The history of the Theatre Royal, Edinburgh involves two sites. The first building, on Princes Street, opened 1769 and was rebuilt in 1830 by Thomas Hosmer Shepherd. The second site was on Broughton Street.
The history of the Theatre Royal, Edinburgh involves two sites. The first building, on Princes Street, opened 1769 and was rebuilt in 1830 by Thomas Hosmer Shepherd. The second site was on Broughton Street.
The first Theatre Royal was in Shakespeare Square, at the east end of Princes Street. [1] This was opened 9 December 1769 by actor-manager David Ross. Mary Bulkley performed here during the 1780s. [2] In July 1792 Harriet Pye Esten became the theatre manager when she purchased the lease. The theatre had been run by Stephen Kemble but he lost the rights to perform which were withdrawn by Esten's lover Douglas Hamilton, 8th Duke of Hamilton. In 1794 Esten returned the rights to Stephen Kemble to perform in Edinburgh in exchange for £200 a year. [3]
In 1809 the theatre was taken over by Sarah Siddons's actor son, Henry Siddons. It went into a period of decline under his control, but following his death in 1815 was revived by his wife, Harriet Siddons who took a 21-year lease from 1809 until 1830, then becoming outright owner and leasing to her brother William Henry Murray from 1830 until 1851. [4]
The first theatre was closed in 1859 to make way for the building of the General Post Office (which survives but is converted to office use) [5] whose foundation was laid by Prince Albert in October 1861. [6]
The theatre was taken over by R H Wyndham around 1860. The royal patent and title was then transferred to the Queen's Theatre and Operetta House in a site in Broughton Street, on an earlier Circus (previously the Adelphi Theatre). The manager of the theatre was Robert Henry Wyndham. It burned down and was rebuilt in 1865, 1875, and 1884, each time retaining the patent. The last architect was Charles Phipps when in 1884 it was leased to Cecil Beryl of the Princess's Theatre, Glasgow. [7] This Theatre Royal became part of Howard & Wyndham Ltd formed in Glasgow in 1895. From the 1920s Howard & Wyndham leased it out to Fred Collins, lessee of Glasgow's Pavilion Theatre, as the Theatre Royal Varieties, with the Collins family establishing its wardrobe and production centre adjacent. [8] It was destroyed by fire in 1946 and not rebuilt only due to post-war shortages of building materials. [9]
George Stephen Kemble was a successful English theatre manager, actor, and writer, and a member of the famous Kemble family. He was described as "the best Sir John Falstaff which the British stage ever saw" though he also played title roles in Hamlet and King Lear among others. He published plays, poetry and non-fiction.
The Theatre Royal is a historic theatre, a Grade I listed building situated on Grey Street in Newcastle upon Tyne.
The Pavilion Theatre is a theatre in Glasgow located on Renfield Street.
Henry Kemble was a British actor. A member of the famed Kemble family, he was the grandson of Charles Kemble.
William Henry Wood Murray (1790–1852), a Scottish actor, manager and theatre owner in Edinburgh, was a friend of Walter Scott and particularly associated with dramatisations of Scott's Waverley Novels.
This article is a timeline of the history of Edinburgh, Scotland, up to the present day. It traces its rise from an early hill fort and later royal residence to the bustling city and capital of Scotland that it is today.
Douglas Hamilton, 8th Duke of Hamilton, 5th Duke of Brandon and 2nd Baron Hamilton of Hameldon, was a Scottish peer, nobleman, and politician.
The Theatre Royal is the oldest theatre in Glasgow and the longest running in Scotland. Located at 282 Hope Street, its front door was originally round the corner in Cowcaddens Street. It currently accommodates 1,541 people and is owned by Scottish Opera. The theatre opened in 1867, adopting the name Theatre Royal two years later. It is also the birthplace of Howard & Wyndham Ltd, owners and managers of theatres in Scotland and England until the 1970s, created by its chairman Baillie Michael Simons in 1895. It was Simons who as a cultural entrepreneur of his day also promoted the building of Kelvingrove Art Gallery and Museum and Glasgow's International Exhibitions of 1888 and 1901.
The King's Theatre is located in Glasgow, Scotland. It was built for Howard & Wyndham Ltd under its chairman Baillie Michael Simons as a sister theatre of their Theatre Royal in the city and was designed by Frank Matcham, opening in 1904. The theatre is primarily a receiving house for touring musicals, dance, comedy and circus-type performances. The theatre also provides a prominent stage for local amateur productions. The King's Theatre also stages an annual pantomime, produced by First Family Entertainment. The theatre is currently operated by the Ambassador Theatre Group, under a lease from Glasgow City Council who own the building.
Anna Maria Bennett was a Welsh novelist who wrote in English. Some sources give her name as Agnes Maria Bennett. Her best-known work is the epistolary novel Agnes de-Courci (1789).
John Bell (1745–1831) was an English publisher. Originally a bookseller and printer, he also innovated in typography, commissioning an influential font that omitted the long s. He drew the reading public to better literature by ordering attractive art to accompany the printed work.
The Royal Lyceum Theatre is a 658-seat theatre in the city of Edinburgh, Scotland, named after the Theatre Royal Lyceum and English Opera House, the residence at the time of legendary Shakespearean actor Henry Irving. It was built in 1883 by architect C. J. Phipps at a cost of £17,000 on behalf of James B. Howard and Fred. W. P. Wyndham, two theatrical managers and performers whose partnership became the renowned Howard & Wyndham Ltd created in 1895 by Michael Simons of Glasgow.
Howard & Wyndham Ltd was a theatre owning, production and management company named after John B. Howard and Frederick W. P. Wyndham, founded in Glasgow in 1895, and which became the largest of its type in Britain. The company continued well into the 20th century. Its theatres were eventually sold in the 1960s, and the shareholding came under American control.
Henry Siddons was an English actor and theatrical manager, now remembered as a writer on gesture.
John Henderson (1747–1785) was an English actor who played many Shakespearean and other roles. He first acted in Bath, where he was known as "The Bath Roscius", and then in London. Had he not died young he would have been remembered as a worthy successor to David Garrick.
Harriet Siddons, sometimes known as Mrs Henry Siddons, was a Scottish actress and theatre manager.
Charles Murray (1754–1821) was a Scottish actor and dramatist.
Harriet Pye Esten or Harriet Pye Scott-Waring born Harriet Pye Bennett was an English actress, and briefly a theatre manager.
Mary Bulkley, née Wilford, known professionally as Mrs Bulkley, Miss Bulkley, and later Mrs Barresford, was an English eighteenth-century dancer and comedy stage actress. She performed at various theatres, especially Covent Garden Theatre, the Theatre Royal, Dublin, the Theatre Royal, Edinburgh, the Theatre Royal Haymarket and Shrewsbury Theatre. She performed in all or most of the Shakespearean comedies, and in several tragedies, besides many contemporary comedy plays. She played the part of Hamlet at least twice. She was considered a beauty when young, and her talent was praised. She married George Bulkley and later Captain Ebenezer Barresford, and openly took several lovers. Her early career was successful, but later she was hissed on stage due to her extra-marital affairs, and she died in poverty.
William Glover was an artist, theatre scenic painter and theatre manager. For most of his professional life Glover was associated with theatrical enterprise in Scotland, particularly in Glasgow.
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