Playhouse

Built on the site of the Star Concert Hall, which had been purchased by David Lazarus with the intention of building a new music hall, and today the only surviving working theatre in Merseyside from the Victorian era.

The excellent, stuccoed exterior of the old Star Music Hall survives largely unaltered. Seven bays wide and two main storeys with an attic. First floor articulated by Corinthian pilasters, with a straight entablature over. The attic storey, again with pilasters, has oval windows in the two flanking bays and circular windows in the three central bays which are further emphasised by a broken triangular pediment. Small cupolas over the corners.

Intimate auditorium with two slightly curved balconies of six rows each, supported by iron columns with foliated capitals. The balconies probably date from the 1898 reconstruction. The delicate trellis work decoration on their fronts, together with the single, pedimented side boxes and Greek Revival style pilastered panels above, date from 1911. Plain, flat ceiling.

In 1968 a new glass tower containing entrance with booking office, restaurants and bars was added to the left of the façade, with workshops etc behind, higher than the main building. Views on the juxtaposition of this dominantly projecting addition are divided. The theatre is the home of one of Britain’s senior repertory companies, founded in 1911.