Georgian Theatre

Erected toward the end of the eighteenth century by a Recorder of Ripon, George Hassell. The first performance was by Mr Butler’s company in August 1792, with the announcement, ‘the scenery and decorations are excellent and the manager endeavours to provide a respectable dramatic corps with the novelities of the day, for the gratification of the public during the season’. Butler is recorded as having played in a Ripon theatre, possibly an earlier building in 1790.

The theatre was later acquired by the Marquess of Ripon and became a military riding school. It became the drill hall of the Ripon Rifle Volunteers but when they moved to a new-built hall the adjacent house and yard were converted to a bus depot. The bus company had vacated by the late 1990s. As now seen, the theatre is abutted by a modern garage building. The bus company probably used the theatre premises as offices.

It stands on the corner of Blossomgate and Park Street, the front façade now rendered with cement, the roof a single constant pitch of Welsh slate. The façade shows clear evidence of windows at ground floor level flanking a central doorway. There is evidence at first floor level of three central windows surmounted by a semi-circular panel. All the windows and the central door have been blinded. A late Victorian shop abuts to the left of the façade. There was probably an earlier entrance down this side of the theatre. It has not been possible to inspect the interior, but it is known to be much subdivided.