Colour photograph showing the auditorium of the Opera House in Buxton. Taken from high up on the stage left side of the gods, it shows three stage right boxes with the stalls, dress circle, and gods (with slips) to the left, and the stage and proscenium to the right. Two of the boxes are superimposed, one on top of the other and stepped down in level, with a third at the end of the dress circle, framed between columns supporting a little plaster canopy. The curved head of the proscenium is carried on a heavy scrolled console, decorated, like the rest of the auditorium, in opulent Baroque plasterwork. A gas sunburner remains in the centre of the ceiling, just in shot at the top of the photograph. (This was restored to working order in 1979 and is an extremely rare example of a once common method of lighting and ventilating auditoria.)