Queen's Theatre

Manchester’s first Theatre Royal was built by forty subscribers ‘as an antidote to prevailing religious excess’. A picture shows a typical ‘Theatric Tourist’ Georgian theatre.

It burned to the ground in 1789 and was replaced with the insurance money. Known as the New Theatre Royal until 1807, it ceded its status to the Theatre Royal, Fountain Street, and was renamed ‘New Amphitheatre’ in 1809. It was a plain brick building 102ft long by 48ft wide: a small theatre with pit, gallery and boxes. The side boxes ran parallel to the exterior walls, with front boxes curving round in an ellipse. The proscenium consisted of ‘six Corinthian pillars’.

Its turbulent history was due to the loss of Royal Patent and frequent changes of ownership. Enjoying a revival in 1844 when the Theatre Royal in Fountain Street burned down, a period of mounting competition ensued when the Theatre Royal in Peter Street opened. It closed in March 1869 and was demolished some months later when the spring (after which Spring Gardens was named) was found some 15ft below the stage.