Former Palace Theatre and Great Western Hotel
FORMER PALACE THEATRE AND GREAT WESTERN HOTEL, UNION STREET
Listed on the National Heritage List for England. Search over 400,000 listed places
Overview
- Heritage Category:
- Listed Building
- Grade:
- II*
- List Entry Number:
- 1386483
- Date first listed:
- 24-Oct-1974
- List Entry Name:
- Former Palace Theatre and Great Western Hotel
- Statutory Address:
- FORMER PALACE THEATRE AND GREAT WESTERN HOTEL, UNION STREET
Location
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Images of England Project
- 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:
- 24-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
The scope of legal protection for listed buildings
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.
The scope of legal protection for listed buildings
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.
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.
Map
This map is for quick reference purposes only and may not be to scale. This copy shows the entry on 19-Jun-2026 at 05:49:11.
Download a full scale map (PDF)End of official list entry
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