Address | Church Street Monmouth Wales |
---|---|
Coordinates | 51°48′46″N2°42′52″W / 51.81284°N 2.71450°W |
Owner | MacTaggart family |
Capacity | 360 |
Opened | 5 March 1928 |
Website | |
www.monmouth-savoy.co.uk |
The Savoy Theatre, Church Street, Monmouth is a theatre and cinema, reputedly the oldest working theatre site in Wales. It has a capacity for 360 people and is run by a charitable trust. [1] One of 24 buildings on the Monmouth Heritage Trail, the theatre is a Grade II* listed building.
The building in which the theatre is housed was constructed on the foundations of the earlier Bell Inn, in Monmouth's historic town centre. Originally known as the Assembly Rooms, the theatre was first granted an entertainment licence in 1832. It was refurbished as the Theatre Royal in 1850 under J. F. Rogers, and later became the town's Corn Exchange. It was briefly a roller skating rink, belonging to the White Swan Hotel, at the end of the 19th century, before reopening in 1910 as Monmouth's first cinema, the "Living Picture Palace and Rinkeries". In 1912, it was renamed the Palace, in later years the Scala and then the Regent. [2]
In 1927 the building was bought by the Albany Ward theatre group, gutted and reopened on 5 March 1928 as "The New Picture House". This showed the first "talking pictures" in the town in 1930. [2] [3] It closed as a cinema in the 1960s, later reopening as a bingo hall and again closing in 1983, before reopening for a time to show historic magic lantern slides. [4] It has operated continuously as a cinema since the 1990s. In 1989 Cadw designated the theatre a Grade II* listed building, the listing record describing it as “a rare and little altered example of a small cinema from the inter-War period in Wales”. [5]
The Savoy is the oldest working theatre site in Wales [6] and is privately owned by the MacTaggart family, descendants of B. T. Davies who once owned 19 cinemas in South Wales and South West England. [7] It is leased to a charitable trust, the Monmouth Savoy Trust, comprising voluntary enthusiasts who operate the venue for the benefit of the local community. [7] The Trust were instrumental in preventing the theatre from closing in 2010. [8] The venue has no public funding, [8] and costs about £50,000 per year to run. [6]
In 2004, the Heritage Lottery Fund contributed towards the restoration of the interior decoration, which includes red velvet curtains, elaborate gilded plasterwork, and glass chandeliers. [3] The theatre has reputedly excellent acoustics. [4] It now shows a regular nightly programme of cinema films, interspersed with concerts, drama and comedy shows, [4] and also organises community initiatives and competitions. [8] In January 2012, it won a grant from the NatWest Bank's Community Force initiative, to help the Trust realise its ambitions of running an after-school film club for children and expanding its work with youth drama workshops. [6] The Savoy still shows up-to-date films, but it also hosts a wide range of theatrical and musical events. [9] The theatre, and adjoining properties, were advertised for sale in 2022. [10]
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The Shire Hall, Monmouth, Wales, is a prominent building on Agincourt Square in the town centre. It was built in 1724, and was formerly the centre for the Assize Courts and Quarter Sessions for Monmouthshire. The building was also used as a market place. In 1839–40, the court was the location of the trial of the Chartist leader John Frost and others for high treason for their part in the Newport Rising.
St Mary's Priory Church, in Whitecross Street, Monmouth, Monmouthshire, Wales, is an Anglican church founded as a Benedictine priory in 1075. The current church dates mostly from the 18th and 19th centuries. It was designated a Grade II* listed building in 1952. It is one of 24 buildings on the Monmouth Heritage Trail.
The Nelson Garden, on 13 Chippenhamgate Street, at the rear of No.18 Monnow Street, Monmouth, Monmouthshire is a 19th-century garden that was the scene of a tea party held to honour Lord Nelson in 1802. The garden is one of 24 sites on the Monmouth Heritage Trail. It is bounded on the south by the line of the medieval town wall through which it is entered via a short underground passageway. The garden has limited public access and is now managed by a trust. It is included on the Cadw/ICOMOS Register of Parks and Gardens of Special Historic Interest in Wales.
Monmouth Priory, in Priory Street, Monmouth, Wales, is a building that incorporates the remains of the monastic buildings attached to St Mary's Priory Church. The priory was a Benedictine foundation of 1075, and parts of the mediaeval buildings remain. The buildings were substantially redeveloped in the nineteenth century for use as St Mary's National School, and now form a community centre. The complex is a Grade II* listed building as of 27 June 1952. It is one of 24 sites on the Monmouth Heritage Trail.
George Vaughan Maddox was a nineteenth-century British architect and builder, whose work was undertaken principally in the town of Monmouth, Wales, and in the wider county. Working mainly in a Neo-Classical style, his extensive output made a significant contribution to the Monmouth townscape. The architectural historian John Newman considers that Monmouth owes to Maddox "its particular architectural flavour. For two decades from the mid-1820s he put up a sequence of public buildings and private houses in the town, in a style deft, cultured, and only occasionally unresolved." The Market Hall and 1-6 Priory Street are considered his "most important projects".
St Peter's Church is a Church of England parish church at Dixton in Wales. It is situated on the banks of the River Wye, about 1 mile (1.6 km) north-east of Monmouth, Wales. The church is a Grade II* listed building and the cross in the churchyard is both a listed building and a scheduled monument.
Church Street is a pedestrianised street in the centre of Monmouth, Wales. It contains a variety of independent shops, restaurants, commercial art galleries, and the Savoy Theatre. Until the 1830s, when Priory Street was built to bypass it, it was the main thoroughfare into the centre of Monmouth from the north-east, linking the market and the parish church. It was at one time the centre of the town's butchery trade and was known as Butcher's Row.
Glendower Street is a historic street in the town centre of Monmouth, Monmouthshire, Wales. It extends to the southeast from the intersection of Agincourt Street and St John's Street, within the medieval town walls. Glendower Street is lined with numerous listed buildings, including one of the 24 blue plaque buildings on the Monmouth Heritage Trail.
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