Royal Aquarium

Built, as the name suggests, as an Aquarium, the thick glass tank fronts are said to exist still behind the drapes in the main auditorium.

The Aquarium was converted to a theatre in 1883. A little theatre was also created under the same roof in 1925. Both theatres became cinemas by 1970, but the main house was adapted in 1984 to serve as a seasonal theatre.

A large structure on a permanent island site, in red brick with arcading and panels on the main south front. Internally, the main auditorium (theatre and Cinema I) is largely as it was after cinema conversion. A false ceiling obscures the original, presumably barrel-vaulted form. The projection room, follow-spot positions and sound and lighting desks are believed to occupy the remaining part of an original horseshoe-shaped balcony. The stage has an extraordinary complex rake.

The Little Theatre (Cinema II) has a barrel-vaulted ceiling and good ornamental plastering on the walls, but all now ‘painted out’. Restoration of the complex to anything resembling an ‘original’ form now seems a remote prospect.