Coliseum

Opened as a concert hall in 1885, with two balconies and arched timber trusses. Concert platform with choir stepping and an organ on a balcony above. After less than ten years the concert hall was converted to a theatre, with a false ceiling above and two balconies, perhaps partly those of the concert hall but with raked side slips on lower balcony. Deep elliptically arched proscenium with boxes on either side framed by Corinthian columns. Stage with full flying.

Like the concert hall, the theatre was not a great success and in 1905 it became a cinema without noticeable alteration. In 1928, Denman/Gaumont took over and, in 1938, reconstructed the auditorium with a single balcony. The cinema closed in 1961 and was later used as rehearsal rooms, scenery workshop, film and TV studios and, briefly, for bingo.

Town and Country reopened it as a popular music venue in 1992, removing much of the cinema interior and extending the auditorium to the rear wall, regaining the original volume. The stalls floor was levelled, but the removal of the false ceiling revealed the trusses as they had appeared in 1885. It has proved to be a successful and conspicuous addition to entertainment facilities in Leeds.

Through all these changes the exterior was barely altered. George Corson’s Grand Theatre had already set a precedent for a Gothic theatre in Leeds. The Coliseum has a big, gabled stone Gothic façade with plate-traceried windows and a central rose window and portal. It has recently been cleaned and attractively floodlit.