Victoria Palace Theatre

Coordinates: 51°29′49″N 00°08′33″W / 51.49694°N 0.14250°W / 51.49694; -0.14250
Source: Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia.
For other theatres with a similar name, see Victoria Theatre (disambiguation).

Victoria Palace Theatre
1832: Moy's Music Hall
1863: Royal Standard Music Hall
The Victoria Palace in 2022
Map
AddressVictoria Street
London, SW1
United Kingdom
Coordinates51°29′49″N 00°08′33″W / 51.49694°N 0.14250°W / 51.49694; -0.14250
Public transitLondon Underground National Rail Victoria
OwnerDelfont Mackintosh Theatres
DesignationGrade II* listed[1]
TypeWest End theatre
Capacity1,557 on 3 levels
ProductionHamilton
Construction
Opened1911; 113 years ago (1911)
Rebuilt2016 – 2017 (Aedas Arts Team)
ArchitectFrank Matcham
Website
Victoria Palace Theatre official website

The Victoria Palace Theatre is a

Victoria Street, in the City of Westminster, opposite Victoria Station
. The structure is categorised as a Grade II* listed building.

History

Origins

The theatre began life as a small concert room above the stables of the Royal Standard Hotel, a small hotel and tavern built in 1832 at what was then 522 Stockbridge Terrace, on the site of the present theatre – not, as sometimes stated, on land where the train station now stands. The proprietor, John Moy, enlarged the building, and by 1850 it became known as Moy's

Music Hall
. Alfred Brown took it over in 1863, refurbished it, and renamed it the Royal Standard Music Hall.

The hotel was demolished in 1886, by which time the main line terminus,

Victoria Street
. The owner of the music hall, Thomas Dickey, had it rebuilt along more ambitious lines in 1886 by Richard Wake, retaining the name Royal Standard Music Hall.

Matcham's theatre

The Royal Standard was demolished in 1910, and in its place was built, at a cost of £12,000, the current theatre, The Victoria Palace. It was designed by prolific theatre architect Frank Matcham, and opened 6 November 1911. The original design featured a sliding roof that helped cool the auditorium during intervals in the summer months.

Under

repertory and revues.[2]
Perhaps because of its music hall linkage, the plays were not always taken seriously. In 1934, the theatre presented Young England, a patriotic play written by the Rev. Walter Reynolds, then 83. It received such amusingly bad reviews that it became a cult hit and played to full houses for 278 performances before transferring to two other West End theatres.

Intended by its author as a serious work celebrating the triumph of good over evil and the virtues of the

Boy Scout
Movement, it was received as an uproarious comedy. Before long, audiences had learned the key lines and were joining in at all the choicest moments. The scoutmistress rarely said the line 'I must go and attend to my girls' water' without at least fifty voices in good-humoured support.

A return to revue brought new success.

Charles Hawtrey and John Clark, and among the "turns" was Stainless Stephen, a comic acrobat comedian duo, and Victor Barna (then world champion table tennis player) giving an exhibition, who would invite audience members up on to the stage to see if they could beat him in ten points. From 1947 through 1962, Jack Hylton produced The Crazy Gang series of comedy revues, with a glittering company of variety performers including Flanagan and Allen, Nervo and Knox, and Naughton and Gold
.

The theatre near the end of its 2016 – 2017 refurbishment

The long-running

Olivier Awards
.

The replica statue of Anna Pavlova

At the opening in 1911, a gilded statue of ballerina Anna Pavlova was positioned above the cupola of the theatre. This was taken down for its safety during World War II, and was lost. In 2006, a replica of the original statue was restored in its place.[4]

In 2014, the theatre was sold to Delfont Mackintosh Theatres.[5] After Billy Elliot ended its run in April 2016, the theatre closed for a multi-million pound refurbishment. In December 2017, the Broadway musical Hamilton re-opened the refurbished Victoria Palace.[6]

Notable productions

musical comedy Kiss Me, Kate
Billy Elliot playing in 2012

Recent productions

Nearby Tube stations

  • Victoria

Notes

  1. ^ Historic England. "Victoria Palace Theatre (1238140)". National Heritage List for England. Retrieved 17 September 2014.
  2. ^ Victoria Palace Theatre Archived 20 May 2022 at the Wayback Machine (Arthur Lloyd theatre history) accessed 12 September 2008
  3. ^ "Still doing the Lambeth Walk" Archived 15 June 2011 at the Wayback Machine, The Times, 4 September 2006. Retrieved 24 August 2007
  4. ^ "Victoria Palace Theatre". Delfont Mackintosh Theatres. Archived from the original on 14 February 2024. Retrieved 14 February 2024.
  5. ^ "Cameron Mackintosh buys West End's Victoria Palace and Ambassadors theatres". Archived from the original on 28 May 2014. Retrieved 30 May 2014.
  6. ^ "Hamilton creator Lin-Manuel Miranda: There was 'fake news' even in Hamilton's time". London Evening Standard. Archived from the original on 6 December 2017. Retrieved 5 December 2017.
  7. ^ "Billy Elliot pirouettes out of the West End" Archived 13 January 2016 at the Wayback Machine Best of Theatre 10 December 2015

References

External links

Wikimedia Commons has media related to Victoria Palace Theatre.
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