Marlowe Theatre (i)

The first Marlowe Theatre in Canterbury was a conversion of a 1927 picture palace which was itself was the conversion an earlier theatre (possibly the Empire Music Hall?), which opened shortly before the Great War.

The Central Picture Theatre was not hugely successful, and returned to use by amateur dramatics groups. In 1949 the city council purchased the building, and set about converting it to repertory theatre. The Marlowe Theatre, named after the city's Tudor playwright, Christopher Marlowe, opened in 1950. The theatre had a single balcony and seated 652. Entrance was via a jettied and gabled timber-framed frontage building with herringbone brick infill panels.

Run by the council and later by an independent trust, the Marlowe Theatre became insolvent in 1981 and the theatre closed. The council decided to convert a cinema building on The Friars to a new theatre for the city - which opened in 1984 as the new Marlowe Theatre (q.v.). The site of this first Marlowe Theatre is now the Marlowe Arcade. The timber framed building facing the street remains.