New Cross Empire

One of Matcham’s dozen or so London suburban new-built (rather than rebuilt or remodelled) theatres. It was just across the road from Sprague’s Broadway Theatre which opened two years earlier. The Empire was a variety theatre on a site with street frontages on three sides. The front to the Broadway with its two little corner towers above the façade was far less impressive than the Sprague theatre, but internally was prime Matcham. It was still operating as a variety theatre into the 1950s. Insult was added to the injury of its demolition by the fact that its replacement was a filling station named New Cross Empire.