Theatre Royal

Nottingham was Phipps’s second theatre commission and his splendid colonnade of giant Corinthian columns survives to terminate the vista up the steep gradient of Market Street. In 1897 Frank Matcham removed the three balconies and the boxes of Phipps’s auditorium and replaced them with three new cantilevered balconies with improved sightlines and a new stack of boxes flanking the proscenium; the whole richly decorated with lively Rococo plasterwork. The result was an auditorium of remarkable intimacy and vibrantly theatrical atmosphere. It now seems certain that the proscenium as it existed prior to the reconstruction of 1978, was the result of re-design by Phipps in 1884 and left intact by Matcham. It was certainly not Phipps’s 1865 proscenium and was quite untypical of Matcham. It did, however, have much in common with prosceniums designed by Phipps later in his career. Further evidence of a return visit by him were the small bulbous-based columns re-used by Matcham at the sides of the auditorium, again characteristically ‘late Phipps’ and to be seen at his Royal Lyceum Theatre, Edinburgh of 1883. It is a pity that the old proscenium was demolished in 1977 and replaced by the present arrangement of giant Corinthian columns awkwardly surmounted by the curiously shaped arch springing directly off the capitals. Matcham’s distinctive second balcony level boxes and their plasterwork canopies were also at that time removed in favour of the present upper boxes, which are poorly-related to the new proscenium and expose areas of blank wall.

These are the less favourable points in what was otherwise a magnificent revitalisation of the old theatre. In the auditorium the part-pastiche colonnade encircling the stalls seating, the arcaded boxes at the rear of the dress circle (inspired by the arcade at the rear of the dress circle of the Phipps’s Edinburgh Royal Lyceum), the reseating of the old gallery and the green and gold colour scheme are all a success. Equally welcome are the spacious new foyers and bars replacing the cramped wedge between the facade and the curved wall of the auditorium. Backstage everything has been transformed, with a heightened grid, side stage, scene dock, new dressing rooms, offices etc. Phipps’s façade was improved by new return-bays, setting it off from the receding curves of the new building on each side, and by the restoration of balustrades and urns.

The project was courageously financed by Nottingham Corporation at a time of economic austerity. A new 2500 seat concert hall was built in 1980 to the rear of the Royal and connected to it both backstage and through the stalls bar to the right of the auditorium. This involved the loss of the adjoining Empire Theatre.