style plasterwork friezes and ornate moulded ceilings. Auditorium has full gallery around 3 sides, the side ranges with arcades of square timber columns with moulded arch braces to hammer beams carrying basket-arched roof trusses and a boarded upper ceiling with ornate cast-iron ventilator grilles. Ornate gilt carved wood and plasterwork proscenium arch: fluted Composite pilasters, with tapered Ionic pilasters above, flanking a wide basket arch with foliate and ribbed mouldings and foliate spandrels beneath a moulded cornice. The lower section of the stage arch removed or obscured at time of resurvey. Not fully investigated. Built at a cost of dl4,5Da and opened in May 1896 as the Alexandra Hall Theatre. Refurbished by M. Auguste Van Biene in 1900 to become the Empire Theatre. Closed as a theatre in 1960. Formed part of the well-established national seaside resorts entertainments circuit, and still retains much of its early C20 character. M Hart, Cleethorpes and the Meggies, 1981, pp 10, 41, 42.

Listing NGR: TA3065508858

Legacy

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

Legacy System number:: 164443
Legacy System:: LBS

Sources

Books and journals
Hart, M, Cleethorpes and the Meggies, (1981), 10,41,42

Legal

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